An (Un)Easy Silence

Dear Valentine

Finding out more about Purge was harder than I thought it would be. Even in Manhattan, he was notoriously hard to find.

All I could find out was his general plan. He captured mutants that he thought he could use, and killed all the rest. It was unclear as to whether or not he himself was a mutant.

Hector was still out looking for usable bits of information on my new rival. I was waiting for his next call when I thought of something, or someone, who might be able to shed some light on the matter.

I turned invisible and took a little stroll down to the nearest police precinct. Once I snuck inside, I made for the records room.

Thanks to a little bribing and a corruptable officer, I knew how to get onto the computers without raising any alarms.

I searched for the incident report from my attack on the protestors the other night. After a few minutes of digging, I found what I was looking for.

Paul Foyer; a wallstreet man with the extracurricular activity of advocating against mutant rights. He was one of the men I pushed from the stage. I memorized his address and left the pricinct.

He lived in the Heights, which meant I was definitely hailing a cab. Once I arrived, I couldn't help but feel the residual anger from the protest. This guy lived in one of the poshest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, complete with a view of the Statue of Liberty and he still felt the need to ruin other people's lives?

This is why I had become a super villain. People like Paul Foyer needed to be kept in check.

It was early evening, which meant Foyer would be making his way home right about now. I climbed the steps of his brownstone home and waited, invisible once more.

A cab screeched to a halt on the curb ten minutes later. Foyer stepped out from it and hurried to his house. The taxi driver called out some insults about a lousy tip and drove away.

"A good tip would be to learn how to navigate traffic before becoming a cab driver," Foyer muttered under his breath while fumbling with his keys.

I stood still, not even a full foot away from Foyer. An evil glare painted my face, but I didn't make my move quite yet.

He finally found the right key and jammed it into the lock. Once he opened the door, I stuck out one foot and tripped him.

As he fell inside, I stepped over his prone body and slammed the door shut.

"What is this--" Paul started to get up, but I planted a foot on his back and he fell back down.

"I think you know exactly what this is." I didn't become visible. I hadn't had time for a costume change and I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

Paul blanched at my words. "L-Lumos, I...you..."

"Yes, I, me. Why don't you do us both a favor and cram it." When he didn't stutter anything else, I continued. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to give me some intelligible answers. Got it?"

He nodded vehemently. I picked him up by his collar and tossed him into a nearby chair.

"What do you know about Morph's kidnapping?"

A smile spread across his face despite his fear. "I know who did it."

"Yes, yes. It was Purge, you're going to have to give me something new."

The boredom in my voice made the sweat on Foyer's face stand out a little more. "No one knows who he is or where he is, but I know the next best thing."