Can We Be Heroes?

Chapter 50• Revelations I

Hex now stood infront the dark doorway, bowstring pulled so tight his fingers burned. Something about the place just wasn’t right with him. He knew every alley, roof, sewer grate, and forgotten emergency tunnel in Musutafu. He had mapped the city with his own feet.

But this place? This abandoned pharmacy cracked between an apartment block and an old cinema?

He’d never even seen it.

That only meant that someone had skillfully hidden it and that spelled danger.

He stepped inside slowly, the faint hum of an underground generator bleeding up from the stairwell while the light and careful set of footprints in the dust told him someone had slipped in not long before he did.

His heart thudded, panic mixing with instinct.

Please don’t be Vixen, please don’t be Vixen—

He didn’t want to admit what he already suspected. He crept down the steps, every muscle tight. Then a shadow moved. Izuku spun, arrow aimed square at the figure leaning against the far wall.

Purple eyes glowed faintly in the low light.

“Shadow?” Izuku whispered.

The vigilante lifted both hands slowly. “Don’t shoot. I really don’t feel like getting tranquilized by you today.”

Izuku lowered his bow by half an inch. “What are you doing here? No—how do you know about this place?”

“Hawks sent me,” He said bluntly like it was the most normal thing to say. “There was a breach in the local data grid. He tracked it to this exact abandoned pharmacy. And apparently—”

He tilted his head. “—this is where you were headed too.”

Izuku felt his stomach twist. So Shadow had joined that project Hawks spoke about. They were working together now and this room had somehow been able to hack the secret files from the inside of the law firm secure database.

Izuku saw the open laptop on the table with the three strange flash drives unplugged. He looked at Shadow sharply. “Did you see who was using it?”

Shinso hesitated. “No.”

Izuku’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sur—”

“I said no,” Shinso snapped back. “But I know what was on that screen.”

He lifted his chin, expression tight. “Project Solace. Eisen & Thorns. Their bounty roster. And your name all over the damn place.”

Izuku froze as fear ran ice down his back. Shadow stepped closer. “So talk. What did you do? Why are they hunting you?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Hex hissed. “Eisen is probably framing people — vigilantes, civilians, pros. He’s building something and I don’t know what—”

“Lying already?”

Both boys stiffened as the temperature in the room dropped and a  slow clap echoed between the concrete walls .

Heavy footsteps descended from the stairs, eventually revealing non other than Hit Ringer. He emerged from the shadows with a smile much too calm for a man who murdered for fun.

“Well look at that,” he said lightly. “My little prey and his little shadow buddy. How cozy. Didn't know you made friends Shadow.”

Izuku immediately drew his bow, eyes sharp and furious. “Stop following me.”

“Impossible,” Hit Ringer said with amusement. “You left quite a trail. Too much thieving. Too many hunters down for the count.”

He smiled wider. “And I can’t let my favorite opponent run off on a tangent, now can I?”