Avery West lived for the weekend and not for the reason you might think. She didn't hate her job at all—in fact, she loved it. What she loved more was her weekly meetup with her crush. It was the only time she was able to see him.
If things were different, she would doll herself up and try to catch his attention. Unfortunately, they weren't. He didn't know what she looked like or even what she sounded like.
That may make it seem like he didn't know she existed but nothing could be further from the truth. They interacted plenty. One of her favorite things about him was his witty banter. When she got home, she tended to replay it in her head and squeal as she hugged her pillow and kicked the air.
He truly was perfect in every way imaginable except for one tiny problem.
The sensors in Avery's suit went off detecting a threat and she instinctively shot her arm out to stop the projectile aiming for her head. Which just so happened to be her crush's ankle.
She held him in mid-air for a moment and smiled even though he couldn't see her do it. "Fancy seeing you here, Fly Boy."
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Fly Boy?!" he asked in frustration as he tried to break her grip. The suit made her ten times stronger than the average professional weightlifter but he was strong enough that he could usually take her in a fight.
"Well, you can fly and you're a boy. Why not?"
"Because it sounds stupid. How would you like it if I called you Supersuit Man?"
Avery laughed. It would be a major misnomer but she didn't care. Her father was the one who chose his villain name not her. She simply took up the mantle after he died to continue his mission.
And that was the tiny problem between the two of them that wasn't so tiny after all. She was the villain Nox and her crush was the hero Mercury. By the very nature of their titles, any relationship was impossible but she couldn't help her feelings.
He was handsome—at least what she could see was—on top of being kind, smart, funny, and good with children and animals. Because of the mask he wore, she could only see his chiseled jaw, wavy dark brown hair, and hazel eyes that were a beautiful mixture of green and gold. He had a great build too and he would still be taller than her if she was wearing heels, which was a real accomplishment since she was 5'10".
Mercury managed to free himself and began fighting her in earnest. Avery had to do her best to fend him off while not dropping the precious cargo she was carrying under one arm.
"What are you stealing this time?" he asked as he tried to grab it.
He was fast but she was faster thanks to the suit's capabilities. "Now why would I go and tell you something like that? I'm not one of those obnoxious supervillains who goes rambling about their plans left and right."
"Unfortunately. Those guys are easier to deal with. You're the most difficult villain I fight, you know that?"
Avery grinned at him. That was quite a compliment. It meant he thought she was clever. It wasn't an inaccurate assessment either; most of the time when they went up against each other, she managed to get away with whatever she was stealing. On the rare occasions she didn't, she still made her escape. He hadn't successfully caught her and turned her over to the police once.
"I'm flattered! As fun as this has been, I really do need to get going now. See you next week since you always seem to know how to find me," she said before pushing a button on her suit that would shoot a cloud of black pepper into his face.
Mercury momentarily lost his bearings because he had to stop to sneeze and cursed about it getting in his eyes. She felt sorry for him but she didn't have time to stand around and chat today. The contents of the box needed to be delivered urgently.
"Be sure to rinse your eyes out with clean water!" Avery called over her shoulder as she broke through a window and jumped through it.
She couldn't fly like he could but she was able to make very large jumps. Bouncing from building to building to find a safe place to land had taken a lot of practice but she had it down after doing this for nearly three years.
Sometimes it was hard to believe that her father had been gone that long. She still missed him every day.
He had been a nanotechnology expert and built this suit with the help of his partner and best friend Horatio Cruz. Horatio passed away in the same orchestrated accident her father did and his son had taken up his spot as tech support the same way Avery had become Nox. He was who she was on her way to see right now.
She nimbly landed on the fire escape of his apartment building and pushed the button that would make the suit retract back into the smartwatch on her wrist. She shook out her long, stick-straight white hair after taking off her hair tie and knocked on the window.
"Hey, Angelo," Avery said cheerfully, still in a good mood from her run-in with Mercury.
Her friend rolled his eyes. "Let me guess…you saw your super boy again. Did you at least get the goods?"
Angelo was aware of her hopeless crush on the hero and thought she was ridiculous. She hadn't told him on purpose; he had figured it out on his own after knowing her since they were toddlers. She always reacted the same way when she liked someone.
"What do you take me for?" she scoffed as she held out the box. "So do you know where to send all of this or not?"
He threw her words back at her. "What do you take me for? I already have the list pulled up. Are you ready to go make some villainous deliveries?"
"I think of myself as more of a Robin Hood than a villain."
"We're trying to dismantle the world as we know it. We're totally villains even if we have good intentions."
Angelo had a point. Their enemy was Hunsacher Inc., a conglomerate that basically ruled the country. They managed to hide it well using dummy corporations and whatnot but the same man was behind the helm of everything. Tugging strings to make himself richer and more powerful at the expense of others.
Hunsacher Inc. controlled everything from food production to medicine. Which was exactly what Avery had stolen tonight. And in much larger quantities than this single box.
Her appearance at the warehouse had been a decoy to distract Mercury. Drones her father and Horatio created did most of the dirty work for her, sneaking the rest out to a delivery truck that Angelo's cousin Jorge had on standby.
"Maybe so but someone has to take Hunsacher down a peg. Who better than us?"
They were a small team that consisted largely of Hunsacher employees who were horrified by the truth and wanted to put an end to Nolan Hunsacher's reign of terror. Like her and Angelo's fathers had been. Recruitment was difficult but Angelo could hack anything so if there was someone who had it out for Hunsacher, he knew how to find them.
Her phone buzzed and she smiled when she saw the text. "Jorge says he's hanging out at a truck stop waiting for me to show up and start distribution."
"I just sent the list to you. Be warned, there are a lot more names than usual. I don't think you'll be able to give them as much as you did last time. Prices are skyrocketing; it's obscene how many people can't afford medicine that keeps them alive," Angelo said in disgust.
Avery let out a sad sigh. It certainly was. Especially since the medicine in question was so cheap to make. There was absolutely no reason to hike up the prices. That was true evil, not what she and her band of anti-Hunsacher renegades were doing.