"Oh no, that is not good." Crepitus muttered, reaching up to his earpiece.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A voice said from behind them. "I'm afraid that I can't let you leave now that you've seen this."

We both turned around to see a man standing in the doorway we had entered through. He had black armour, and a mask that covered everything on his face but his eyes. The mask was red with black and yellow lines.

"Lightspeed." Crepitus muttered, his eyes narrowing.

"Crepitus! I would say it's good to see you, but we're probably gonna have to fight now, so..." The villain shrugged, twisting a throwing knife between his fingers.

"Just let us leave, Lightspeed. That way nobody gets hurt." Crepitus snapped, reaching for his trident.

"I mean, I won't get hurt, you're right there- but you have a few weak points in your armour." His gaze landed on me. "And your new friend has no armour at all."

"Don't even think about it." The hero retorted, stepping in front of me.

"Have it your way." Lightspeed said with a laugh. There was a flash of light and suddenly Lightspeed was right in front of us, a few centimetres away from Crepitus. It was as if he had teleported. Crepitus took a step back, jabbing his trident forward in an attempt to hit Lightspeed. The light flashed again, and the villain was out of range of the attack.

I rushed to hide behind the crates, watching the fight with wide eyes. Aargh, I need to do something!

My gaze landed on a discarded axe, probably a weapon of one of the villains. I reached out, grabbing it and rushing over to the fight.

Lightspeed rolled his eyes, and went to run out of the way. I felt the vibrations of his footsteps before he even moved, aiming my attack at where he would be instead of where he was.

The villain let out a shriek of pain and surprise as the axe sliced across his left arm, dropping to the ground and covering the wound with his right hand. I shivered as I felt the blood splatter onto my face, wiping it off. "Come on, we need to go!" I said to Crepitus quickly, rushing towards the doorway with the axe still in hand.

He nodded slowly, blinking and stumbling after me. He reached up to his earpiece. "Is anyone nearby the northern warehouse? We just got attacked by Lightspeed."

I heard Lucendi's shocked gasp. "What?! Are you both okay?"

Crepitus winced. "Yeah. Y/N found an axe and managed to land a blow on Lightspeed, and we managed to get out of there."

"Wow. I guess it was a good idea to bring them along." Lucendi muttered.

"Told you so. You guys found anything?" Crepitus queried.

"Yeah- it's quite weird actually. Just a chair chained to the floor, and then a few more chains wrapped around it. It looks like the aftermath of a kidnapping, or the preparation for one." Zaeim said, sounding confused.

I exchanged a glance with Crepitus, who spoke up. "I think I know who it's for. You know that viglante kid Deactivator? Well, there was a picture of him- there was a picture of all the heroes and vigilantes- and there were notes which Y/N decoded. Something about needing his DNA for a weapon."

"Oh, that is not-" Zaeim's voice was cut off by a yell, a thud, and then silence.

"That was not good." I said quietly, starting to run. Crepitus quickly followed.

——

I pushed open the door, rushing inside the last warehouse, and staring in shock.

Zaeim had collapsed next to the door, clutching his neck with one hand and making sounds that indicated that he was in pain.

Lucendi was frozen in place, and was being approached by Mercator, who was holding Zaeim's sword. The villain spun around, staring at me and Crepitus.

This was the first time I had seen the villain up close. He had messy black hair and a beanie. He was wearing dark gray armour, and he had a mask covering his mouth. Mercator wore an eyepatch over his left eye, and the eyepatch had a crudely drawn, pixelated smiley face on it.

"Oh, Crepitus! Nice of you to join us. I must say, I'm impressed you made it past Lightspeed." Mercator said with an off-handed shrug. His gaze lingered on me for a moment.

"Y/N, correct?" I nodded slowly, glancing at Lucendi, who looked as if he had been frozen in place mid attack. The villain glanced at my axe, and his eye widened as he spotted the blood.

"So that was how you got past Lightspeed... I must say, I'm impressed. You'd make a good hero. The League will need more heroes anyway- they'll be one or two short after tonight." He turned back to Lucendi, twirling the trident around in one hand.

Crepitus straightened, staring at Mercator. There was a loud bang and then smoke. When it cleared, Mercator was lying on the ground, gasping for breath. His face and neck were smudged with soot, and his sleeve was partially burnt off. The trident had been dropped in the explosion, and it was now by Lucendi's feet.

Crepitus calmly walked over to Mercator, looking at the man. "Reverse the freezing toxin's effects." He pointed his trident at Mercator. "Now." Mercator nodded, fear glittering in his eyes.

For a moment, I almost felt sorry for him. Then I glanced at Zaeim, who was still clutching his neck and choking slightly.

I didn't feel sorry for him anymore.

Mercator gestured towards Lucendi in a silent motion, and suddenly the hero was able to move again. "You idiot! What the-" Lucendi stopped as Crepitus shot him a meaningful glance.

"Now reverse whatever you did to Zaeim." He instructed coldly.

Mercator grabbed a glass vial off the floor. It was filled with a smoking red liquid- the same liquid, I realised too late, that Blood God had used to make his escape.

"DON'T LET HIM BREAK THE-" It was too late, as the villain threw the vials down. There was a loud crash and smoke filled the air.

Crepitus let out a loud cough, and I heard Lucendi's loud gasp.

The smoke cleared and Mercator had escaped. That sneaky little-

I glanced around as Lucendi rushed past me to Zaeim, helping his friend to his feet. The No. 1 hero moved his hand away from his neck, and I saw why he had been in so much pain.

A dark green liquid was splattered against Zaeim's neck, and black veins had spread from it, almost reaching his eyes. "We need to get him some help now." Lucendi muttered, his gaze dark. I turned away as Lucendi started to request assistance over his earpiece and spotted Crepitus keeled over on the ground, trembling slightly.

"Crepitus? Are you ok?" It was then I noticed something I hadn't spotted before. A silver and red knife had been plunged into the hero's back, just below the base of his neck. It had torn the fabric, and blood had started to stain his outfit. I clearly hadn't noticed Lightspeed managing to actually hurt him in the chaos of the fight. "CREPITUS!"

There was a thud as the hero leant forwards and collapsed on the ground.