Author's Note: Whooo, another chapter! And it's long, with character development!


Weeks passed, and to the surprise of the citizens of New York, Nera failed to reappear. In fact, Lux had been fairly MIA as well, but that could be explained away by the odd drop in major crime. Actually, the police found themselves constantly discovering people carrying illegal weapons knocked unconscious and hogtied. Most had active warrants, ranging from robbery to rape- the latter usually were also severely beaten and occasionally had to be hospitalized before sentencing. The NYPD suspected this was the work of some amateur vigilante trying to follow in Lux's footsteps. It wouldn't be a first.

This seemed almost like a holiday gift to the cops, as people didn't have to fear petty muggers as much as usual when they did their shopping. However, a slow time for the paid police meant a busy time for Lux, who told himself that he was doing all of the extra patrolling for the safety of the people, but in reality, he was looking for her. Like everyone else, he hadn't seen Nera, and while some of his anger had died down after the very painful night of healing, it didn't mean he had no desire to bring the hammer of justice upon her.

He had almost given up all hope of finding her when he'd decided to track a lead about a drug ring operating under a chain of bodegas. Supposedly, they were easily smuggling liquid cocaine from Mexico in coffee creamer containers. They wouldn't have been discovered had it not been for a college student that had gotten a wrong bottle, and overdosed. Not exactly the kind of buzz you expect to get from cram coffee.

Lucas heard about the possible location of the main racket from his police scanner and decided to take it down. The short flight to the corner store sitting beneath some run down apartments left him slightly cold in the winter air, but it was otherwise fairly easy to find the place. The tricky part required a little foresight. Lucas' irises glowed as he used his eagle eye power to see through the windows of the apartments for signs of the racket, but he only managed to accidentally see more skin than what was intended.

"Sorry." He murmured under his breath, and concluded that there was probably a basement beneath the bodega. He flew lower around the perimeter of the building until he found a basement window. Not big enough for him to get through, but he was perfectly capable of seeing through the dirty glass.

There appeared to be five men with doctors masks around their necks, all aiming their guns at a person Lucas was unable to see from his vantage point. Possibly a rival drug dealer? Maybe they were turning on the boss? He would have to get inside to find out. He considered his options, and decided on what was probably not the most practical, but definitely the fastest. Lux positioned himself in the air so that his feet would contact the old bricks, and flew full speed at the building, breaking through, and then dropping to his feet on the floor of the basement, fists raised. He ignored the pain in his right ankle, and very quickly prepped for the onslaught that failed to come.

The same armed men he'd seen just minutes before were now gagged, and tied together in a circle with black rope. Based on his surroundings, he concluded that he was definitely in some sort of processing/storage room for the cocaine, but he cocked his head in bewilderment at the men in the centre of the room, who, to his surprise, showed terror in their eyes.

"You're aware of the fact that you could have taken the stairs, right?" An all-too-familiar voiced asked, and Nera stepped out of a shadowy corner. Lucas quickly switched from surprise, to confusion, to anger in a matter of seconds.

"You!" He said in the most intimidating voice he could muster.

"Yes, me. You do realize that someone will have to fix that, right?" She pointed to the gaping hole he'd made.

"It was for the sake of justice. Had I not done it, who knows what you would have done here." Lux explained.

"Exactly what you missed. I was just leaving, actually." Nera dramatically turned on her heel. "Think you can handle getting these men to a precinct like a big boy?" She called over her shoulder, and took about two steps before he had grabbed her and spun her around to face him. She smiled.

"What were you doing here?" Lux demanded.

"I was bored, and the museum doesn't close for another hour." Nera was far more amused at Lux's reddening face than she was fearful of him. "What are you going to do- kill me with your smolder?" She taunted, and Lux's grudge got the better of him.

He threw a punch at her face, and she skillfully dodged and took a leap back. They continued the violent dance around the room, with Lux occasionally making contact with the increasingly battered walls, but never Nera, who was growing impatient with the defensive game. One good kick to the groin from her brought Lux to his knees.

"I'd love to stick around, but there's just so much to destroy, and so little time." Nera purred, and jumped through the hole Lux had made. He'd just managed to stand up when he heard a car start, and then peel out outside. He flew out at full speed to track her down.


"Please, tell me it went as smoothly as you thought it would." Pugsley greeted his sister over her car's built-in phone.

"It did." Wednesday said as she swerved through New York traffic. "Well, until Lightbulb Lux showed up." She added.

"Oh, no." He groaned. "Is he alive?" Wednesday chose this time to look in her rearview mirror, and saw Lux flying right at her.

"Yes. Very much so." She said to her brother, and sped up.

"What's happening?" Pugsley asked.

"Oh, he's just coming after me." She said nonchalantly.

"Just?!" Pugsley yelled as there was a very loud thud on the roof of the car.

"Yeah, okay, gotta go." She said frantically and ended the call just as a gloved hand appeared the top of her windshield. She drifted around a corner at the next intersection, and smiled when Lux went tumbling off the car.

Satisfied, she continued to grin smugly- for about five seconds, until there was another thud. This time, Lux decided to dangle his head down over the driver's side window. Nera had pulled onto a large stretch of surprisingly traffic-less road, so she cockily reached over and cracked her window.

"May I help you?" She asked Lux nonchalantly as she ever increased her speed.

"I think the two of us need to have a little chat." He said as calmly as possible. Nera sucked in air through her teeth.

"Yes, that will be slightly difficult. I'm a very busy woman." She turned her attention back to the road ahead, and her eyes just barely widened before she punched the accelerator. Lux looked at the direction the car was going, and immediately jumped ship, leaving Nera to make the jump off the closed bridge.

She gritted her teeth when she went airborne, and seriously hoped her car would survive. What was a matter of seconds all seemed to slow down, and she breathed a sigh of relief when her car landed right-side up on the other side. Unfortunately, she found herself skidding sideways into a building.

The glass outer walls of the jewelry store shattered completely on impact, and the alarms began to go off. "Crap." Wednesday murmured. She sighed and stepped out of the car, figuring she had a few minutes before Lux, the police, or both arrived. She broke few display cases with her fist, and pocketed the jewelry before jumping back into the car and high-tailing it out of there just as several police cars rounded the corners in an attempt to surround her.

It's not like she had to steal. Actually, the notion if her not being able to afford anything in that store would be simply ridiculous. This was purely about reputation. Hell, she'd donate the diamond earrings to orphans or something. So she sighed as she drove away, taking a slight detour to throw off all of the pursuers before she returned home. She wondered where Lux had flown off to, since surely he could find her easily through flight.


Lux flew full speed at the building Nera had crashed into. She'd failed to immediately emerge, and he hope something had tied her up. Just as he was directly above her, he felt a vibration in his thigh.

"You have got to be kidding me." He groaned. He reached down and opened the concealed pocket in the right leg of his suit which was nearly invisible to anyone that wasn't looking for it. The caller ID on his cell phone showed Amanda Buckman. Against his better judgment, he picked up, trying to sound as much like mellow Lucas as possible.

"Hello?" He answered, hoping she wouldn't hear wind.

"Lucas! I'm being held captive on top of the Chrysler Building!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. Lucas' eyes widened.

"By who?" He asked with genuine concern.

"I don't know! I'm being held captive you freaking moron! Get help!" She yelled.

"Why didn't you call the police?" Lucas asked, knowing why, but wanting to hear her reasoning.

"I'm in a state of shock! How the hell am I supposed to remember the number for 911?!" She screamed, and he sighed,

"I'll find help." Lucas hung up the phone before she could say anything else, and put it back in his pocket before turning himself around and heading towards the heiress. He kind of cursed having a girlfriend at times, but a superhero having a girl to save was what he thought to be the equivalent to a princess having a prince.

Luckily, the Chrysler Building wasn't too far from his original location. "Heeeeelp!" Lucas could hear Amanda screaming at the top of her lungs as he flew higher. He worried about long term hearing loss when he finally swooped down on the building, where Amanda was standing near the ledge, and appeared to be alone.

"Are you alright?" He asked in his Lux voice. Amanda started crying and nodded.

"Not so fast, Lux!" A grizzly voice said from behind them. He turned around to a gigantic man wearing a black ski mask.

"Why are you doing this?" Lux asked the man as he approached.

"Evil reasons!" The man grunted, and shoved Amanda over the side.

"Nooooo!" She screamed as she began to fall, and Lux didn't hesitate to go after her. He allowed himself to freefall while facing downwards, and given his greater weight than Amanda, caught her about halfway down. She instantly stopped screaming and sighed,

"My hero." Lux just smiled and flew them down to the ground, where he set Amanda on her feet.

"Who was that maniac?" He asked immediately.

"I really don't know, it all happened so fast." She began. "I was just in my room, trying on some new lingerie..." She lingered for a moment. "And suddenly, some big hulking man comes into my room and forces me to put some clothes on. And then," She took a pause for what she probably thought was dramatic effect, but really it just seemed redundant. "He took me to the top of the Chrysler Building."

"How?" Lux asked.

"What?" Amanda asked in complete disbelief.

"How did he get you up there. If you were inside the building, it would make more sense." He explained, hoping his serious suspicion didn't make itself too obvious.

"He climbed it! Like a goddamn gorilla!" Amanda yelled, and began to sob into Lux's chest. At least once, she inhaled his scent deeply. Lucas was just slightly creeped out, but didn't let it show.

When she'd finished her crying fit, she recovered very quickly, and put on what Lucas supposed was a seductive face. "So, how can I ever repay you, Lux?" He swallowed a large amount of saliva before she lunged at him, seeming to attack his mouth from all angles.

He closed his eyes and tried to pretend it was romantic like in every comic book he'd ever read, but it was undeniable that this sick feeling in the pit of his stomach did not happen with Superman and Lois Lane, or Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy. Maybe it had to do with his girlfriend cheating on him with himself, maybe because she staged her own kidnapping in order to get his attention. The latter would have been kind of endearing (in a stalker sort of way) had it not caused him to lose Nera, who would never be caught by any Average Joe NYPD officer.

"We must stop." He said after he broke away from Amanda's lips. "You have a boyfriend." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, like you REALLY care about that." She said sarcastically and tried to go back to kissing Lux, but he stopped her.

"No. It is not right." He turned around and prepared to take flight. "I must leave you here; sorry." He jumped into the air and barely flew two blocks before landing on an apartment building, grabbing his hair, and breathing deeply through his nose.

"It seems you're having a bit of a rough night." The voice he least expected, and the worst, said from behind him. He whipped around to see Nera retracting her grapple hook's cord into her belt. He raised his fists, and she put her palms up in front of herself. "Look, can we have a civil conversation without you trying to hit me?" She asked, and Lux sighed.

"Fine. But one wrong move, and I will take you down in a matter of seconds." He threatened, then gestured for her to proceed.

"I couldn't help but witness your little...predicament unfold back there with Whatshername Richbitch." She started. Lux couldn't help the corners of his mouth from turning upward slightly at the nickname.

"Amanda Buckman?" He offered.

"Oh, I know her name." She smirked. "Anyways, she had her father's helicopter drop her off on the building with that guy that pushed her over the edge."

"Yes, I somewhat gathered." Lux admitted.

"So, is she your damsel in distress or something?" Nera asked.

"If I said yes, wouldn't you find some way to kidnap her for our final showdown?" He asked, referring to every major superhero battle ever.

"Probably not. I don't care so much about you personally as I do your politics." She leaned against a pipe, and Lux raised an eyebrow.

"What examples of my politics?" He was truly curious.

"Well, people like to treat you as some sort of god, you do nothing to discourage it, and you are, I'm sorry, completely fake." She explained.

"I am not fake!" Lux said on the seriously defensive side.

"The voice; the hair- which I'm glad you left the gel out of, it looks nice; and the fact that you make yourself out to be the epitome of good." She elaborated. Lux crossed his arms.

"I don't make myself out to be anything." He murmured.

"Hallelujah, you used a contraction!" She exclaimed. "But I'm afraid I won't be able to believe that statement until you speak to me like a human, and not a partial android."

"I do not-" Lux began, and cleared his throat. For reasons he simply couldn't explain, he became Lucas. "Sorry." Nera waited for him to go on. "Maybe I do sort of make myself out to be someone I'm not for the public. But the things I do, the people I save; that's all me."

"I don't doubt that." Nera admitted. "It's just the fact that you're an attention whore that acts about as one-dimensional as the drawings you take inspiration from, that kind of makes me want to choke you." She felt the need to add, "No offense."

"None taken." Lucas chuckled. "I don't even like who I've become sometimes. Believe me, two years ago, I did not see myself doing interviews for late night talk shows."

"Yes, well, somehow as a child, I didn't see myself robbing jewelry stores." Nera admitted, and Lucas raised an eyebrow at this confession. "I'll donate the money to charity, if you'd like." She offered.

"Oh, my oldest enemy; moral ambiguity." Lucas admitted his feelings toward Nera's most recent criminal act.

"Look, doing the right thing is not always the lawful thing." She defended her actions. "Besides, I can't have people thinking I'm like you! What would my mother say?" She added jokingly.

"My mother doesn't even know I do this." Lucas said.

"Probably for the best." Said Nera. "Well, I suppose I'd better get back to my secret evil lair now." Lucas nodded.

"So, will we go back to hating each other now?" He asked.

"We don't have to." She admitted. "But I just can't have you getting in the way of what I do."

"Likewise." Lucas agreed.

"Sorry for breaking your rib. I'm not good on camera." She said as she shot her grapple hook out across several buildings.

"It's cool. I don't think they was any permanent damage."

"Speaking of; ice." Nera stated, and Lux raised his eyebrow again. "For your ankle, and your-" She gestured to his nether regions. He bit his bottom lip and nodded.

"I'll see you around." He bid her farewell.

"Yeah. I'll need you there when I attempt to take over the world." She joked, and swung away into the night.


This story is so fun to write, you have no idea. And do you know what's almost as awesome as writing it? Getting reviews for it. I am a junkie for recognition.