Her father had to help Jennifer through the rubble. Candice had told them that the base would be hard to get to and Jennifer had dressed accordingly. T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of comfortable sneakers. However, Jennifer was never one for hiking. She was a city girl. She had grown up in Velocity City, and never left. Finding her way through rubble was not in her skillset. Even Candice was doing better than her.

Her father slowly guided Jennifer through the rubble and within a few moments, they all stood at the door. Candice typed a series of numbers into a keypad and the door clicked open. The lights turned on the moment they stepped into the cave.

Jennifer noticed several concrete pillars arching upward, holding up a dome of rock. Jennifer noticed that most of the lights were out, but enough of them were working to give a good view of the cave. Across from Jennifer was a wall showing a faded mural, a pair of bat-like wings in a blue circle. Like everything else, the mural was in bad shape, but Jennifer doubt she would have recognized the symbol even it was in good shape. This lair was old.

When her father asked her to contact Candice to enquire on available lairs for rent, Jennifer had been shocked. Growing up in Velocity City, Jennifer had always known that there were villainous lairs in the city. It was a fact of life like Gaps will open, children will be annoying, and ex-boyfriends will be bastards. It was a given. But villains renting their lairs? That was unheard of. Jennifer always thought villains made their own lairs. She was wrong. Evidently, renting a lair was a common practice. When she asked Candice about the lair, her father’s perky agent immediately gave her a list of available lair locations in Velocity City, and a lengthy explanation why it is better for villains to rent their lairs.

Lairs are not hideouts. Hideouts could be a hole in the ground, but lairs are places where villains train, relax, plan, and research. Lairs are expensive. They cost a lot to build and even if you have the money, getting the materials needed to build the lair could bring you a lot of unwanted attention. It was far safer to just get a rental.

To say that Jennifer’s view of The Game had been flipped by that revelation was an exaggeration. She knew there were a lot of things she didn’t know about The Game, but the fact that there was a lair beneath her diner astonished her.

Her eyes almost popped when she noticed ‘unused small underground lair along King’s Hill’ in the list Candice gave her. She just had to see it. Luckily, her father agreed, and Candice was more than happy to guide them to the location. They were here and it was no wonder she had never heard of a lair beneath King’s Hill. The place was a dump. It looked like no one had been here for decades.

“This is just the main lobby.” Candice said. “The lair is further down.”

“Lairs have lobbies?” Jennifer asked like a total noob. Candice just chuckled, and her father answered.

“There will be times when villains need to visit each other. You need a place for visitors to be screened before allowing them into the main areas. Most of the time, lobbies also serve as the staging area for villains to gather before going on a job. Candice, who used to own this place?”

“An old group called ‘The Night Bats’. They were a villainous technology group that operated in Velocity City about eighty years ago. They disbanded after getting hit badly by the Bringers. No one has used this lair for over half a century.”

Jennifer’s eye widened. She knew of the Bringers. They were an interdimensional species that often raid Nexus for resources. The Night Bats must had fell defending the city from the raiders. When aliens attacked, heroes and villains need to put aside their differences and call a truce.

The trio moved further down. They had to take the stairs as the lift was out of operation. Jennifer walked into a big room where the remains of a big battle could be seen. A charred floor, warped metal machines, and a destroyed wall dominate the room.

“What happened here?” she asked.

“A big fight, though we don’t know by who.” Candice said. “We don’t think it was the Bringers though. Our best guess is that The Night Bats were badly hurt defending the city from the Bringers, and a rival group took advantage.”

“They can’t do that. What about the truce?”

“The truce only holds during the attack, though the written rules are that no one is allow to attack anyone else for seventy-two hours after that. Unless that had changed?” Victor answered Jennifer’s question, and directed his question to Candice.

“The rules of the truce remain the same.” The agent answered. “I should also add that H.A.V.E is a signatory of the Nexus Accord. In the event of an attack by any aliens, demons, angels, gods, or eldritch horror, H.A.V.E and all its agents are legally and morally obliged to defend Nexus. This obligation extends to any world-ending event like natural disasters, man-made disasters, meteor storms, and anything else that could end the world as we know it. H.A.V.E also consider it common courtesy that none of our agents engage in any world-ending event themselves.”

Jennifer could fell her jaw dropping, but her father just nods as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Good thing I am not looking to destroy the world then.” He said. “Who was the last psycho who tried?”

“That would be a group called ‘The Church of Only Light’.” Candice replied. “They were looking to summon a god who would, and I quote, ‘bath the world in a light that will cleanse Nexus of all evil.’ End quote.”

Victor just chuckled. “Let me guess; All evil means all life on Nexus, right?”

Jennifer reeled. The two of them were talking about world-ending events like it was a common occurrence.