Im Nayeon was not a fan of responsibility.

She understood the saying about great power and all that, but she just didn’t feel like it suited her. People who were gifted with powers, whether it be through genes or freak lab accidents, of course they would feel some sort of responsibility to the world. They were capable of things normal humans weren’t, and it was through sheer luck that they had their powers. Who among them wouldn’t feel a bit guilty if they didn’t use their powers for good?

But Nayeon, she hadn’t gotten her powers by pure chance. Yes, a freak lightning strike had turned her into a genius capable of understanding time on a level no one else could even comprehend, but turning her knowledge into an actual superpower was something she’d achieved on her own. Nayeon worked hard for years to create her ‘reversal light’, and no one would even grant her the courtesy of calling it that. Instead, they used the nickname given by her mortal enemy: The Time Stick.

The device wasn’t even a stick, it was a wand made of metal. God, she hated Tzuyu.

Anyway, the point is, Nayeon didn’t feel the need to dedicate her life to saving others. She’d earned her power through her own skills, and so she felt like she had the right to do what she pleased with it.

And if she wanted to dedicate herself to being the biggest thorn in the side of Seoul’s main superhero, well she would do exactly that. She had her reasons, and she didn’t owe random strangers an explanation. If that made people call her a ‘supervillain’, so be it.

To be fair to her critics, she was in the middle of orchestrating a kidnapping.

She knocked impatiently on the door of Chaeyoung’s apartment. The shorter girl opened it, saw Nayeon standing there, and rolled her eyes.

“Seriously? Do you never get tired of this?”

“Rude.” Nayeon pouted. “And come on, it’s been a whole month since I last kidnapped you. We both knew this was coming.”

“But why today? Tzuyu and I are supposed to go out tonight.”

“I’m ruining Tzuyu’s evening?” Nayeon beamed. “Perfect. Here’s the ransom note, let’s go.”

Chaeyoung took the piece of paper, eyeing it like it was a particularly disgusting cockroach.

“Do we really have to do this?”

“Either you come with me now, or I rewind time and kidnap you in a less pleasant manner.”

Chaeyoung sighed, but shuffled inside to leave the note on her kitchen table. Her expression was adorably grumpy when she returned, and Nayeon slung an arm around her shoulder, half skipping half dragging Chaeyoung towards the elevator.

“This is going to be so much fun! How long do you think it’ll take before she notices that you’re gone?”

“She’s supposed to be home in twenty minutes, so not long.”

“Excellent.” Nayeon grinned. “Then she’ll rush to find you and have no choice but to agree to my demands.”

“Have you even thought of your demands yet?”

“I have twenty minutes, I’ll think of something. Now shut up, you’re supposed to be the damsel in distress.”

“It’s not my fault you're terrible at being evil.”

“Excuse you!” They exited the lift. “Who was number one on Forbes list of most dangerous superpowered individuals? Because it wasn’t your girlfriend, and it definitely wasn’t you.”

“Of course you were number one, your power is incredible.” Somehow, Chaeyoung made that sound like an insult. “But despite how terrifying your power is, no one in this city is actually scared of you. Every civilian that lives here knows you’re a who’s incapable of being more than a public annoyance.”

“Wow. Words hurt.” Nayeon dragged her over to her car. “Sometimes I miss the days you were actually scared of me.”

“Maybe if this wasn’t your twelfth time kidnapping me, I’d be a little more nervous. As it is, I’m just mildly concerned about your sanity.”

“I’m perfectly sane. Now tie your hands together and get in the backseat.”

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes again, but complied.

“I’m just saying, you’ve been carrying this grudge around since you were sixteen, and you’re the only one left who still cares about it. Tzuyu is sick of her girlfriend being kidnapped, Jihyo is sick of trying to be friends with both sides, and I’m sick of always being your hostage. Couldn’t you just… let it go?”

“Let it go?” Nayeon gasped. “Chaeyoung, you were there. You know how much Jihyo wanted that gold medal. But no, Tzuyu just had to challenge her and steal her throne. Jihyo was devastated.”

“It was a competition, we were at a summer camp, and Tzuyu was literally twelve. Jihyo forgave her once the camp was over, yet you held onto this one incident for six years.”

“Well yeah, but Jihyo would have done the same if our roles were reversed. That’s what friends do.”

Nayeon started the car, driving towards the docklands. She was in a bit of a rush today, so her main hostage holding warehouse would have to do. It didn’t have the best dramatic lighting, but it had enough space for her and Tzuyu to have a proper duel.

“Imagine how amazing your life could be if you found something other than spite to motivate you.” Chaeyoung was still being pushy. “You could be working together with Tzuyu to make this city a better place, but instead you’re wasting all your time being her archnemesis.”

“You call it wasting time, I call it time well spent. Besides, considering how my power works, time isn’t as valuable to me as it is to the rest of you.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you are the pettiest person alive?”

“I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.”

They arrived at the warehouse, and Nayeon went to work tying Chaeyoung to a chair in the centre of the room. A single lightbulb hanging above her created the perfect atmosphere. Chaeyoung’s permanently unimpressed expression ruined the mood somewhat, but Nayeon was never one to let the little things get her down.

Exactly thirty-one minutes and ten seconds later, the door of the warehouse was smashed open. Nayeon winced a little as her brand new padlock was destroyed, but that wasn’t enough to wipe the smile off her face.

“Tzuyu! Or should I say, Hulk! We meet again! Come to beg for the life of your lovely little girlfriend?”

“Little?” Chaeyoung hissed. “You had to mention my height? You're the worst.”

The hero in question stood calmly in the doorway, giving Nayeon a flat glare. Unlike the Hulk from the comic books, her strength was a constant part of her, and so she retained her normal body whenever she fought. Sometimes supervillains would pass through the city and expect to fight a hulking green monster, and Nayeon always had a great time laughing at their faces when they got destroyed by a teenage Taiwanese girl. Tourists honestly had no sense.

“I’m really not in the mood today.” Tzuyu warned.

“This isn’t about what you want!” Nayeon pointed her wand directly at her archnemesis. “This is about what I want!”

“Ok, so what do you want?”

“I want a duel to the death!”

“No.”

“What? Come on!” Nayeon whined. “I can tell you’re starting to dismiss me as a threat. Be honest, you’re not taking me seriously right now, are you?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“See? This is why we need to raise the stakes! Our interactions have lost all dramatic tension, that spark that made us such perfect enemies has vanished.”

“That’s pretty gay.” Chaeyoung commented, quickly looking away when Nayeon glared at her.

“Hey babe.” Tzuyu smiled softly at Chaeyoung. “Sorry about all this, it’ll be over quick.”

“Just pay for dinner tonight and we’ll call it even.” Chaeyoung’s smile was equally as soft.

Nayeon coughed pointedly, bringing the attention back to her.

“I won’t just hand her over Tzuyu. You’ll have to fight me, and I’m warning you now, I-”

“You want dramatic tension, right?” Tzuyu interrupted her. “There’s a new supervillain on the loose, and the police have been unable to catch them. I’ve been trying to help them all day, but the snake’s got some kind of invisibility. They’ve been wreaking havoc all over my city and I don’t even know what they look like. I am tired, hungry, and I just want to cuddle with my girlfriend. So, if you don’t give Chaeyoung back right now, I will beat you so hard you’ll end up in a hospital instead of a jail cell, and then I’ll break your stupid Time Stick so that you will never be able to bother us again. Understand?”

“It’s called a reversal light, you know it’s called a reversal light. It’s a wand with a light on the end, not a stick!”

“Do. You. Understand?”

Nayeon sighed. Tzuyu clearly wasn’t in the mood to indulge her, and she looked as annoyed as she did when Nayeon caused massive damage to public property. Pouting, she reached forward and untied Chaeyoung.

“Just this once.”

Tzuyu didn’t even give her a snappy comeback, she just picked Chaeyoung up and walked out. Frowning, Nayeon was left feeling very disappointed. She’d been hoping for a good fight, maybe even a battle that would last days. This mystery villain had ruined everything for her.

Maybe…this newbie could find a way to make it up to Nayeon.

Nayeon smiled to herself, an idea beginning to form in her mind.

“All units, bank robbery in progress on Sogong-ro. Suspect appears to be the same invisible individual that’s been targeting stores all day. Hulk is unavailable to help at the moment, repeat, Hulk will not be able to help.”

After an hour of sitting in her car listening to a stolen police scanner, Nayeon finally perked up as an interesting incident was reported. She quickly clicked her reversal light, rewinding time as far back as she could, and then she stomped down on the acceleration pedal. Giving herself a head start was always the smart thing to do.

Two minutes was as far back as she could go, so by the time she arrived at the bank the police were already investigating. It took a couple of rewinds for her to find a safe place to park, and another few before she slipped into the building without getting caught.

Fourteen, to be precise. That one policeman was annoyingly perceptive no matter how many different angles she used to sneak past him.

Next step: catching someone invisible.

The bank had been emptied out by the police, hoping that by monitoring who left they could trap the invisible robber inside. Considering how Nayeon had sneaked past them without being invisible, their strategy wasn’t that great. She wasn’t complaining though, because the emptiness worked perfectly for her own plan.

She went left first, running up and down the bank while flailing her arms as widely as possible. When the two minutes were almost up, and she hadn’t made contact with any invisible stranger, she rewound time and turned right instead.

She made it all the way to the fire exit without finding anyone. All this running around was starting to tire her out, so she opened the door and stuck her head outside for a quick breath of fresh air.

As she pushed the door open, she felt it bump into something. Someone shrieked, and then there was the sound of a thud. Nayeon poked her head around the door, gaping at what she saw.

Lying on the concrete was a girl about her age. She was staring up at Nayeon with wide, startled eyes, and there was empty space where her left arm and leg should be. It looked like Nayeon had found her supervillain and shocked her into partial visibility.

Nayeon hadn’t really planned too far after finding the invisible robber, but one look at this girl’s face and she knew that she definitely wasn’t handing her over to the police. This girl was far too pretty to be rotting in a jail cell.

“Hey there gorgeous.” Nayeon grinned. “Wanna get out of here?”

The girl looked even more confused, but Nayeon could see the glint of calculating sharpness in her eyes. After a moment she extended her hand and let Nayeon pull her up.

“You can get us past the police?”

“You’re not the only one in this city with a nifty magic trick. Stick with me, and soon we’ll be sipping wine and counting that stash you robbed, in a five star hotel hidden well away from the eyes of the law.”

“Oooh, that almost sounds like a date.” , the girl was even cuter when she smiled. “I’m afraid I don’t go out with people who won’t give me a name. It’s my policy to weed out the creeps.”

“Nayeon.” she smirked. “And I don’t usually go on dates with bank robbers, but if you want I’m happy to make an exception.”

“My name is Sana.” Sana winked and Nayeon felt her heartbeat start to race.

Surely that level of cuteness was far more illegal than whatever burglary Sana was currently committing. Nayeon almost wanted to say a cheesy line, but she didn’t want to ruin the cool rescuer image she’d accidentally stumbled into.

“Nice to meet you Sana.” Nayeon held her hand, guiding her carefully around the side of the bank. “How would you feel about becoming partners in crime?”

“Only in crime?”

Nayeon laughed, then immediately rewound time so that she just smiled in response. Couldn’t be too loud or the perimeter guards would hear.

“Maybe. Maybe more. Either way, I think we’re going to have fun together, don’t you?”