Some people liked to claim that supervillainy was a direct and proportional response to superheroism. When superpowers started appearing, there was a period of time when no one really knew what to do with them. Capebook had been the catalyst that inspired those early superheroes to go out and use their powers for good, putting on costumes like they’d seen in their old comic books.

  It was a cultural thing, from what I understood. Though much of the world had followed after America, plenty of countries had no costumed superhero community to speak of, nor were there masked maniacs running around enacting dastardly schemes.

  But that didn’t mean there weren’t good and bad people in those places. They were just underground. A more traditional type of villain, fighting endlessly against superpowered law enforcement.

  That being said, things like ‘secret identities’ were rather unique to superheroes. Massively public figures who ostensibly acted on the government’s behalf (or, at least, with its blessing) going by callsigns was not a common thing, outside this community. Therein lay the strangest part of the hero/villain dynamic, and it was why so many people seemed to claim that supervillains were a symptom of superheroes, in my estimation.

  There was something different about a guy in a costume committing a crime compared to a regular person in mundane clothes. When you really thought about it, it was kind of silly. In a way, it took the edge off the act. Turned it into something that felt like it should’ve been a scene in a move, not real life. People even tuned in to livestreams of ongoing cape fights, as if it was all entertainment.

  In the same way, it somehow seemed a hundred times more sinister when some serious shit was going down. While a guy in a costume robbing a bank took the sting off the act compared to a guy in a ski mask wielding a shotgun, the same could not be said for the kind of act we were dealing with today.

  Maybe I was biased, and my own experiences affected my judgment. I didn’t think so, though. Something about costumed guys specifically targeting civilians left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths, and the perpetrators tended to be handled with prejudice. Laws were in place for it. If someone fucked with your family, you were allowed to go after them hard.

  I didn’t know what power the mayor had off the top of my head, but a vindictive part of me really hoped he had something that could make these guys regret their actions big time.

  Ashika and I circled around the warehouse, trying our best not to make it obvious we were scoping the place out. The neighbourhood wasn’t one I was familiar with, but it wasn’t difficult to figure out. Laid out like in a grid system, the warehouse was bracketed by two more buildings and their lands on either side, but its plot stretched over to the adjacent street.

  It was a hulking thing of red brick, maybe three stories tall, capped by a flat roof, with half a dozen giant garage-like doors to allow loading vehicles in and out. Signs reading ‘security cameras active’ hung on the chain link fence in regular intervals, and indeed I could see those little black half spheres dotted along the upper edges of the warehouse’s walls.

  There was a parking lot on the opposite side from the loading area the van had entered the warehouse through, but it was empty of any vehicles. There was no sign of activity through the few murky windows in view. Other warehouses, in comparison, clearly had lights on inside and plenty of cars parked. It was in good enough condition that it obviously wasn’t abandoned, but if we hadn’t seen the van turn in there, I would have assumed it was closed for the day, no one inside. Not a peep of sound escape those walls.

  Not physical sound, anyway. I was coming around to the idea of using more sound metaphors for my signal sense, especially in this situation: there were several muffled, distant signals, akin to hearing someone playing loud music through speakers in their house as you walked past. It was hard to tell how many there were, or where exactly they were located, but I soon began to suspect there were more than the five villains plus driver we’d chased here.

  Interestingly, they were the only signals in action in the neighbourhood I could sense. I hadn’t looked into it, but I imagined industrial areas like this had strict rules about power usage in the work place.

  All those factors added together to make me think this was more than just some temporary safehouse rented for this particular job. I was starting to suspect we’d stumbled on a villain group’s hideout. It got me wondering again about their professionalism. Far be it from me to critique a villain group’s operating procedures, but it seemed unwise to take some high value hostages to your base of operations.

  But there were a lot of assumptions there. I was relaying it all to the distress signal system on my phone in the hopes it would be passed on to whoever responded to this mess, but it didn’t feel like useful, actionable information. Sure, we’d been able to identify where the villains had escaped to, and that was important—allowing a kidnapper to take their victims to an unknown location made the situation much more complicated.

  We needed to know more. I couldn’t be content to wait for the heroes to arrive with just this. Too much remained up to chance.

  If there was one thing I wanted to get out of today, it was making sure the hostages all escaped with their lives. Whatever it took to achieve that, I’d do without hesitation. Any risk to myself meant nothing.

  “I want to get closer,” I said to Ashika as another building cut off out view of the warehouse. If those cameras were active, and someone was watching them, we couldn’t keep doing laps around the building. We’d done two passes so far, and any more would be suspicious.

  “I want to charge in there and beat the shit out of them all,” Ashika said. She was glaring in the direction of the warehouse, even tough we could no longer see it. Her charge was still climbing, though slower now that she was moving at a walking pace.

  “Bad idea,” I replied.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “But you totally want to too, right?” she said, tearing her eyes away to look at me. Her gaze burned with fury.

  “More than you can imagine,” I said, earning a nod. “But we both know we can’t do that,” I continued. “Last thing we need is for one of us to get taken hostage, too.”

  “So, what do you want to get closer for?”

  “Signals,” I murmured, picking up my pace as I observed the other building immediately adjacent to the villainous lair. It was a more modern building, white walls and doors. Most importantly, its parking lot was full of vehicles. That meant blind spots for the cameras dotting the walls.

  “Didn’t your signal power literally knock you out when you tried to use it too much?” Ashika asked, sounding almost curious.

  “It won’t do that again,” I said. Not that it mattered. I wouldn’t particularly care if it did. “The training we did with Alanna today gave me an idea.”

  Ashika made an “ah” of comprehension, skipping ahead of me before walking backwards. “Flashes of lightning, yeah?”

  I nodded. “That’s the plan.”

  We ended up circling back round to the other street, where the van had turned off to head into the villains’ lair. However, we didn’t make another circuit, instead staying in where we judged the blind spot of the villains’ cameras to be, observing the other building on the opposite side from the modern-ish one. It was another red brick warehouse, with a lot more activity, and had its cameras up with the street lamps, giving them more coverage.

  So, it looked like we’d be trespassing in the modern one.

  After a bit of planning, we headed back around to the parking lot.

  I wanted to go alone, but Ashika was having none of it.

  “What happens if you're caught?” She asked me, lip curling with displeasure. She smacked her fist into an open palm; it sounded like a gunshot. “If your power does knock you out, you'll need someone to get you out of there, right?”

  “We have to be stealthy,” I said, trying to be delicate.

  “I can do stealthy,” Ashika snapped.

  I looked pointedly at her fist, still enclosed in her palm.

  She glared back. “I wasn't trying to be stealthy there.”

  In the end, I decided that arguing the point would just be wasting time, and I didn't have enough of that to spare as it was.

  The warehouse could hardly be called a buzzing hive of activity, but there were certainly more than a few workers present. Just at a glance, I could see a few people having a cigarette break outside one of the back doors to what I assumed was an office area. And there were signs of more people at work within. But this was the back of the building, with the parking lot stretching out behind it, and so this was where we'd have to sneak in. The front, where the bulk of activity lay, was simply untenable in comparison.

  There was no security checkpoint at the gate, but it was still nerve racking when we crouch-walked in at a moment we judged no one was looking. My heart was in my throat. I had never done anything like this before. While I would object to the title of goody two shoes that have been bestowed on me during elementary and middle school, I couldn't deny that I wasn't one to break rules much in the past.

  Heroes didn't break the law after all. Such was my childish logic.

  No one came running out to confront us as we made our way through the parking lot, crouching behind the cars. That boded well, I hoped. I wouldn't have dared to take a risk like this at the actual lair, but here the price of failure would presumably be an uncomfortable conversation, followed by getting escorted off the premises. Whatever security this place had, though, they evidently weren't watching the cameras closely enough to react immediately. A good start.

  The next potential point of failure came when we were almost at the building itself. There was a gap a few paces long between the edge of the parking lot and the actual building. That wasn't even mentioning which doors we'd have to go through. One was wide open, but the smokers were still milling around beside it.

  Briefly, I had the idea to go and tell them what was happening, but dismissed it. I didn't want there to be a commotion here until the heroes arrived. The villains couldn't know they'd been exposed ahead of time. We would afford them no chance to prepare.

  We had to sneak along the parking lot, moving away from the smokers. After some observation, I decided on set of double doors closer to the middle of the warehouse when I saw one guy exit from them and it became clear they weren't locked. The near heart attack I experienced at his sudden emergence felt like a small price to pay.

  Still, it took some time to work up the courage. Ashika was vibrating with nervous energy beside me, and I was sure I didn't look any better. In other circumstances, it might have taken me ages to take the plunge. But the stakes here spurred me on. When the smokers went back inside, we acted. After a deep fortifying breath, I darted forward from cover, Ashika right on my heels.

  To my relief, the door was indeed unlocked. I eased it open, peering through. Only when it became clear there was no one waiting beyond to catch us did I go in fully.

  Massive reinforced shelves lined the main space in towering rows. We immediately took a hard left, peeking around each corner to check the coast was clear before we crossed the end of each row. Eventually, we reached the farthest left wall. There, we finally delved into the warehouse proper.

  Sneaking around here would only make us more suspicious, and we no longer had any chance of getting out of sight if someone happened to enter this aisle from the other direction, so I decided to take refuge in audacity.

  I strolled along with an unconcerned gait, like I had every right to be here. It was good that we were both wearing tracksuits today from our earlier training. They didn't stand out too much from what I saw of the floor workers. If anyone was watching the interior cameras, they would hopefully just assume we were more employees.

  Signals penetrated the warehouse wall, coming from the adjacent building. I resisted the urge to try and analyse them. That wasn't what we needed right now. I had another trick in mind.

  When I judged we were about halfway along the aisle, I went searching for a gap in the wares burdening the shelves. It didn't take long. The place wasn't completely packed with merchandise. Only then, as I was manoeuvering myself into that gap, did I realise what this place was actually stocking.

  In fairness, the logos on the boxes weren't my primary concern, so I hadn’t been paying attention. The omega symbol of the Olympians was unmistakable once it was right in my face though. I recognised other logos too. The Valkyries. The Golden Generation. It seemed all the big teams were represented here.

  There was a goddamn superhero merchandise warehouse, right next to a villainous lair.

  Ashika and I exchanged an amused look as she climbed in after me. Her lips trembled. I was sure she was desperate to laugh. But she nodded when I put my finger to my lips. Best not to draw any attention to ourselves. She went completely still, ensuring her charge with no longer building. Her signal faded away.

  Now it was my time to take action.

  Discord :)