A Villain's Love

I Blow Up A Warehouse

I smile up at Skull, a million thoughts racing through my mind. The most prominent one being how can I get both me and Phase out if here alive?
"Maybe we can start with introductions, since you knocked me out last time we met." He gives me a cold look and I immediately know I did something bad.
I quickly cover it though, by saying, "Oh you know us villains, any competition we don't know is on our side we knock out."
Skull looks surprised for a moment, then laughs heartily, making me once again wish I didn't have a sense of hearing.
"You are a funny one aren't you? I will enjoy getting to know you. I am Skull."
He sticks out a large muscled arm and meaty hand, and I take it with my own skinny fingers.
"I'm Shadow. Apologies for knocking you out."
Skull smiles, although it looks more like a painful grimace. "Apology accepted! Now let's get back to our little prisoner here." He turns back to Phase. "Now, little dove, will you cooperate or do I have to tighten your chains?"
I almost wince but restrain myself and say, "maybe I can persuade her to do... what you want?"
Skull looks at me for a moment, then back at Phase. "Will you talk to this one?"
She glances at him, then back to me. I wink and nod. She hesitates, then slowly nods. Skull claps his hands, which makes a loud bang echo through the building. "Excellent!"
He steps aside and gives me a thumbs up before walking away and I approach Phase, crouching down to look her in the eye. "If I take the gag off, will you scream?" She glares at me and I shrug. "I already have a massive headache from that dude. Don't need you yelling in my ear too." Phase rolls her eyes and turns her head, allowing me to take off the gag.
"You're a bitch, siding with him." She says, scoffing.
I shrug. "You're the one who said I'm a villain. What exactly does he want anyway?"
"My powers." She says without hesitation.
My breath catches. "What?"
She rolls her eyes. "His power is collecting other people's powers. I dunno if he was born like that or developed it, but so far the only power I've seen is his strength."
I think for a moment. "Does he have any obvious weaknesses?"
Phase narrows her eyes at me. "You said you were on his side."
I roll my eyes. "Don't humor me Ghostie, you know I work better alone."
She nods. "Fine. He may be all muscle, but he's not that smart."
I gasp over dramatically. "Really?"
"Shut the fuck up. What I'm getting at is that you could probably outsmart him somehow, get him to do something for you."
I laugh. "What do you mean I could probably outsmart him?"
Phase rolls her eyes. "I'm saying you're a bit smarter than him."
"Only a bit? I'm just gonna remind you that I'm the one saving you here."
Phase groans. "Don't push it, Shadow. Once I'm free I can still beat your ass."
I act offended. "Language."
"I'm starting to want to stay with Skull."
"Be my guest."
"SHADOW, HAVE YOU CONVINCED HER YET?!" Skull's voice booms across the building , causing a crate to fall over. A black substance spills out of it, which I choose to ignore.
"Uh... NOT YET, SHE'S A TOUGH ONE! GIVE ME FIVE MORE MINUTES!" I hear a low grumble but no footsteps approaching us. I turn to Phase again and examine the chains. Simple padlock. Candy from a baby. I pull out a lock pick from a pocket in my jumpsuit and Phase is free in less than a minute.
She rubs her wrists. "I never thought I'd say this, but you can actually be kind of useful."
I roll my eyes, but figure it's as close to a compliment as I'm gonna get. "Now, follow my lead. AGH, GET BACK HERE! SKULL HELP!"
I motion for her to turn invisible and she does, giving me a small smile before disappearing. I hear heavy footsteps thundering toward me and pretend like I had tried to catch Phase, face planting into the ground.
"WHAT HAPPENED," Skull booms, "WHERE IS SHE?"
I get up and glance around frantically. "She just disappeared! Kicked me across the head before she did and poof!"
Skull lets out a loud cry, and I'm almost afraid the roof will come down on us. "I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE LEFT HER WITH YOU! ARGH!" He charges at me but I easily melt into a shadow being cast by the setting sun across the floor.
I reform behind him again and say, "I don't know if I should work with you. If you couldn't even find chains strong enough to hold a little girl then..." I shrug. "Maybe you're not as great of a villain as I thought." He turns around and glares at me with fiery eyes and I'm suddenly terrified. He roars and I see his face start to morph. His mouth elongates and his pupils become slits. His body grows and suddenly a huge dragon is in front of me, sparks spitting from its mouth. Its head goes through the roof, and part of it falls. Suddenly something occurs to me. The gasoline smell, the black liquid coming from the crates.
"I just remembered I gotta go." I say quickly as a jet of fire shoots out of the dragon's mouth. I immediately melt into a shadow and flee the building, getting only a few feet before being blown off my feet. I hit the ground and roll, covering my neck on instinct from the heat of the explosion. When I look back, the entire warehouse is on fire, a hole blasted through the wall closest to me. A body lies just inside it, and I decide to leave before it regains consciousness. I guess he has more power than I thought. When I get up, I try to phase into a shadow, but I realize that my normal clothes have returned. Oh yeah, another side effect of my ability to change clothes like that, is that my jumpsuit vanishes after half an hour. Someone rushes to my side and I jump, recognizing Phase.
"Hey, are you okay?"
She knows, she totally knows your identity, great job idiot.
"Uh, yeah I'm okay."
"Did you see anyone else come out of the building? Anyone?" Phase looks almost... worried.
"Someone come out of the building?" I repeat, trying to figure out what she means, then it hits me. I don't want to blame myself, but I don't really see another choice. "Oh! I saw someone in black! It was probably Shadow, she probably blew up the building! That villain—"
"Did she make it out?"