vigilantes and heroes and Villains oh my

The Meeting

I sighed as I locked up the cafe for the night. Tonight was the Syndicate meeting, and I have decided that I would take the job. I heard a car pull up behind me and I turned around.

It was a black SUV with tinted windows, one of the windows rolled down and there was Soundwave.

"Get it, it's unlocked." He said. 

I nodded and sat in the back. Cheshire and Protesilaus were sitting in the back, Protesilaus was sitting in the third row.

I got buckled and we drove off. We got to the business side of town, it was just a bunch of office buildings when something covered my eyes. I panicked for a second until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"We needed to blindfold you, we don't want you telling people where our secret base is." I heard Cheshire say.

I nodded in understanding, I mean, they are the greatest supervillains in the city, so it would make sense that they want their hideout to be discovered.

I felt the car go down a ramp, my stomach turning at the sudden drop. I tried not to panic, I don't like it when I can't see. The car stopped and turned off, I heard doors open and close, I unbuckled and I felt a gentle hand on my arm. I tensed.

"It's just me Ace," Zephyrus said, I relaxed a bit, not a lot. They are villains after all.

Zephyrus helped me out of the car and gently guided me somewhere, the blindfold still covering my eyes. We stopped for a minute, then there was a ding. We were by an elevator. I was led into it and I heard the door close. There was a faint sound of a button being pressed then the elevator lurched along with my stomach. I felt Zephyrus put a stabilizing hand on my shoulder.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Someone took off the blindfold and I had to blink a few times because of the harsh lights in the elevator. Once my eyes adjusted we started walking, it seemed like a normal hallway, but there were no windows, must be underground. We approached a door. Protesilaus opened it, and holy shit the room was so cool, there was a dark stone making up the walls, and in the center of the room was a table with chairs circling it. Most of the chairs are being taken up by the rest of the Syndicate. On the left side of the table were Nemesis, Jester, and Ender, on the right side were Rosethorn and four empty seats. At the head of the table was another empty seat, must be Zephyrus's chair. I didn't see Nuke. He must be resting after the incident with Flame.

The others sat down while Zephyrus led me to the chair to the immediate right of him. 

Lovely.

Once we sat down, the meeting began.

"So I take it that this is Ace?" Rosethorn said, gesturing to me.

I nod, opting to stay quiet.

She nods, turning to Zephyrus who clapped his hands together.

"So, let's start. I take it you know why I have gathered you here today?"

Everyone nodded. Zephyrus turned to me.

"First order of business, Ace, what do you choose to do about our job offer?"

I froze. Did I want the job? Do I need it? I realized that everyone was staring at me. Why the fuck did I agree to this? Oh, gods.

"What else is in it for me, if I do take the job?" I asked, looking up from my lap.

"Well not only will we be paying you, but you will also have our protection," Zephyrus said.

I nodded before looking away again. I noticed that there was another empty seat, a name came to mind; Daedalus. 

The engineer must be out on a mission.

I looked up again once I came to a decision.

"I-I'll take the job," I said, avoiding any eye contact.

Zephyrus nodded.

"Alright, now we just need to figure out how much to pay you."

"Do we necessarily need to pay them from our pocket?" Cheshire asked, his hood falling back slightly as he leaned back in his chair, "I mean we can always just–" Ender cut him off.

"No, we're not robbing a bank."

"But–"

"No."

"How about–"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because we already did that."

Cheshire let out a huff and crossed his arms, it sounded weird and metallic because of the voice changer.

"Fine." He huffed.

Ender nodded.

The others started talking about payment, throwing around numbers that made me nervous. Eventually, Zephyrus raised a hand, the table fell quiet.

"How about we let Ace decide." He said, looking at me, his veil shifting with the movement.

I tried to become one with the chair but unfortunately, that's not my power.

"I-I think you are throwing out too high of numbers," I said quietly.

Why did I agree to this? Oh fuck. Zephyrus pulls out a notebook and a pencil from the folds of his robe thingy and writes down a number. He showed me it and my eyes went wide. I quickly shook my head.

"I can't accept that," I said quickly.

The winged man nods and writes a different number down before showing it to me. It was still pretty high but not as high as before. Not wanting to anger the villains any more than I probably have, I agreed to the price.

The meeting ended shortly after that. We got to the elevator before I was blindfolded once again. The ride back to the cafe was quiet except for the soft music playing on the radio. The blindfold got taken off sometime after we left the business district. We soon got back to the cafe, and after I gave them my bank info so that they could send me the money, they left.

I sighed softly, stuffing my hands into my pockets. My phone started to vibrate. I pulled it out and saw that Willow was calling me. I looked at the time, it was almost 11:30, ha...well shit. I accepted the call and put my phone up to my ear.

"Where the fuck are you!?"

I flinched away from her tone.

"I'm on my way home now. The coffee maker was being a real pain in the ass today, and I had a crazy lady come in who made a huge mess."

I heard her scoff. Please don't ask any other questions.

"Is that Ace?" That was Sky.

"Yeah, they're on their way home."

"Can I talk to them?"

"Yeah sure."

"Ace?" Sky's voice was now clearer.

"Hey Sky, sorry if I scared you and Willow," I said with a sigh, now feeling guilty.

"Hey, it's ok Ace, as long as you're on your way home. You are on your way home, right?" Her voice was kind.

I chuckled softly.

"Yeah, I can see the apartment from here. I'll see you in a minute, ok?"

It was quiet for a second.

"Ok, but Willow is wanting to talk to you when you get back."

I bit back a sigh.

"Alright. Bye," I said.

"Bye," Skylar said before hanging up.

I looked at the call ended screen before it disappeared, showing that I had 10 missed calls from Willow. 

I'm fucked. 

I pocketed my phone again before I continued walking.

//Sorry this took a bit to come out. Life has been difficult and my motivation decided to leave the country for a bit. See you in the next chapter my fallen demons.