Confidentiality

Chapter 6

(This one is hella long bye 🙃)

“Is he okay?” Paranoia immediately asked The Duke, who was rushing over to him with The Prince securely held in his arms. Paranoia was eyeing The Prince’s blood covered suit in alarm.

“I think his head is relatively fine, apart from the concussion. I haven’t had time to check him for any other wounds.” The Duke informed Paranoia, who nodded sharply.

Janus frowned. Paranoia felt vaguely familiar, but Janus was positive he had never met the hero before. 

“We have to retreat.” Scar sneered to Ursula, who was practically frothing at the mouth as she glared at Paranoia. “The boy will have to save the day some other time.” 

Janus had to resist the urge to furrow his brow in confusion. This guy was enough to make two villains retreat? 

Well, this certainly put a damper on his plan to secure his spot in the League of Heroes, but hey. There was always tomorrow. 

“Sorry about this.” Janus murmured to them. They looked confused for a moment, before Janus suddenly flipped (which was hard to do with one hand currently being a hook.)

He kicked Scar off the lion, shooting one shot into the feline. He made sure the wound wasn’t fatal, but there was no prohibiting the pain that accompanied the shot. Ursula gasped in surprise, and that was enough time for him to shoot two shots into her giant arm. 

She howled in pain, glowering at him. He was barely able to contain the apology that he so desperately wanted to give her. He retreated back to the other two heroes, who were staring at him in shock. 

The villains sneered at him. Before leaving, Ursula gave The Duke one last grin. “Roman is such a lovely name, really.” Was all she said, before shrinking down to her real size and disappearing into an alley. 

Janus almost smirked. At least they had gotten info on the heroes out of this. He looked back at the heroes in question. They were both gaping at him like he had grown an extra pair of eyes.

“Since when was Hook a good guy?” Paranoia asked The Duke, who looked just as bewildered as the former. 

Janus snorted, reverting back to his original form.

The Duke’s eyes widened. “Woah! That’s so cool!” And Janus was convinced that if it wasn’t for the unconscious form of his brother that rested in his arms, The Duke would be jumping up and down.

Janus glanced over at Paranoia. “I don’t think we’ve met.” He smiled, though he knew Paranoia couldn’t see it through the mask. “I’m Deceit.”

Paranoia returned the handshake. “I’m Paranoia. It’s nice to meet you.” 

Janus narrowed his eyes at the hero, suddenly blatantly aware of the fact that Paranoia was hiding something. He had lied when he said it was nice to meet him. Janus could tell by the way his posture was too tense to be natural, how his eyes were shifting just a little too quickly to be calm, how his hand trembled a bit when Janus shook it.

Now, Janus was a lovely guy, so obviously he wasn’t lying about it being nice to meet him.

So it only took a couple of seconds to deduce that yes, Janus was right. He had met Paranoia before. 

Paranoia seemed to have caught on to the shift in the atmosphere, because he hastily pulled his hand away. “We should return The Prince to the base.” He told The Duke.

“Well, duh! I’m sure Morality can have him patched up in a matter of seconds!” The Duke rolled his eyes, before glancing at Janus. “What about the newbie?”