Big City Villain | BOOK ONE

Revamped Chapter Eight: How About No?

"Can I just save us all some time and say no now?"

"You haven't even heard us out yet!"

"I don't need to," I said, already irritated and itching to ditch this place. "I can tell by your ugly masked faces that this is just a waste of time. Look, let me raid the snack table before I go, and no one will get hurt." Which was an attempt to see if they actually had plans to release me. The lack of smiles told me otherwise.

Where am I? You ask. I'll tell you, but it ain't pretty: Headquarters of The Board of Superheroes. It was not my favorite place on earth, but considering the power the heroes before me had, there was no chance of getting out of here unless they let me.

The hierarchy here began with the Commander, which was currently held by none other than Red; he was seated in the middle and with a rare level ten power rating, it wasn't hard to see why. Directly after him, and sitting on his right-hand side, was the Second that, unfortunately, was being filled by Anti Gravity (level seven power rating, in case you were curious). The rest of the Board followed them, a small group of the most influential and powerful heroes. Most had been long-time supers, but the next gen was replacing them as they were retiring.

"Those are for heroes only," Storm Rider grumbled from her seat two chairs from Benjamin. Though her hair was pure white, it was most likely a wig because she could not have been a day older than me. "I told you it was a bad idea to ask a worthless villain for help." Storm directed this statement at Red.

"For once, I agree with Rain Cloud," I chimed in solely for the purpose of using a nickname that would irritate her. "So, let's cut this short and let me go, yeah?"

The look on her face was so bone-chillingly cold that I dared not move from my spot—mostly because she literally froze my feet to the ground. It's a good thing I was wearing thermal socks for this exact situation.

"Okay!" I groaned and threw my hands up in surrender. "What's going on?"

Red sighed and shook his head. As far as I could tell, Red was probably somewhere in his forties, but every interaction he had to witness between Storm and I probably aged him by ten years. "It's nothing major—"

The half expression I could see on Anti Gravity's face was enough to tell me they did not share the same feelings on it. "Nothing major? How is threatening my life nothing major?"

"You're a superhero, Anti Gravity," Red said, sounding very annoyed. "Your life is threatened by every villain in King City!"

"This is different. Whoever this is knows my real identity, and that is a threat to my family. That is where I draw the line, Red. That's where we should all draw the line." Ben was angry, a lot angrier than I've ever heard him. If you knew Ben, you'd know irritation was an emotion he experienced almost every day, but anger? Hardly ever. "And if whoever this is can find out my identity, then no one else here at this table is safe. We don't know if they're just starting with me before they work their way down the line. So yes, it is something major."

"Who knows your identity?" I asked, hoping to break up their argument and get to the point. Maybe if I leave on their good side, they'll let me pick out a snackie. I hope they have some real chocolate chip cookies and not those imposter raisin ones like last time. Last time was a year ago, but this is one grudge I refuse to let go.

"Someone who goes by the name of City Sweeper," Anti Gravity said. He took a folded-up note from the table and gave it to Glitch, who then walked exactly two and a half awkward steps to me and handed it over. "Read the note."

As much as I wanted to tease Glitch, the moment seemed too serious for that. I unfolded the note and read the words that caused me to shiver at their meaning. The writer chose to forgo any greeting or introduction, which would have really toned down the intimidation, but I guess that would defeat the purpose of a death threat.