I counted twenty. I exhaled as I found the resting holders for the 200 pounds I just benched. My boyfriend, known as “Regal” to the public, sipped on his protein shake as he watched me sit up from the workout. He was eyeing everyone and everything in the gym: the boxing ring in the center, the lifting equipment along the wall that we were up against, the treadmills around the corner that trailed off behind the ring. He had been on edge ever since the last war we all were a part of: The Limbo War.

The Limbo War was a war that took place in Limbo between Heaven and Hell, but heroes from Earth had to get involved-- either on Earth or in Limbo itself. He was one of the ones that had to be in Limbo. If only I knew what he saw there, how many of his friends perished. As I looked him in his eyes, he pointed towards the door.

“You see that?” he asked me. I turned towards the door and saw a few people leaving at the same time. 

“See what? People finished with their workouts?” I asked, wondering what exactly it was that he saw. 

“No, not exactly,” he said, before swallowing the last drop of protein shake in his mouth. “That’s the third large group of people to leave here together even though they don’t know each other. Well, at least, I’m assuming they don’t.”

I couldn’t figure out whether he was being paranoid or if he was onto something. I found out quickly what the answer was. As that group of bodybuilders left, a group of people that looked like they weren’t here to work out walked through the door. How did I know? They dressed in suits. 

They walked to a corner where they could still peer out at me from behind the boxing ring. In a matter of seconds, more bodybuilders left and more men in suits entered. I eyed Regal, and all he did was raise his eyebrows at me.

I was contemplating approaching them, but they walked on their own over to us. A big one stood in the center of the huddle before me.

“Are you Raven Knight?” he asked. Regal began to reach the bottom of the cup, because I heard slurping directly behind me.

“Who’s asking?” I questioned.

“We need you to come with us.”

“I don’t know anyone that has followed that order when told if their question of ‘who’s asking’ wasn’t answered,” I snapped. “Now I’ll only ask once more: who’s asking?”

The big one physically snapped at the guards surrounding him and pointed at me. I sprung into action by first flipping over the bench I was sitting on and grabbing the two lightest weights on the ends of the bar. One guard got entirely too close unfortunately-- for him-- and caught the rounded edge of the weight I held in my right hand to his nose. As he fell, I heard Regal make a comment.

“Ooooh, I heard a crack,” he said, finishing his protein shake and setting it down. He cracked his knuckles and neck. “Want me to hop in?”

“I got this,” I assured him as I hit another guard with the weight in my left hand. Regal

folded his arms and leaned up against the wall.

I tried to swing the right weight at the next guard approaching me, but another guard caught it, saving his friend’s nose. A third one grabbed a hold of the left weight and I was forced to let go. But, not before I used them as leverage to place the soles of my sneakers against the wall and flip clear of all of them. They all turned to face me, then, for some odd reason looked back at Regal, before focusing entirely on me. 

I dashed around the corner of the boxing ring and grabbed a dumbbell on my way. The first guard to stupidly turn the corner blindly, caught an end of a dumbbell to the face. As he lie, knocked out cold, I sprinted towards the treadmills with around five left following me, including the big one in charge. As one of them got closer to me, I grabbed the corner post of the boxing ring and used it to swing around and kick this one in the back of the head, before blocking the next two’s attacks and countering with two light throat jabs. As they choked, I kicked them back at the third one behind them, knocking them all down, leaving the big one left. He slowly stomped to me, cracking his knuckles and smirking. 

I tried to go for the quite obvious move of kicking him the nuts, but he might’ve dealt with that tons of times before me, as he caught my ankle near the end of my swing. I jumped into his grasp, letting my foot be the pivot and clapped his ears. He let go of my foot, crying out in pain from the temporary deafness. I slipped past him and as he charged up behind me, I turned and swung the dumbbell I just picked up with all my might, hitting him in his jaw and knocking him down. 

I dragged his dazed self over to the treadmills, turned one on at full speed and brought his face close to it.

“Who sent you?” I demanded to know. He grunted and said nothing. He seemed determined to keep his mouth shut. “WHO. SENT. YOU.”

“I ain’t talkin’” he said. He almost sounded prideful. He was willing to have a skinned face to protect his employer’s identity. In an odd way, I kind of respected it. I pressed the emergency stop button on the treadmill and as it slowed to a stop, I slammed his face into the edge, knocking him out. Regal sauntered over from around the corner.

“So did you--”

“I didn’t,” I said, disappointed. “We’re gonna have to get our information from elsewhere.”

I walked up to him and kissed him before speaking again.

“I’ll meet up with you later. I’m gonna head back to the hideout to find out if any of the team knows where these people came from,” I told him. He smiled.

“Need a ride?”

 

We teleported before our underground hideout. On the surface, given it’s main entrance was on the side of a building, it could be mistaken for plenty of other criminal hideouts across the city. Arid told us that that was the idea. 

I waved to Regal and entered. There were stairs that lead to this basement some of us called “home”. There was a concrete floor, a single bathroom that happened to be one of the only three rooms, couches, a tv, air hockey, and a kitchenette area. The main room, the common, the living room was where everyone that stayed here slept, meaning all four of them slept here. I had an apartment of my own that I would always go back to by the end of the night. The bathroom was another room. 

The third room was a large briefing room for missions and trails leading to crime lords we would eventually take down. It had an exit of its own that led to a side street in Haven. The four of them kept it pretty clean considering they were four guys. I guess it helped that Dex and Arid were neat freaks.

They waved at me as I walked down the stairs. Arid paused the game he was playing with Sidewind, Dex got off his phone, and Desolate stopped meditating. Arid pointed at the briefing room where we all gathered and he stood at the “front” with his back to the clue wall. On the back wall, there were loads of equipment and weapons, many of which were locked in lockers. On the wall in between the front and back wall, there were even more weapons and chests, most of which Dex made use of. 

“Alright, I’ve gathered this meeting here to…” he stopped. “Actually, is there a reason for us to be in here?”

He was looking at me in particular. 

“Yeah,” I said walking up to the front next to him. As I stepped up, he retreated into the huddle where I just stood. “I was attacked at the gym today. Big guys in business suits. They didn’t look much different from the guards we deal with all the time.”

“Was there a discernible leader among them, Rave?” Arid asked.

“A large one. Large hands, feet… he was just… big. Sunglasses. Square jaw--”
“I’ve seen someone matching that description of a few people,” Dex mentions. “Any scars?”

“One across his lip.”

“Rapture,” Dex answered. The rest of us weren’t surprised he knew who the guy worked for. Dex was a genius, probably the best of us, especially considering he was a pacifist. “I only know his name though. We were doing recon and I overheard the name on another radio frequency. I tracked who sent the message and saw a guy that matched that description.”

“Fuckin’ A, Dex,” Arid said. “What the hell would we do without you?”

“Perish,” Desolate felt the need to add. There was a brief, awkward pause. Dex smiled. 

“I’ll take it as a compliment,” he said, before turning to me shifting his tone back to serious. “Was there anything odd that happened during your battle with them?”

“Um… At the beginning when I flipped over ‘em, they paused and looked back at Regal before continuing to chase after me,” I said. “And now that I say it out loud, this might have something to do with him…. Hang on.”

I pulled out my phone, shot a text, and waited. The four of them stood staring blankly at me confused as to what I just did. But, in a matter of a few seconds, Regal popped in the room.

“What’s up, guys?” he said. They all nodded at him. “What can I help with?”

“Do you know anyone by the name of ‘Rapture’?” I asked him. He held his chin.

“Mmmm… nothing comes to mind. Why?” he questioned.

“We think he might be after her. And after you,” Arid answered. Regal shrugged and nodded.

“I’m pretty sure alotta people are,” he said. I turned to Dex.

“You think you can find his hideout?” I asked him. He shook his head.

“I’m gonna need a lot more information than just a name,” he told us. But, I think we’re in luck.”

“Why?” Regal asked.

“Because there’s one person in the city that knows everyone,” Arid said. 

 

We drove past Haven City Park on our way to our destination. Regal and I sat close to the barrier and window near the front of the van to talk to Dex.

“It’s a shame the other three couldn’t come,” Regal said, attempting to begin a conversation after a very long silence.

“Yeah, but we need groceries,” Dex said. “We’re out of sunflower seeds.”

Another pause.

“Why didn’t you want your boyfriend to teleport us there, Raven?” Dex asked me. I sighed. 

“Because if we just appear in front, it’ll look suspicious, especially if we have no vehicle. That’ll lead into Erza looking into who Regal is further,” I explained. I turned to my boyfriend. “They haven’t seen your face, right?” 

“I’ve never even heard of this place,” he reassured. 

“We’re here,” Dex announced. The van slowed to a stop, Dex put it in park and we all hopped out. I took the lead as we entered Erza’s bar. The female patrons all gave me looks, a few raised their glasses and smiled. Erza was lounging in a booth towards the back and she saw us enter. She stood and walked to her back office door, signaling for me to join her.

“Okay, you two feel free to mingle. Just don’t get in any trouble, please,” I said to them before walking across the bar. As I reached the office door, I looked back to see Dex become surrounded by a few patrons. My heart sank at first, but it was put at ease once I realized he was smiling. Regal just sauntered up to the bar and ordered a drink. 

A guard of Erza stationed behind the door, shut it as I walked through. Erza was already planted at her large, mahogany desk and gestured to a comfy looking seat across the desk. 

“What can I help you with this time, gorgeous?” Erza asked me. I tried my best not to blush and kept telling myself she flirted with pretty anyone special that came to her bar. Mainly anyone that was or connected to Nobles aka superheroes. 

“We need to find a crime lord by the name of ‘Rapture’,” I informed her. She leaned back in her chair.

“Why come to me this time? You must be quite puzzled if you are unable to find out who he is on your own,” she pointed out. 

“The fact that his men found me and my boyfriend in the gym means they probably know my schedule,” I said.

“That or one of them saw you enter the gym,” Erza tried.

“Then why were they so ready to fight me?” I asked. This left her stumped.

“Fair enough,” she continued. “However, dear, if you want information on this Rapture from me, we’re going to need to make a deal.”

Her eyes morphed. Her white sclera turning black, her already deep red irises being highlighted by the darkness surrounding them. Arid had warned about this before. He wasn’t sure what he saw when she mentioned a deal to her, but he knew she had something sinister in mind. The tone in the room shifted from flirtatious to overwhelmingly malicious. I tried my best to keep cool in the intense pressure.

“No, I won’t be making a deal with you. We’ll have to find the information another way, I guess,” I said, bluffing. To really sell it, I shook my head and closed my eyes. When I did this though, I felt her presence directly in front of my face. I was too frightened to open my eyes to see what she was in that instance, but Regal came to the rescue once again, though he wouldn’t realize it.

“Ms. Bathory!” a guard shouted, bursting into the office, saving me. “The frizzy-haired one has one of us pinned.”

I’m guessing Erza stopped what she was about to do to me at that moment because when I opened my eyes, she was reclining in her seat again. She stood and motioned for me to follow her out. 

As I stepped out into the bar area, I saw Regal holding one hand to hold a guards head against a table and the other to hold her arms behind her back. The rest of the females in the bar had weapons of various shapes, sizes, and range drawn. Erza approached Regal but stopped at a “safe” distance. 

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked him. I eyed Dex at the end of my question. He was nonchalantly chilling at the bar still. Regal looked me with a frown on his face, teeth grit.

“She… touched me. Inappropriately,” Regal defended. The rest of the patrons of the bar struggled not to laugh at him. I just sighed and looked over to Erza, who wasn’t laughing or even trying not to laugh. She was annoyed. She waved her hand and the women put their weapons away. Regal, in turn, released his hold of the harasser and waited by the exit. Erza turned to me and handed me a card. 

“This is all the information I have on Rapture,” she told me. I took the card and read it, then gave her a puzzled look.

“This is an address with a room number on it,” I said. Erza nodded and began to walk back to her office, a few guards following her.

“Use what I gave you, love. Sorry for the trouble,” she said. I looked to Dex and signaled to the door. He stood up, tipped the bartender, and followed.

Dex began driving us to the destination. In the silence of the van, Regal spoke up about what happened in the bar.

“I’m not a sexual object,” he said. He was clearly upset. “Nor am I a trophy to be displayed for everyone to see.”

I said nothing. He was referring to something he had not yet told me about. By the way he was dancing around what exactly he was talking, I got the feeling he had not told anyone. I was going to tell him that he obviously wasn’t just talking about the bar, but I decided against it. 

“It just kinda feels like people are using me for what they feel I should be used for,” he said, venting. “The same goes for the Limbo War. That wasn’t our fight. It wasn’t any Noble’s fight. Yet, we suffered the heaviest losses from it.”

I continued to listen. This still wasn’t what he was referring to about being a trophy. I grabbed his hand and stared in his eyes. There was visible hurt, but more he was hiding.

“I mean, I’m still grateful to be a Noble. A guy like me that’s done the stuff I’ve done as far as who I was before joining the Archs, doesn’t deserve it. Yet, here I am. And here I am with you,” he said. It wasn’t difficult for him to showcase his feelings for me, but the fact that he wasn’t comfortable enough to share what was really bothering is what bothered me. However, I was content with letting it go for now.

For the rest of the ride, we sat in silence until Dex pulled up to the next location. Regal and I climbed out the back to see Haven City Hospital. This was the same place that granted the superhero-making serum to the public. The same place that many Nobles received their abilities. Oddly enough, the people I deal with on a daily basis have not received their abilities from here. Maybe Desolate has, but Sidewind is an android, Dex and I have no superpowers, Arid received his from the Omega Squadron initiative, and Regal received his from his Dragon Tooth Knives. 

“Why did she lead us here?” Regal asked.

“Good question. I might have an idea,” Dex said, pulling out fake police IDs for the three of us. He handed our respective IDs to us. Regal raised an eyebrow at him.

“You just…have these lyin’ around?” he asked. Dex shrugged.

“Well, mine and Raven’s. Just made yours,” he said. Regal and I smiled at him and we walked through the main entrance. “As far as my idea, since you asked, I think Rapture put someone in the hospital--this hospital--and they know what he looks like.”

“Seems plausible,” I said. We approached the nurse’s station and the nurse at the desk began speaking.

“Hello, welcome to Haven City Hospital. How can we h--” she stopped her greeting as her eyes widened at the sight of Regal. I eyed Regal and he shook his head.

“Is there a problem, miss?” I questioned, showing the nurse my fake badge. She shook her head.

“Not at all, officer,” she said. She held her head down as if she was scrolling through something. 

“We need to get to room 702,” I told her. She was non-responsive. I saw sweat begin to form on the side of her face. For some reason, she recognized Regal and saw him--or all of us--as a threat. I signaled to Regal and Dex and we walked out the way we came.

“Well, that was weird,” Regal commented. “We got a plan B?”

Dex and I looked at each other, then at Regal.

“Right. I’m the plan B.”

He grabbed the both of us and teleported us to the proper floor and room. Dex pointed at the door and through the window in it, we could see two guards stationed outside the room. I looked over to the bed where the witness was sleeping. Dex kept his eye on the door, I approached the sleeping witness, and Regal stayed between us in case he had to get us out of there quickly. 

As I got closer to the witness, his eyes opened and he immediately went to scream, but I covered his mouth with a gloved hand and put my finger over my mouth to try and calm him. Regal flashed his fake badge and the witness raised an eyebrow at him, but this got him to calm down. I removed my hand slowly from his mouth. 

“How did you people get in here?” he whispered. Luckily for us, he was willing to play along. “Are you cops?”

“We are secret government agents. We’ve been trying to take down Rapture for the past few months,” I said. He said nothing, so it seemed like he believed me. “Once we heard news of you being kept here through the grapevine, we decided we weren’t gonna pass up the opportunity to get more information on him.”

“Any idea what the guy looks like?” Regal asked. 

“Wait, you’re supposedly secret agents that have been tracking info on the guy, yet you have no idea what he looks like?” the witness questioned. 

“He’s kept a low profile,” I said, backing Regal up. “We don’t even have a real name. Just gruesome details on the things he’s done to people.”

The witness paused. He was considering giving up the information on Rapture. He would only get a few words out before something interrupted our whole operation.

“He’s five-eleven, around one hundred seventy pounds. Brown, spiked hair, scar over left eye, hairy arms--”

“Raven,” Dex called. One of the cops outside was receiving a call. Perhaps from the nurse. “It’s the big goon.”

Out of context, that announcement is pretty damn hilarious. But, in this moment, we all knew exactly what he meant. It felt like time slowed as the goon turned towards the door and burst open waving his gun. As he let bullets fly, Regal grabbed Dex and I and teleported us out of there before the bullets had a chance to hit us. However, I caught a glance at the witness who caught a stray bullet and perished from it. 

We appeared inside the Arch Base. The bright lights and white walls hurt my eyes temporarily. I closed my eyes to readjust them, and heard familiar voices that expressed concern for us. 

“You good, Eric?” Lux asked. He was referring to Regal. I opened my eyes to see some familiar faces that matched the familiar voices. All Nobles registered in the hero app like Regal. These were the people he fought in the Limbo War with. Regal stood up and waved his hand.

“Yeah, yeah. This is just the first place that popped into my head,” he told them.

“Your friends look pale, my guy,” Seismic says.

“They’re fine. Okay? Just--” Without finishing his sentence, he grabs both Dex and I and teleports us back to the Resistance hideout. We scan around to see that Arid, Sidewind, and Desolate have left for the time being. Then I remembered Dex mentioning something about being out of sunflower seeds.

As we took a good fifteen minutes to breathe, after just narrowly missing bullets, the front door was kicked down and a swarm of guards entered the hideout. I almost went for my pistols, and Regal his daggers, but they already drew their weapons and could likely fire before we could draw. So, the three of us raised our hands in surrender. 

“How’d you find us?” I asked as the boss himself, preceded by the large goon we’ve been running into, walked down the stairs and his guards tied our hands behind our backs.

“Your teleporting friend,” Rapture said. He took a breath and I could tell he was about to start monologuing. “Once the nurse reported to my big fella here, about the fact that Regal was with you in the hospital, that’s when an initial tracking dart was shot into his leg before he started firing pistol rounds. You all were so focused on his gun hand, that you didn’t realize you had already been tagged. From there, it was easy to tell where you were about to be going based on the fact that Regal knew you and everyone knows you’re part of this Resistance, so we tracked you here. Pretty quickly, if I might add.”

After Rapture finished his speech, Regal began laughing uncontrollably. I already knew why, but it was fun to see the looks of confusion across all of their faces. 

“You fuckin’ idiots,” he said after a heavy sigh. “You know I can teleport out of these--”

I didn’t even hear the gunshot go off, but in a split second, Regal’s eyes went wide with shock and his body slumped over. He was staring at me, choking on his blood. And before I knew it, another gunshot to me this time, directly to my stomach. I fell on my back and gasped for air. Regal seeing this…changed. His expression mellowed out, but how he reached the state was all but mellow. His hair spiked up higher and parts of it became pure black; both of his eyes becoming enveloped in the color as well. A dark, black energy flowed from his body as he stood and stared at Rapture. Rapture tried talking what was now “Dark Regal” down.

“L-listen, I just wanted you as a soldier Regal. I’ve heard what you’ve done in the past and think your potential is wasted being a hero. I-I t-thought the best way to get you was to get to your girlfriend first. Ya know, kidnap her, force you t-to work for me,” he said, trembling with a gun held to my head. “L-look, my name is ‘Rapture’. I steal things from other people, their money, weapons, lives…e-even ideas. I just got the idea from Ignitro and thought I could execute better than when he took Lux’s mother.”

 Regal looked at me and I mouthed the words “I’m okay” to him. It should have been evident to everyone in the room that I wasn’t dying because of what my suit’s made of. There was no blood and the bullet hadn’t even pierced me. I used Rapture’s fear of Dark Regal against him and sweep kicked him. As the gun fell from his hands and before he could even touch the floor, Dark Regal, teleported to each and every goon around the room--including the big one--and killed them with a single stab from his Dragon Tooth Knives. 

Rapture then hit the floor and looked around to realize he was the only one of his crew left alive. He backed away from us in fear. Dex walked up to him first and snatched Rapture’s cell phone from his pocket.

“H-hey!” Rapture shouted. Dex raised an eyebrow.

“What? Not a fan of your stuff getting stolen?” he asked rhetorically. He started to thumb through it while Dark Regal and I continued to approach the coward. Dark Regal teleported and reappeared next to me, handing me Rapture’s gun. Rapture stopped away and began to beg.

“P-please don’t kill me. I could be a huge asset for your team. I-I know people. Crime lords in the city. I-I could help you find them,” he cried out.

“Yeah, you do know a lotta people,” Dex added. “Judging by your huge contact list. Some of them even have addresses.”

“I-I promise I’ll go straight. I’ll stop doing illegal stuff. B-become a law-abiding citizen,” Rapture continued. I rolled my eyes and pointed his own gun at him.

“In your last moments, you even stole my satisfaction of a sweet and brutal death for you.”

I pulled the trigger and the bullet collided with his skull, killing him. To add insult to…death, I threw his gun at his dead body. I turned to Dark Regal who was almost done reverting back to normal Regal. 

“Haven’t done that in a while,” he said, being vague.

“Transformed?” I asked.

“No. Killed humans.”

We stood in silence over Rapture’s body. It wasn’t a moment of silence for the many people that just died in the hideout, but more of us actually catching our breath now that this mission was over. 

“What the shit happened here?”

A voice came from the top of the stairs. It was Arid. Behind him was Sidewind and Desolate. They were all carrying grocery bags. Once they got to the bottom of the stairs, they all dropped the bags and crossed their arms in disappointment.

“Sorry about the mess,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. It would take a while to clean up all the blood out of the hideout.