Mardav’s question hung in the air, as both heroes refused to answer. Instead, the CEO was only met with a glare and a smirk.

“I’ll ask again, what were you doing in my building?” Mardav asked, this time a bit more irritated. And once again, he was met by the same silence both heroes gave him. Something which elicited a long sigh from Mardav.

“Of course, they won’t talk,” Mardav muttered, closing his eyes for a bit and cracking his neck, “Heroes and their fucking pride.”

“Mind you, Mr. Hellent, I think they are a bit confused,” The other figure said, “or at least one of them is.”

Yata's eyes were getting accustomed to the room, but he could at least make out the vague outline of a dim red mask on the man’s face. It was marked with what he thought was a white V under the left eye. His physique and contour were male, however, the man’s calm tone unnerved him. As if he knew something the others didn’t know and was reveling in having that knowledge.

“Here, let me try talking to them,” he said, standing up. He took a few steps forward before stopping right in front of Yata.

“It’s amusing to see you here, Thirteen.” The man in the red mask said. Immediate anger washed over The Cat hero, almost making him react violently at the mention of his former name, but he bit his tongue and continued remaining silent.

“A bit calmer than usual, aren't we? And to see you here after a massacre. Why am I not surprised?” He continued talking in a calm tone, “What do you have to say for yourself, Hero-Killer?”

“And who are you to know that?” Yata spat; his voice filled with venom. The man huffed in amusement as he started pacing.

“Well… You could say I’m just an interested stranger that finds this situation very amusing,” He answered as if it were the most natural thing to say, yet his tone carried a slightly dangerous edge to it.

“An interested stranger you say? I call bullshit,” Wattz spoke up, reacting to the masked man’s amusement. Sarcasm oozed from his voice as he focused on his interrogator, “He reacted again to that name. You know Yata, or at least know enough about him to cause him to talk. So, who are you really, Mr. red mask?”

“Hm, you’re snarkier than the rumors give you credit for, ‘Crazy Examinee’”, The man turned his head slowly and gave Wattz a soft smile.

“Crazy examinee?” Wattz asked, betraying his confusion. Yata also raised a brow at this.

“Oh? You didn’t know? You’ve already made quite the stride by taking down one of The Shining Mortars’ members. And...” The masked man chuckled, before turning his eyes back at Yata, “You also humiliated Thirteen over here, a hated figure in the hero community.”

“Thirteen this, Crazy Examinee that. Stop it with the name-calling!” Wattz retorted, annoyed at the masked man’s nonchalance.

“I have to agree with my ‘partner’ here,” Yata also spoke up, his angry voice almost turning into a growl It was getting incredibly annoying for Yata to hear that name constantly being brought up. “Who the hell are you to call me by that name?”

“More confrontational than initially expected. Interesting…” The masked muttered before standing and giving the two heroes an exaggerated bow. “Fine, I’ll humor you a bit. I have gone by many other names before, but right now you can call me Apatia.”

“Don’t get distracted, Apatia. They’re not here for your amusement, nor did I call you here for that,” Mardav scolded, moving alongside the masked man.

“Oh, I am very much focused,” Apatia commented, jerking his head to look straight at Mardav, “In fact, they are finally talking!”

Ignoring his masked companion’s boast, Mardav crossed his arm and looked down the two captive heroes. “Well then ‘Nemeses’, let me make this clear for you. I found you two fighting another third party in the server room of my company building. That fight destroyed most of the information we compiled on our routes from four months ago. I’m not sure why you were there, and seeing as you two won’t talk, I’ll shelve that topic for later. Instead, let me address a more important question first: Why did you kill my security personnel?”

At this accusation, both heroes present reacted differently. Wattz didn’t react much at all, preferring to remain quiet and keep his trademark grin up. On the other hand, Yata fell into deep thought.

Being captured in enemy territory wasn’t out of the norm for him, as he had failed recon missions during his rookie years. And from his personal experience, the one thing he could never do was give information to his enemies. He had made that mistake once before. Never again.

However, this wasn’t the time to remain quiet either. From that previous small exchange with his interrogators, there were at least two distinct disadvantages Mardav and Apatia had over him: they had more information over them, and this is still Wattz’s first day. If Yata considered those factors and added Apatia’s more than unnerving demeanor, then, they also had the emotional advantage. Thus, he needed to talk. He needed to at least increase his chances at gaining some type of information over his interrogators.

“We didn’t do anything to your guards,” Yata answered, staring directly at Mardav’s eyes, “When we entered this building, we found them dead, and the closer we got to the server room, the gruesome it got. The only factor that I could gather from the corpses were both clean and messy knife wounds, and the only one wielding a white sharp weapon was Agent Cyan, the so-called third party whom we fought.”

Silence permeated the room, as all three men listened to what Yata said, but he remained attentive, studying everyone’s reaction to his answer. First were his captors. From the way Mardav widened his eyes and flinched at the mention of the knife wounds, he seemed deeply hurt by remembering that sight. Apatia was more shocked that Yata had spoken at all, the only indication being a small stop on his smile before he caught himself and let his grin deepen.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

On the other hand, Wattz also reacted. He worriedly turned his gaze towards Yata. His face didn’t show anything, but for the first time since they began this mission, Yata could finally somewhat read what the annoying bastard was thinking: he was shocked, maybe due to how thorough he was with his answer.

“So, let me get this straight then: You're claiming that someone else killed my guards? Someone else killed my friends and colleagues in cold blood?” Mardav asked, his attention solely on the Cat hero. Both Mardav and Apatia carefully studied his reactions.

“I have reason to believe so, given that both my partner and I fought the 'third party',” Yata answered the question, his gaze unflinching. Mardav remained silent, before looking at Apatia, who tilted his head while he kept his smile. He then tapped twice his fingers, before tilting his head up.

“I can vouch for his words,” Wattz said, breaking the silent exchange between Mardav and Apatia, “The ‘Agent’, as he calls himself, is a highly skilled threat that has no hesitation in killing someone. Hell, he even tried to kill us multiple times when we fought him.”

It was Yata’s turn to be stunned. Wattz… was cooperating with him? However, on a closer look, Wattz was gritting his teeth. He looked displeased, but also resigned to do something. Almost as if he was begrudgingly saying to Yata the following: ‘I sure do hope you know what you’re doing, Cat.’

“Then tell me, Mr. Thirteen,” Mardav started saying.

“I go by Yata now,” Yata interrupted, giving Mardav another glare.

“Yata then,” Mordav mouthed disdainfully. He placed his hands behind him and crouched, “Why should I believe you?”

Yata flinched. The question had caught him off guard. “Well, you have both me and Wattz at your mercy, so why wouldn’t I speak the truth, Mr. Hellent?”

“Because you lied!” Mardav said, his tone elevating with his anger. However, Apatia put a calming hand on the CEO. Mardav looked at the masked man, who shook his head.

“I did not lie,” Yata immediately refuted, confused by what the masked man meant.

“You lied,” Apatia said, “Both of you did.”

“And as I said before, I can attest to all Yata is saying! I was there with him and we truly did nothing,” Wattz spoke up, also confused by Apatia’s words.

“Oh no no no! I’m not implying everything you said was a lie! However, you two did lie on one thing,” Apatia clarified, “You both attacked Hellent’s guards, didn’t you?”

A shiver ran through Yata’s back causing him to flinch, a flinch both Apatia and Mardav noticed.

“Of course you attacked them,” Mardav growled, placing his hands behind him. “Why did I even entertain the notion that HOC’s heroes would care?”

“Don’t beat yourself around the bush hellent. They seem to be on a reconnaissance mission, evidenced by Yata being here. They infiltrated this place for who knows what, and, to remain incognito and hidden from you and your guards, they had to take care of some of your security personnel.” Apatia said, circling the CEO, before setting his eyes on the heroes, “Shame that your plans went awry, thanks in no part to our mutually antagonistic “third party”.”

A cold sweat ran down Yata’s back as he cursed himself in his head. Damn it! With someone like Apatia here, there was no way he could gain information without revealing the contents of the mission! However, all those thoughts went out of his head, as the next words that came from Apatia’s mouth incited his anger:

“Oh well, I guess it is to be expected from heroes under the Disgraced Heroine,” Apatia sighed, his dismissive tone had an irritating, mocking edge to it, “Especially when one of them wears the visor and the color of The Undaunting Villain and the other is Thirteen, The Hero-Killer. A shame.”

Yata gritted his teeth. He knew he needed to control himself, he knew full well that Apatia wanted to bring out his anger. However, hearing another person insult Lozen, the kind and caring boss that has helped him so much, caused his fury to simmer. However, he lowered his head, breathed in, and addressed his interrogator, “You can insult me all you want and call me whatever name you want, but you will not insult my leader when you know nothing about her.”

These words echoed throughout the room, however, Apatia simply chuckled before raising his chin, “But I do know about her, Yata. I know a little bit about your current team members. I know about the devastation your boss left behind on sector eleven during The Night of Fear. I know why your Vice-leader was involved in The Mayhem. And I know your involvement in the Unlucky Seven incident.”

“You were involved in the Unlucky Seven incident? That scandal at Red Avenue in 2058? The one where a hero killed seven victims, and almost blinded another hero?” Mardav addressed Yata, before his eyes widened in realization, “That was caused by you?”

“I am not a killer! And don’t you da–” Yata started saying, trying to stand up, but as soon as he attempted something, he felt immense pain in his legs. They refused to work.

“You don’t truly believe that, after all…” Apatia interrupted, closing the distance between the two. In a simple stride, he crouched and cupped Yata’s face, forcing him to gaze into his victorious violet eyes, before he neared the raging hero’s ear, and whispered, “You killed your former team leader, didn’t you?”

“Bastard!” Yata forcefully jerked his face out of Apatia’s grip, and in his rage, the cat hero bit down on it. He could taste the blood dripping from the bite wound, but Apatia didn’t flinch. He only deepened his smile, and punched Yata on the side. He groaned in pain, forcing him to release Apatia, who stood and kicked him in the face. However, the kick didn’t connect with Yata… because Wattz had managed to put his body in front of Yata, taking the brunt of the hit.

“Ungh!” Wattz grunted in pain. His body shuddered at the impact, and his breathing was a bit more uneven than before. Nevertheless, he forced out a smirk as he turned to face Apatia, “For someone who likes to run their mouth, you sure can pack a kick.”

“Curious…” Apatia spoke, intrigued. He stepped back a bit to marvel at the sight before smiling wickedly and started descending on the two, but he was stopped by Mardav.

“Apatia, enough! I don’t want stoop to torture,” Mardav ordered, placing a hand on Apatia’s shoulder. Apatia ignored him, keeping his whole attention on Wattz, who had turned around to match the masked man's grin with his own. However, the sound of someone knocking on wood interrupted the four. They all jerked their heads to see a small male security guard peeking through the door.

"Mr. Hellent, sir! Miles reporting!” Miles saluted his boss, as he entered the room, “Am I interrupting?”

“No, Miles, you aren’t. You’re free to speak," Mardav commanded, standing a bit more calmly than before.

"W- We have found and engaged the third intruder, sir! However, he is more powerful than expected, we need back up!" Miles reported, his trembling a bit as if remembering something horrid.

At this, Mardav's eyes shone with a dangerous light before he turned his attention to Apatia. “You know why I called you here, it’s time to do your task.”

He then turned back to the Guard, “Alright Miles, thank you for informing me. Apatia, you’re coming with me.”

“What about them?” Apatia asked, clearly frustrated by the sudden interruption. Not that Mardav seemed to care.

“Leave them here to rot,” Mardav said as he made his way to the doorway, “They don’t have their equipment with them, so they can’t escape. Plus, once we're done capturing the other one, we will interrogate all three of them again.”

Both Apatia and Miles nodded at Mardav’s commands, before the three men left the room in a hurry, leaving Yata and Wattz alone.