Confidentiality

Chapter 24

Janus woke up to screaming. 

He groaned, feeling the way his head pounded. The next thing he became aware of were the arms wrapped around him protectively. He cracked an eye open, his vision overtaken by a black dress shirt. So, the person holding him was Logan. 

Janus glanced up at the hero, finding him glowering at something in the distance. There was a trickle of blood from somewhere in Logan’s hair, but he didn’t seem to care. Janus looked around. 

Virgil was unconscious, Remus too from the looks of it, Roman desperately trying to wake him up. Patton was nowhere to be found. 

The screaming was coming from the civilians, who were desperately running away.

Janus brought a hand up to his head, wincing.

“Janus?” Logan looked down at him, noticing his movement. “Jan?” 

“Ow.” Janus croaked, coughing a bit. “My everything hurts.” 

“You hit your head, no doubt. Patton is a bit busy, I’m afraid, so you’ll have to wait.” Logan frowned, glancing away. 

Janus followed his gaze, spotting Patton. 

He was in his suit, glaring at a figure that was laughing a little bit away.

The figure was Gaston, who seemed rather pleased with himself. 

“What’s going on?” Janus slowly sat up, ignoring the way his body ached. 

“Villain attack.” Logan spat, expression darkening. “I’m not sure if they knew we were here, or if it was just a cruel coincidence.” 

“Can’t go anywhere, it seems.” Janus chuckled weakly, bringing a hand to his bruised side. “I guess we know what one of the bombs was for.” 

“I suppose you’re right.” Logan huffed out a shaky laugh. 

Virgil released a quiet noise of discomfort, stirring. Logan was by his side in an instant, scanning over him with a furrowed brow. 

When the purple-haired hero’s eyes fluttered open, he immediately winced. “God--It’s bright.” He grumbled, shielding his eyes with his hand. “Jesus Christ, can we live?” He sneered, sitting up. 

“It was presumptuous of us to assume that all the villains had watched the television broadcast.” Logan frowned. “One of them didn’t, and therefore remembered Roman’s name. They must’ve tracked us down.” 

Janus knew that wasn’t true. It made sense that Logan would think that, since the possibility of one of them being a traitor wasn’t possible in his mind. The truth was that Lady Tremaine had seen him sitting with five other people. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who the other five were.

As for this place being bombed, that was pure coincidence.

“Roman,” Logan turned to him, “could you wake your brother up?” 

“Remus?” Roman lightly tapped his twin’s face, trying to rouse a reaction from him. 

The illusionist grumbled faintly, swatting at his brother’s hands. “Five more minutes.” He whined. 

“Get the fuck up.” Roman deadpanned, unimpressed. 

“Remus, we need you to make an illusion.” Logan told him. Remus sat up, giving his friend a flat look. 

“I literally just woke up, prick. Give me a minute.” 

“We don’t have a minute!” Logan snapped. “Patton is literally stalling for us as we speak!” He gestured to the hero, who was locked in a harsh verbal exchange with Gaston.