Chad Undercover

The Afterparty

The first thing Chad was aware of was a relentless pounding in his skull. It was so strong that, for a moment, he thought he might actually be under attack, but the pain came from within. As he roused, he realized how cold he was. His body was lying in an awkward position, face pressed into the frigid concrete floor. He groaned softly as he opened his eyes, struggling to focus. "How much did I drink?" he grumbled. The only sound he could hear above the ringing in his ears was a muffled cackling. He turned to face the sound, blinking a few times before managing to make out a figure in the darkness. "Morgan?" he breathed.

As he shifted, he found that his wrists were bound in front of him with a zip tie. He struggled to clear his mind and focus on what was happening.

"Don't you worry about that, Morgan." The voice was unfamiliar, but it held a malice that chilled the hero. "He's only still alive so that you can watch him die." Chad's vision cleared enough to see a strange man standing in front of some kind of animal cage with a bound Morgan inside. "I would happily kill you too, but sadly, bills must be paid, and I have someone with a grudge against Alex who is willing to pay good money for you alive."

A rage built up inside Chad at the words. He had half a mind to break the spell disguising him to get Morgan out of here, but he froze when the caged villain laughed.

"I knew you were bloodthirsty, Brice, but I didn't know you were stupid!" Morgan taunted. "Everyone knows how important Jim is to Alex. They may as well be brothers!"

There was a pause as their captor looked over at Chad, then back to Morgan. "What the hell are you talking about!?"

Morgan chuckled derisively. "Oh, you really didn't know, did you?" They said, talking down to the man standing over them. "You should really fire your reconnaissance people. Jim and Alex were best friends as children. How do you not know this!? It was such a big deal when he came to Capital city! Alex was so happy, he didn't kill anyone for a week! Do you have any idea how pissed your buyer would be if they found out you kept Jim Brown from them?"

Chad watched the wheels turn in their captor's head, taking a moment to scan the man. He spotted a ring of keys latched to a belt loop and smiled. That was their ticket out of here.

"Well then." The captor's voice got darker as he stomped towards the hero, making him cower away. "Double the merchandise, double the profit."

Chad cried out as he was jerked to his feet, making a show out of slumping against the man's side as if he was too weak to stand. His hand closed around the keys to silence them, and a flick of his thumb unhooked them as he was dragged to another animal cage. He yelled in pain as he was thrown in and he allowed his body to crumple in a heap as the door was slammed, locking automatically behind him.

He stayed in the uncomfortable position as his captor cackled, clearly pleased with himself, and left the room. He slowly worked himself around in the small cage to sit up as Morgan laughed.

"Why is it so easy to get people to reveal their plans?" The villain asked as they quickly got to work on escaping.

Chad raised his arms up then brought them down hard against his abdomen, snapping the zip tie. "Don't you monologue like... all the time?" he asked, his head still throbbing as he went through his keys.

He wasn't sure what all Morgan had done in his own cage, but he knew his brother was already free of their binds from the sounds alone. "Yeah, but I do it for fun. It's all part of the game and I'm expecting my captive to escape. Brice is a vigilante. This isn't a game to him." They said as the doors of both cages popped open at the same time, Chad's from his key, Morgan's from their lock picks.