Page 189 of Villainous Rise

The ambient noise of the club district finally muffled into a dull thrum and I leaned against a graffitied wall, dragging in a ragged breath. I was safe. The Maze had swallowed me whole.

Then the air pressure shifted.

A pair of boots hit the pavement and the fog parted, illuminated from within by a sickeningly familiar golden glow.

I froze.

“What do we have here?” The smooth, camera-ready voice washed over me, dripping with condescension. “A little bird fleeing the scene?”

Valor stood blocking the exit of the alley, his hands resting on his hips. His emerald eyes scanned me, the golden outer ring flashing.

I squeezed my jaw shut. The chromatic filter in my mask had shifted my eyes from blue to brown, and the black material obscured enough of my face so that I wasn’t recognizable, but my voice was a dead giveaway. I just had to stand here and let him assume I was exactly what I looked like: a nameless Villain’s toy caught in the wrong part of town.

Valor tutted, stepping closer. “No answer? That’s not very polite.”

He looked me up and down, his gaze lingering on the hem of my dress before snapping up to my face.

“A woman alone at night in the Maze, running from justice,” Valor mused, his golden aura flaring slightly as he tilted his head. He reached out, his finger stopping an inch from the edge of my mask. “Wearing... what is that? A knockoff Villain mask?”

I shook my head, shrinking back against the wall behind me. I needed to look frightened. It wasn’t exactly a stretch. I knew Valor could hear my heart thudding wildly, the adrenaline from Cipher’s escape bleeding straight into this new nightmare.

“You know, it’s dangerous to play dress-up in this part of town,” Valor said. “Especially when you’re pretending to be someone important.”

He reached out and caught my chin, forcing my face upward. I flinched, jerking away from the contact.

I pitched my voice higher, forcing a breathy, pathetic stammer I prayed masked my actual voice. “I’m—I’m no one.”

His eyes narrowed as he studied the mask covering the upper half of my face. I watched the exact second the recognition clicked in his features.

“No one? Maybe so. But that mask.” His voice hardened, shedding the PR-approved warmth he used for the cameras. “I recognize that design. Cipher’s, isn’t it?”

“I’m not—“ I started, wishing I could back up another step.

He lunged. “Let’s see who’s hiding under there, shall we?”

His fingers clamped over the edge of the mask and the defense mechanism triggered. A crack of electricity arced from the mask into his hand, the air filling with the sharp stench of singed flesh.

Valor let out a choked shout. The current threw him off balance, his arm snapping back.

I bolted, sprinting down the alley. The crowded main thoroughfare of the Maze was just ahead. If I could just reach the crowd, I could get lost. Maybe take off my mask and he wouldn’t even know he was looking for me.

I didn’t make it.

A flash of gold streaked overhead. Valor dropped directly in front of me and slammed me against the alley wall.

“That wasn’t very nice,” he growled. The heroic charm was eradicated, leaving behind something ugly and raw.

“Let’s try this again,” he hissed. He brought his forearm up, pressing it against my windpipe. He leaned his weight into it, pinning me to the wall and making it hard to breathe. I clawed at his arm, my heels kicking uselessly against the brick as I dragged in a thin, wheezing breath.

“Who are you to Cipher?”

Valor’s eyes were dead and cold as his power washed over me, trying to force the answer.

This was wrong. Heroes did not treat civilians like this. The Alliance Handbook had entire chapters dedicated to the strict guidelines regarding the use of force against non-powered individuals.

The pressure of his forearm dialed up, and black spots danced in my peripheral vision. He was going to crush my throat.

If I stayed a nameless Villain’s toy, I was going to die in this alley. My anonymity was supposed to be a shield, but right now, my actual identity was the only leverage I had left to stop him from snapping my neck.