Villain at Night *Third Book To Hero by Day

Chapter 20 - Where they ended up

"You can't trap justice! It's an idea, a belief!"

~ Metro Man

:Aden:

I mean - of course the scary villain would kidnap us and put us all in separate dark chambers to complete some sort of task. That's what they all did in the comic books, isn't it?

Well, at least that's what I assumed was going on. I was alone, as far as I could tell, in a room that felt bigger than I could see. It was too dark to make out anything really, and my vision wasn't adjusting.

I didn't know why we all had to be separated for the climax. I mean - if the goal is always to kill the hero, why does the villain bother with things like this that just waste time.

At least I hadn't been put into a stereotypical deathtrap. I didn't think it would be fun to hang above a tank full of sharks with laser vision, or to have laser slowly threaten to divide me in half.

But, for all I knew, Olly or Elise was currently doing just that. I knew Ian wasn't taken because he left with the rest of the wedding guests, taking the responsibility or making sure they got out of the building alright. Plus, however gone Mary was, she probably still loved her brother and didn't want to see him possibly murdered by a psychopath.

I couldn't help but to think about The Obstructer's identity. It had been someone at the wedding, that much was certain. Someone who didn't already know our identities and someone who was already invited to the wedding. It had to have been someone who stayed long enough to watch at least one of us change into our super costumes. By figuring the identity of one of us, it wouldn't be hard to find out the identity of the rest of us. Especially considering we were all sitting next to each other at the wedding.

A light lit up the room all of a sudden. It was a TV monitor.

"Hello, Kratos. Or, should I say, Aden Dashner." The Obstructer said from within the screen. They wore a white hood, masking their identity, but they already knew mine. We had been right, the wedding was a trap to find out who we were, and The Obstructer somehow still succeeded.

"You don't look shocked? I should have tried harder to hide my true intentions." The Obstructer commented, their voice masked.

"What do you want?" I had watched enough spy movies as a kid to know the best method right know was being direct and finding a way to escape.

They chuckled. "I want you dead, but not yet. But, I will give you a choice right now. There are two doors below me," two lights shined on two steel doors under the monitor, both looked menacing, "one leads to your boss, and one leads to Annalise Pearson. You can only choose one, but both are in trouble. Who do you choose to go save?"

I blanched. There was no way to know if The Obstructer was lying, but I knew my decision right away. Oliver was a superhero with superpowers, Annalise was not. If anyone could find a way to fend on their own, it was him. Annalise on the other hand could not fend on her own. Not to mention, The Obstructer probably brought her here just for me. She was here because of my connection to her, and I wouldn't let it kill her.

Now I knew why Olly was hesitant about dating his girlfriend when they first started out. When you had personal connections like that, they were perfect targets for villains like The Obstructer, or Andromeda, or Inferno, or even the Beast.

The Marvel once told Olly a piece of advice that he used to enact himself, "the heroes never get the girl." Which, is kind of ironic. Heroes were the best of the best, the ones who saved the damsel at the end of the day and got the girl from it. But, in real life, heroes were always at a risk. Villains attacked the ones you loved, which made you liable for them. If the hero wanted to keep the people close to them safe, they would have to stay away.