An (Un)Easy Silence

A Taste of Heroism

Before I could fully register the consequences, I ran at the woman who could only be Valentine Price.

"Thom-- Lumos!" Lawrence tried to call me back, but I wasn't going to listen to him.

Valentine looked up at his voice. I opened my hand and sent a flash of light into her eyes.

She was momentarily blinded. I got inside her guard and punched her in the jaw. She staggered backwards. Then she regained her focus and pointed her tazer at me.

She fired, but when the cords hit me, nothing happened.

I grinned. "I'm not going down that easily."

Fear lit up Price's eyes. She had no way to know that Lawrence had stopped the electricity from harming me. Instead she probably thought it just didn't affect me.

Suddenly Valentine went rigid and fell to the ground. I looked over my shoulder.

Lawrence was there.

"Thanks, man. Using her own tazer against her was a fun choice."

"Jeez, what was your plan?" He ran his hand through his hair. "You just ran at her! That is not like you."

"We still don't know if she has powers, we couldn't risk her making a move."

"What about her making a move against you? Why are you being reckless all of the sudden?"

I walked over to Morph, ignoring Lawrence's question. I poked her on the forehead.

She mumbled and weakly swatted at my hand.

"Hey, get up."

Morph's eyes fluttered open. She looked at me uncomprehendingly, then she recognized me and fear flashed across her face.

She tried to scramble away, but I put my hand on her shoulder. "Just chill out."

"What are we going to do with her?" Lawrence asked.

"I don't know yet." I sighed. What a mess. "Why did they kidnap you?"

Morph shook her head. "Just something about her boss taking interest in my powers."

"Nothing we didn't already know," Lawrence said with no small amount of spite.

"Hey," I glared at him. "You need to chill too."

"Are you kidding? Have you forgotten that Morph is your enemy? She's lost us thousands of dollars! She's put our men, our friends behind bars. If you ask me, we should've let that Valentine lady take her."

Morph sat up, every muscle tensed to run or fight. This was going to be difficult.

"Are you really that short sighted?" I snapped at Lawrence. "What do you think they would've done with her?"

"If they were smart? Kill her."

"No." Lawrence looked at me in surprise. "They wanted her for her powers. Whatever Purge is planning, it seems like Morph is a huge part of it. Do you really want to hand him what he wants?"

Lawrence looked thoroughly scolded. "I guess not."

"Yeah. So instead of holding useless grudges, let's think about what to do next," I held out my hand to Morph, "together."

I wasn't sure who was more shocked; Morph, Lawrence, or me. Teaming up with my nemesis was definitely a bold move, but I was miraculously sure that it was the right move.

Lawrence watched in silence as Morph considered my outstretched hand. Finally she snorted and shook her head. "I must be crazy."

She clasped my hand and I pulled her up.

"So what's our move?"

I considered Valentine's unconscious body. "How adverse would you be to holding a hostage?"

"I'm already regretting this." Morph glared at me.

"If you want to catch a villain," I smirked at her, "you've got to act like one."

Morph let out a groan. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're probably right. But watch your step. No torture or anything, got it?"

"You have my word."

"Why do I not believe you?"

I laughed. It was nice to banter like this. It made everything seem like just another day instead of this mystery threat.

Lawrence was still scowling. "What do you have planned?"

"Nothing too extravagant. Just a humble trap." I took the burner phone out of my pocket and dialed Hector's number again. "Rendezvous on my location. Bring the squad."

Lawrence looked impressed. "I thought you said humble."

I smiled and turned to Morph. "We won't be ready until another twelve hours at least. You should go back home. People are probably going nuts looking for you."

Morph narrowed her eyes at me in suspicion.

"Seriously, I promise I won't hurt Price. You need to be fully rested if we actually manage to lure Purge here."

"Fine." Morph took two steps towards the open garage door before she turned back. "Uh...where are we?"

Lawrence snorted. "Upstate."

Morph's eyes widened in dismay.

"Don't worry, I'll get a car up here for you. Follow the access road back to the highway, the car should be there by the time you are. I'll have them pick you up tomorrow at nine. Be at that coffe shop."

Morph nodded and started following the little road. I watched her limp off until the shadows hid her in the trees. It felt strangely good to know she was free because of something I did.

Still, this little taste of heroism didn't change what I was about to do next.

"Do I even want to know why you both know which coffee shop?" Lawrence was staring at me.

"Probably not."

There was work to be done, so I ignored his glares. We tied up Valentine with some rope we found in the back of the warehouse. Then we went out into the woods and gathered up all of Valentine's honor guard.

As we dragged the last guy into the building, Lawrence let out a groan and stretched his back. "I can't believe she took out all of these guys. I mean, there's ten of them and only one of her!"

I nodded. "Morph is a force to be reckoned with, all right."

"Still, it was nice to watch her lose for once. Even when we chase her off, we've never knocked her out."

"Hmm." I was still having some strange thoughts about that.

We sat on the back of the kidnapper's car, calmly observing our twelve captives and waiting for the squad to arrive.