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The past few days were a blur. The morning after I had agreed to writing about Venom Force with Serpent, a gift basket filled to the brim with stationary and my custom laptop made by Razer, was sitting at my door tied with a little bow. Since then, I had been working really hard... on not a single thing.

I smacked my forehead on the desk again, groaning when nothing came except a headache. I had been given so many notebooks, I managed to label each one after a member of Venom Force. Razer and Onyx's had nil, Lightning only had 'fast?' on the first page, and Sith had 'dick' written on his pages about a thousand times over.

The weirdest of all was Serpent's, all I could come up with were portraits of his face. They weren't any good--as I was not much of a doodler--but it was all I could think of, and I ended up busting my pen's ink all over the desk in frustration.

His face seemed too... familiar, yet I didn't know him at all. Not a single bit of information with the portraits, either. Of course I knew what he was like, but I don't know anything about him, even after a whole year!

Not only that, I hadn't spoke to anybody in about a day and a half. I was probably going crazy, if I already wasn't by now. This whole scheme determined my freedom! Yet here I am, slamming my head on a desk in a room that I can barely stand, in a building full of villains.

I could've done this in my sleep if this was about the League! I almost missed them. Well, mostly the women. Janna couldn't do much with me after saving my ass a million times, but I can't blame her when her role as Sonicka-and Christopher's second hand-took up more time than anything else.

I definitely missed Calista's baking the most, though. Olympia, the "Mega Greek Goddess Badass" (as Jas would call her, I think she's got a crush), is just about the greatest baker in Troypierce. She and Erwin would make a great team, if not a baking/cooking kickass couple. Oh, the meals they could make.

A knock rapped at my door, startling me out of my daydreaming of Calista's halva. I dragged myself to the door, looking through the peephole. Serpent waved from the wall, a small smile playing on his lips.

"What do you want?" I grumbled.

His smile turned into a playful pout as he crossed his arms over his deep green crewneck, which he had paired with light-washed jeans. "Came to check on you, how're you doing?"

I cocked an eyebrow, "Fine. What are you actually here for?"

"Am I not allowed to know how you're feeling? I was here to also see how the article was doing."

I scoffed. Of course that's why he's here, who would've known? "As great as it was a couple days ago--which is shit."

Serpent chuckled, tousling his brown hair. "Any reasoning to that?"

"Stop asking so many questions."

The villain raised his hands in defeat, "I'm here to help you, and I can't do that if you're the one unable to write about a few supers."

"Villains, you're villains." I corrected, deadpanned. He was annoying me more and more lately, and it was definitely because I've been seeing him every day as opposed to once a week; when he was at least somewhat tolerable.

He sighed in response, no longer playful. Good, he needed to be serious.

I shifted away from the door and back into my desk. I was only able to write on the laptop. No way to contact anybody, as per usual. I didn't assume that Razer was dumb enough to let me have any kind of media besides what I used for writing, I was at least hoping he would... overlook that part. But, I had a built-in dictionary and thesaurus! Pros and cons, people!

"Do you want to-"

"And you're still here why?" I snapped.

A muffled deep breath of frustration sounded at the other side of the door. Ha, I was finally getting to him! "As I was saying, do you want to join Onyx on her daily creative sessions sometime?"

I snorted. "Onyx? She likes art?"

"You would be joining her in her art room every day." He replied, making me pause.

"I thought you'd be into it, you know, help get your own creativity flowing to write. You don't seem interested, though, so--"

I basically teleported to the door, "You mean... I get to leave this hellhole room every single day?"

That damn smirk came back. "For two hours after lunch."

This seemed too effortless, there's no way I couldn't escape if they're letting me out of my room! Sanity, here I come! "When do I start?"

"Look who's asking all the questions now." He chuckled as I gave him a blank stare.

He coughed, composing himself. "You will join her starting tomorrow. Now, I have a few mission plans to follow up on, but I'll bring by your lunch and dinner when those times come. I'll see you in a bit, Lilibeth." Serpent finished, walking off.

I took a deep breath, excitement tingling in my stomach. My mind had been a jumbled mess for too long, and I either had to escape when the time was right, or suck it up and write the article like I agreed.

My body plopped itself onto the plush pastel pink king sized bed, the only good thing about this room. Sunlight peered through the sheer curtains, giving the room a warm golden glow as birds chirped gleefully from the outside world.

My eyelids slowly closed to the peaceful noises, taking in the small bit of paradise that this room exerted. Serpent had said my name, and this time... I didn't bother to correct him.

~

24 hours sped by, as I was now cuffed and being led to Onyx's lab.

"I hope you like it, this was the only thing I could think of to get you out of that room. I did think about taking you outside, but I didn't want you feeling like a dog and--" Serpent trailed off, shaking his head.

'It's too much of a risk.'

I knew how he would finish his sentence, and he was considerate enough to know that I for sure would've felt like a dog being brought out for walks.

But all of my plans of leaving escaped without me as Serpent opened the door to Onyx's art room. Brushes, paints, clays, canvases, anything you could think of was cluttered around the stone lair. There were only a few vents that I could've escaped from--if they weren't 15 feet above the floor!

"Welcome! Like what you see?" Onyx looked up from her project on the pottery wheel in front of her, light gray eyes beaming from her shadowy mask. A small smile crept on her face as she slowed her wheel to a complete stop.

To think such a feared villain actually had hobbies like the rest of us normal people seemed weird. Really weird.

She rose from her seat and wiped her clay-covered hands on her dirty apron, holding her semi-clean hand towards me.

I shook it. "So..." I dragged, still puzzling together the tidy-yet-messy place. "this is the room?" Stupid fucking question to ask, Lili.

"Yep! You can do basically anything you want in here, except escape." She giggled at her own joke, her long black wavy hair bouncing with her movements.

She breathed out her last chuckle, "Seriously, though, I mean it. One time I brought Razer in here and--"

Her gaze snapped to something behind me as she shot a blast of black towards the corner of the room, sending a shockwave of fear through me for a split second, bracing for some kind of impact--

A yelp sounded that wasn't mine. "Don't touch those, they're for my paper mache!" I slowly opened my tightly shut eyes as she tsked. Her deep frown pointed towards Serpent, who had silently moved from my side and was poking at the chicken wire sculptures in the corner behind us.

She crossed her arms, stomping one of her feet like a toddler in a tantrum. Her reflexes were something else.

All of her projects were amazing--art gallery level kind of amazing, actually. That made it all the more strange that she could possibly be a famous Troypierce artist. Maybe one of her pieces were in our museum. That'd be ironic, and a good article title if I ever found out her identity.

'Onyx; Feared Villain, Famous Artist in the Gallery?!'

Serpent scooted back to my side, rubbing the new welt on his arm. "You can't do that to your leader, you know."

Onyx waved him off, "You're my leader when we're on the field, but in here? Might as well be as intimidating as my 'mano, who isn't very intimidating."

Okay, small chance that I was starting to like her.

Serpent reached into his pocket, a small cough escaping his lips as he swiftly grabbed the silver key and unlocked my cold cuffs. The urge to punch him was strong, but being in a room with two villains--one who wasn't scared of blasting me on the spot--was a bad idea to say the least.

His glowing emerald eyes shone as he glanced at me. "Have fun, and no getting into any trouble." He raised his brows, pointing at the both of us before giving a half wave and leaving the room with a smirk.

"That man gets on my nerves." Onyx pushed out througu a held breath.

"You don't say."

~

Onyx and I ended up talking, a lot. She's very much into the arts, has been since she was a kid. No boyfriend (duh), but she doesn't mind a good chick flick.

Even though her art is what's getting her through being a villain, I don't think she knows she can make a career out of it, even if she's a hopeless romantic waiting for her own superhero to lift her up in his arms.

Another con: you can't balance shit if you try to choose both, but a woman can dream. Cheers to the ones who can.

At least I was finally able to add some notes to her designated notebook, including some scrappy doodles of her art. They possibly had some kind of meaning or hint to who she was, I couldn't risk not doing so. Studying as much as I could was all I did that session, anyway.

I stupidly pressed Serpent's button again. I needed company, and somewhat desperately. Sure, I just spent a couple of hours with Onyx, but I was feeling... lonely. Curing my lonesome by hanging out with villains, though? All time low, Lili.

"You called?" Serpent's muffled voice called through the door.

I approached the glass compartment, placing my empty lunch plate in the box.

He coughed, glimpsing at the plate. "If that's why you called me here, you know we hav--"

"Your voice is pretty hoarse, and you've been coughing quite a bit today, are you sick?" I interrupted, a small smile creeping onto my lips. If Serpent was sick, could there be a chance I could escape without needing to write the article? Sick people are weaker and slower, after all.

He sniffled from the other side. "Yes, but that's not what matters. Why did you call me here if it wasn't for the plate?"

I pondered my thoughts, "Nevermind," I chuckled forcefully. "I should probably get to writing the article if I want my freedom." I chirped, marching towards my desk.

"You know I would let you leave if I could. In fact, I'd let you leave right now."

Serpent's words halted me in my tracks.

I shook my head, turning towards the door, face softening. "Then why don't you?" I questioned. My head tilted, voice softening.

I couldn't see the supervillain behind the door, but his silence had me thinking I was feeling the same emotions as him. But was it the same kind of sadness, anger, disappointment?

A long minute passed, my breath held. "I'm sorry," He pushed out, the sound of his footsteps receding followed.

I paced back to the desk, opening the laptop Razer made for me. I already had my writing app opened, but the blank page stared back at me, waiting for my beautiful words to spill with its virtual ink.

Placing my head in my hands, I exhaled deeply as tears dared to slip. God, this was nothing, this article was nothing!

Grabbing the remote Serpent gave me, I pressed the button again. Knocks followed a couple of minutes later.

"I'm in high demand with you today, huh? It hasn't even been five minutes." Serpent said, light chuckles croaking under his shallow breath.

I mustered the strength to get up to the door, looking through the peephole once more. He was in his usual spot against the wall, this time dressed in a loose black tee and another pair of jeans. I let out a sigh, "Can you come in?"

His eyebrows shot up, his mouth twisting to a concerned frown. "Why, are you okay?"

"Well, I can't write an article about your villain group if I don't know anything about them."

Serpent stroked his chin, brows now pinched together. "You have a point, but I am unsure as to how we are going to execute that without anything going south."

I scoffed, "You can start by telling me everything, maybe."

He ran a hand through his hair. "We could do that, but that's not as effective as showing you what we are. I can assure you, it's far from what you think."

"You mean you guys don't destroy buildings for fun?" I joked,

He rolled his eyes. "We don't like doing that, but it's our only option."

"Seems like you guys have a lot of 'only option' situations," I mumbled under my breath. It didn't make sense, as if there weren't other options to get the League's attention! This conversation wasn't going to go anywhere if Serpent was going to be a stubborn ass and ask me to write an article about a supervillain group I knew next to nothing about.

"How about..." Serpent started, biting his lip. "you come with me to dinner?"

My mouth dropped, face scrunching in disgust. "You mean, a date with you?! I'd rather go on a date with Sith!"

The corners of his mouth turned downward, eyes wide. "Wow, no, not what I meant."

He held his hands up, "First of all, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that because I'm quite frankly offended. Second, I meant come to dinner with me as in be my guest to Venom Force's dinner tonight. Lastly, we both know you're lying about wanting to go on a date with Sith over my hot piece of ass."

I sneered. "If 'hot piece of ass' translates to a dumpster fire, then sure."

Serpent smirked in return. "So you'll join me?"

~

What. The. Hell.

The dress Serpent had picked out was... frilly, to put it mildly. He told me to get dolled up, as the dinner tonight was going to be formal to celebrate my 'meeting' with the other members. As much as I was reluctant to even touch this pastel pink dress, I didn't have any clean laundry. I almost look like a horizontal ruffled bow tie!

Was it bad? No. Could that sadist have picked something better? Yes, yes he could've. It at least complimented my skin tone instead of washing me out, which I am grateful for. The tulle glittery tie-around belt was a nice touch, too.

How a villain was able to afford something like this, I have no clue. My gaze wandered to my reflection in the mirror; blonde hair tied in a bun, embellished with beads. Makeup radiant yet neutral, eyelids smudged with brown shimmer. I was pretty.

My brown eyes--my mother's brown eyes--stared back at me. A wave crashed over me as I caved, tears slipping, stinging my eyes.

I missed my mom, my family, my friends, and these supers had to go and screw it all up! I've been gone, what, a week by now? I can't even tell what day it is anymore! Suddenly, being a damsel was too much. Not even a damsel anymore, a goddamn prisoner. Where was the League? They had to have known I've been gone far too long by now.

"Lilibeth?" Serpent called for me, knocking. I swiped the leftover tears from my flushed face, sniffling as I quickly finished up my mascara. Not too much damage was done, thankfully.

As I approached the door, Serpent unlocked the knob, greeting me from the other side with a warm smile. His hair stayed shaggy, but the suit he wore was not of the same wavelength.

With his deep emerald green trousers and his matching blazer, he wouldn't have looked like a villain if he didn't have his mask on. The one thing that tied it all together was the slightly hidden glimmer of a green snakeskin design on his blazer. Alright, maybe a supervillain can have taste.

His masked eyes glowed as he slowly traced his eyes up and down, and now was a great time to play with a nonexistent hangnail.

"Dress fits you well. Come on, let's go. Everybody's waiting." He finally said, offering his arm to me.

Scoffing at his attempt of chivalry, I shuffled past him, ready to just get this done and over with so I can go home.

Cement corridors lead to more corridors as Serpent stopped us in front of a pair of sleek metal doors with no handles. He placed his hand on the ID scanner, the doors whooshing in unison as 4 other pairs of glowing eyes whipped towards us. Dr. Rivers sat at the head of the long ornate glass table, face unreadable.

"Miss James, you look beautiful. Please, have a seat." She gestured to the other end of the table, the chair at the end opposite of Dr. Rivers was empty, as well as the one to its right.

Serpent dragged back the black velvety chair to the right, nodding for me to sit down. I obliged, as much as I wanted to spit in his face for trying to be such a gentleman like I wasn't in a room full of supervillains... but that was also the reason I didn't lash out.

It seemed everybody was dressed elaborately tonight, even Dr. Rivers, though she was still wearing her lab coat over her jumpsuit.

"So, Lilibeth, what is it you'd like to learn about us?" Onyx smiled from next to me. Cutting to the chase. Obviously, she wanted out of this as much as I did.

I gulped, "Uhm, I didn't have much time to prepare questions, I'm sorry." I sighed, twiddling with my thumbs. God, if I wanted to have a job like Jessica Parker--let alone a job in the field I wanted to be in--I should've been prepared!

Sith snickered from the seat to the left of Dr. Rivers, receiving an immediate glare from Serpent. How Serpent managed to pick such an asshole for his team must've been a great story.

My frantic gaze landed onto Lightning, desperate for some kind of information. "How were you convinced to join Venom Force?" Was all I could blurt out.

Lightning's illuminated, masked blue eyes snapped to me, taking quick breath as he shifted in his chair. "Serpent came to me when I was in a time of need." He started, a small look towards his leader sitting next to me, getting a nod of approval to continue.

"I am personally well off, but my connections let me know how corrupt our city truly is." He continued.

"Corrupt? In what way?" I inquired.

A snort sounded from the chair next to him, "Your father is the whole reason we're all here in the first place." Sith sneered, arms crossed in his deep black button-up.

Lightning clicked his tongue, "I am well aware of what my father is guilty of, but I would also appreciate not being reminded of his constant mistakes, even the ones he made before I was born."

"Your father? Is he somebody of importantce?" I interrupted, my brows pinched together.

The man was about to open his mouth, "Yeah, if not the most important man in all of Troypierce." Sith scoffed from next to him.

"Oh my God will you please shut the fuck up." Razer squeaked from the other side of Dr. Rivers, dragging his hands down his face.

"Agreed. For somebody who is in his thirties, you wouldn't expect he was such a blabbermouth!" Lightning scolded, voice getting louder by the second.

Dr. Rivers raised her hand, halting the chaos ensuing. "You both need to stop volunteering information that I'm certain you do not want to be shared. Shall we continue with more tame questions, Miss James?" She nodded my way, a brow raised.

Guilt bubbled in my stomach, "Sure... Onyx?"

Onyx glanced up from her lap, "What got you into art?" I asked again.

She let out a breath. "My abuelo loved the arts, and I mean all of it. We attended every gallery that came to the city, every orchestral concert, everything." The last time, when I asked her that during our first session, she had just said it was a small hobby that she gained in her high-school years. A villainess showing her true colours, I guess, now that she was able to. A half-truth, that's what she had told me earlier.

That was that, as I stole a glance towards Serpent. "How did you pick your members? I don't need their stories, but I need enough for a good start to my article."

Serpent ran a hand through his hair, "My own connections made me see the horrors of Troypierce, like Lightning, but I've seen ones that I wish I didn't know. Because I do know, though, I am here, leader of the insidious Venom Force." He finished, clearly a calculated answer.

"But, Lightning's connections were through his father, who is supposedly a very important person, so did you--"

The pieces clicked together. The umber-skinned man sitting across from me with a father who was the most important man in the city... there was no way, right?

"Is your father Mayor Troypierce?" My breath hitched, "Are you Jackson Troypierce?!" I exclaimed as the man's lips pressed together, breaths slow and deep in ire. The reaction was all I needed to know that my suspicions were correct.

Sith rose from his seat, swiftly enough to make the chair clatter to the floor. "About fucking time!" His grey eyes whipped to Serpent, "Your girlfriend is a goddamn idiot, a kindergartener could've figured that out before she did!" He raged, pointing a finger right at me. Oh, how I wish I had given a much more crude finger to him right back. And girlfriend? Actually, I wished I had a knife.

Lightning--Jackson Troypierce stomped to the door. "That's it, Chase! If you want to start revealing identities to somebody who can now very easily ruin my life, there's no fiber in my being telling me not to go and start revealing yours!"

And suddenly picking at imaginary dirt in my nails was better than watching their yelling match. I remembered writing some fluff pieces about Jackson, which was weird, logging about somebody who is the same age as you. Jas always said that if she were into men, he would probably be the only one she would actually want to get in bed with.

The media had drawn him as an advocate for whatever his father chose, even Mayor Troypierce's announcement of retirement within the next 10 years and having Jackson run instead.

Barely anybody else ran for Mayor, anyway, because who would want to run after somebody whose name is literally the city? Their power was too difficult to match.

Revealing Jackson's identity as Lightning could be groundbreaking for me, and if people found out this is the same guy who will be our Mayor in years to come? The city could be much, much more different.

It was Serpent's turn to jump from his seat, hands splayed on the table. "If both of you don't stop talking right now, you are free to get no meal tonight, or any meals tomorrow." He said sternly, deeply frowning with his brows nearly touching in ire.

Sith's eyes glowered right at his leader, backing down as he stormed out of the room. Lightning followed, the automatic doors seeming to slam with his own anger. Cursed shouts could be heard down the hallway, and all of us winced at each new cruel name they called each other.

"Send their dinners to their rooms, please." Dr. Rivers sighed quietly, massaging her temples, receiving a small nod from Serpent in return.

Razer slumped, his head hitting the table. "Well, that was about as bad as it could've gone." He grumbled.

"I'm sorry, I should've asked better questions, I wasn't prepared--"

The sound of a doorbell interrupted me, signaling Serpent to leave the dining table and slip out the door to retrieve the food.

"You're fine, Miss James. Young Mr. Troypierce isn't going to have anything against you, you barely did anything at all for that to happen. It was just... poor decisions on our end." Dr. Rivers said, gaze lowered to the table. It was clear that my new realization was a big hit on them. I could ruin one of their member's life.

Would I? I don't know. It seemed too good to be true, too tempting to be true.

One thing I knew, is that I was now a threat.

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