Alex pulled a box from the bag of loot they collected at the defunct grocery store he and the resource team looted, giggling at the thought of his friend's face. "Hey! Morgan! We got super lucky and managed to find some of those snacks you used to like!" He stopped in the kitchen doorway, something felt different. He couldn't quite put a finger on it, but something was off.
"The place was hit!" As if he had been struck, things started to add up. The entrance was unbarred, Morgan didn't welcome them back with his usual snark and concern, there was no smell of food cooking for the returning raid party, actually they hadn't encountered any of the defenders. Where was Morgan?
"Windows smashed in from outside!"
"There are signs of a struggle!"
"I can't find anyone!"
"No bodies, they were taken!"
"Alex! Snap out of it!" There was a sharp, stinging pain across his face, he was now holding a blood spattered, torn jacket. "This is Morgan's...he fought back against this, whatever happened here."
A tall, built woman hauled Alex to his feet, "Of course he did. Now we gotta get everyone back, so stop mourning your boyfriend and let's go!" She stomped off muttering to herself.
Heat of fury flashed through Alex's face, "I'm not mourning him because he's not dead! And he's not my boyfriend! He keeps telling you this Sorrel…" He followed her from a distance, grabbing supplies as he went, "Morgan can't be dead. He's not allowed to die before me…"Outside of the hero's temporary HQ, in a tent, a group of B tier heroes stood around their current subject of interrogation. Bolted to a table and surrounded, Morgan sat silently smirking, his face barely recognizable beneath bruises and bandages.
"Where are the other villains?! We know there were more!" A glob of bloody spit landed on the desperate hero's arm. "There's no way some E and D listers were holding onto that kind of real estate!" Their fist slammed down, denting the metal table Morgan was attached to.
Morgan rolled his eyes emphatically, "You do know I was a landlord right? I was perfectly positioned to-" A blow to the back of the head, forceful enough to stun him for a moment. "Look if you aren't going to believe me, bring someone else for questioning!"
A light touch to his stinging cheek and in a moment all pain was gone from his head. A tall man with black hair shooed the previous interrogator away. "Hello, you might know me, I'm the A tier rescue hero 'Refresh,' I just 'refreshed' the grievous injuries you had. Look, we know you, your lover is one of the most infamous villains in the world." Morgan sputtered and coughed in objection. "We know you wouldn't leave his side for long, just tell us where he is and we'll go easy on you and your group, we might even let you keep him after we suppress his powers."
Shocked by more than one thing in the past minute Morgan stared blankly at the presumptuous hero before him. "I...I...he's not...we aren't...how would...I am not wo-...he's not my lover. I don't know why we can't just...be friends!" His face was burning, clearly from outrage, "Why are you even after villains anymore?! The world has gone to Hell! At least half of humanity is committing atrocities worse than most villains now! You have bigger fish to fry don't you? Weren't your top heroes trying to figure out what went wrong?" There was a full economic collapse, widespread disease throughout Western society, a growing Eastern super power, rampant crime from former members of all walks of life...all things heroes claimed they were working on in the past year. All things that seemed to keep getting worse.
'Refresh' tilted his head to the side and gazed at Morgan as though he pitied him. "Why are we after villains? Well, because obviously villains brought this all about! Don't play so coy, only someone with wicked intentions and power like your lover's would cause the downfall of Western society as we knew it." He placed his hand over Morgan's softly, "He just has to put everything right again, we'll take away his powers, and you can go on with your lives. We'll even let you keep your little teleportation trick." He grinned like he was offering the most wonderful solution to everyone's problem.
Morgan snarled at the black haired fool before him. "All of you heroes are the same. You run around blaming others for your own faults. You can't fix things like you want, so you blame the villains. No one that I know caused this. Fuck, no one I've heard of caused this. We are suffering the same as so many others. Maybe we're a bit better suited to it because we've lived our lives being judged, menaced, and hunted, but we are still suffering." Morgan let himself show weakness and laid his head on the tabletop. "I wouldn't tell you where anyone else was even if I did know. So you might as well throw me into whatever jail there is and move on." 'Refresh' scoffed in the self important way heroes were wont to do.
Morgan glanced up to see 'Refresh' sneering down at him and wiping his hands. "Well we'll have your lover here one way or another. We no longer take prisoners." The black haired man stood towering over the villain, "It's corporal punishment, public humiliation, or death. Seeing as you refuse to cooperate and are the highest ranked among those captured...well, it would be best to make an example of you. You get until noon tomorrow to reveal your secrets, then you will be hanged for your crimes." Morgan couldn't breathe. They were going to hang him...he was going to...die. The A tier hero was speaking to the others, "Yes, we'll announce it over the radio at first light. It'll give them a few hours to show and for negotiations to take place. We'll keep the nullifier by this one until we have things fixed. If by some chance things don't work out we will still draw the former Superior. Take this one away."
Maybe this will continue...maybe it won't...I have a terrible habit of abandoning stories.
