Jeffery had woken up due to a series of light slaps from a gloved hand.

“Yeah, yeah give me a minute or two...”

Jeffery mumbled half awake, that changed once he got slapped again.

“Wha-”

Jeffery suddenly gained clarity as he remembered what had just happened, he tried to get up, yet the constricting force of a rope was bounding him in place. As he looked around, he noticed he was on some metal bar. On either side was a stone wall covered in graffiti. He then noticed the ‘small-time villain’ squatting in front of him getting ready to slap again.

“Dude I’m awake... Wait did you hit me with your cane? Not cool dude, not cool.”

“Oh, good you are awake, I had thought I accidentally killed someone again, that would have been unsatisfactory!”

Jeffery lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, there were many people dying from villains, but a villain who was worried about killing? First time in Zone 27.

“Anyways enough of my rambling, since the both of us are doing nothing but waiting for a hero to arrive, I will tell you my ingenious plan!”

Jeffery once again lifted an eyebrow at this.

“Man, that is cool and all, but aren’t you supposed to not tell me that? And why are you waiting for a hero dude.”

The villain only chuckled and stood up.

“What is a good story without a hero, what is evil without good, what is light without night? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The villain walked around the currently bound Jeffery.

“Yeah... no dude.”

Jeffery’s answer, however, caused him to stop, crouch and stare into Jeffery’s eyes, which caused the otherwise chill Jeffery to feel a shiver. Which was weird considering how Jeffery did not see a single opening in the mask.

“Would you like to me explain it with how you need bones to function?”

The sudden calmness and monotone that the villain spoke with frightened Jeffery to another degree. Jeffery quickly shook his head, not willing to test out if the villain was going to follow through with his promise of pain.

“Oh, then would you like me to explain it with a flip book?”

As if a switch was flipped, the villain sounded cheerful. Jeffery, not willing to push luck once again, nodded profusely. With a quick motion the villain started flipping through a flip book which had crudely drawn figures, Jeffery however was more confused on where the flip book even came from, he swore he never saw the villain have it in his hands.

“There was once a great villain who defeated all his enemies, no one stood in his path.”

The villain said as the flip book showcased a stick figure with a cartoon villain mustache, he had what seemed to be a gun that shot green lasers.

“He was so powerful in fact he soon ruled the world. He lived in bliss.”

The next series of drawings showcased the stick villain diving into a vault filled with gold and swimming around in it.

“Yet not too soon later he started feeling an emptiness in his heart, he figured he didn’t steal enough, so he stole more, yet the emptiness simply grew. That’s when he decided to try something drastic, he was going to create a hero by himself!”

The next series showcased the stick villain tinkering around in a crude workshop.

“He made this as he remembered the time before he became so great, fighting against someone equally as powerful was an exhilarating feeling. So, once he created the hero gun and created a hero, he finally had a purpose, the end!”

Jeffery couldn’t help but notice how abrupt the ending was, but rather than asking he decided to do the smart thing and stay quiet.

“Do you understand why I need a nemesis? I have no purpose otherwise.”

“Yeah man that’s cool and all, but when will you free me from this metal bar?”

Jeffery decided to risk it by asking this question, but he had a bad feeling that being on this metal bar was a bad idea.

“Oh right! I almost forgot to tell you my evil plan! It's not too complex, it just includes breaking into the very secure hero station of Zone 27 and sending out an invite to all available heroes in the Zone! That first part is done, the invite should come any minute now, we have enough time, so I’ll explain the rest of my plan! Next, I tie you down onto a monorail and if the heroes don’t come in time, you’ll go all over this place! That’s-”

“WHAT?!”

Just before the villain could continue Jeffery lost all his cool at the promise of death and yelled straight into the villain's face.

“Oh, shush you, you were fine with me pointing a gun, but not a bullet train running over your body? You sure are weird.”

The villain shook his head, and just before Jeffery could continue, the villain covered his mouth with his gloved hand.

“Now you be good and listen, my last step would be locking the heroes that come in this area so that I could evaluate if they are good enough to be my nemesis!”

With that the villain stopped covering Jeffery’s mouth, which prompted Jeffery to continue yelling.

“YOUR BATSHIT INSANE DUDE, I CAN'T DIE YET!”

“’I can't die yet’ blah blah blah, stop whining the bullet train will be here in 20 minutes, you have enough time. Anyways the invite should have arrived already, someone should come by soon.”

----------------------------------------

Stacy landed carefully on the abandoned looking hero station located in Zone 27, this place was old and looking like it’ll fall apart any second, it was quite different compared to the towering hero HQ located in Zone 1, that one was built like a skyscraper. Yet this station was just a 2-story building, which didn’t look too different from the rest of the surrounding buildings. Stacy let out a sigh.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I guess this is my new home for the time being.”

Stacy mumbled to no one particular, as she looked at the setting sun bathing the sky in a mixture of colors.

“I'm sure it doesn’t seem like much compared to Zone 1.”

Someone with a heavy German accent talked out from the shadows; Stacy immediately put up her guard, as she turned towards the source of the voice.

“Woah no need to get aggressive girl, is that how you treat your leaders in Zone 1?”

What seemed to be a woman glided out from the shadows, yet the shadows seemed to remain causing the woman to remain as a silhouette. A very drippy one.

“My name is Vis, I’m not much of a fighter but I deal with the majority of scouting and surveillance, let's get along Ja?”

Vis offered a handshake, which also caused a mass of shadows to drop down from her hand and onto the floor with a splat, before going right back to her. Seeing the hesitation Stacy was giving, Vis just shrugged and put her hand back down.

“You better get used to people not looking like humans, there are a lot more what you call, ‘sub humans’ here than back in the single digit Zones”

Vis shook her head, but it was expected, most people didn’t want to deal with the people who were mutated, especially the big shots.

“W-wait! I’m sorry for my rude behavior, it's just I've never seen someone like you.”

Stacy suddenly said out loud, which earned a chuckle from Vis who merely turned around and glided towards the roof exit door.

“Get your bearings first, there is another mutant in the team.”

Stacy could only nod, as she was left alone on the roof.

“Good job Stacy...”

She mumbled to herself, before taking a deep breath and opening the door. A door leading to a dimly lit stairwell. From the door leading to the second floor, yelling, laughing and general roughhousing sounded out, muted only slightly by the wood.

Even though there seemed to be a party going on, it felt so quiet in the stairwell. Each step she took creaked, causing her to wince and try a softer step resulting in the same creak.

Each step closer to the door increased her nervousness and caused her to start worrying about first appearances. She didn’t get along with the other heroes in Zone 1, she’d rather not have that happen in Zone 27.

Once she went down the flight of stairs and was greeted by a door leading to the second story, with a deep breath, she opened the door and immediately wished she hadn’t as the smell of smoke flooded her nostrils, forcing her to let out a cough. Prompting the room to go silent. She looked around the room and noticed it looked very homey. Quite the contrast to the dead white hallways and rooms in Zone 1.

There were couches seated in front of a simple flat screen TV, and a small dinner table. An 8Ball table Sat on the other side of the room with a dart board hung randomly. There was even a simple bar on the side where the 8ball table was.

3 people were around the 8ball table each holding pool cues, one of them was a basically a giant with stone colored skin a brown cigar was in his mouth that lit up as he took a deep breath. He wore a green pair of pants and kept his chest exposed.

Another was a teen looking mildly surprised, who would not stop tapping his foot, he wore simple pajama pants with a shirt with the famous superhero Mighty Fist on it punching the infamous super villain Blooddrinker.

Lastly a girl who was wearing extra baggy clothes with her hood all the way down. She had a belt of items around her slim waist, each item Stacy noticed was art supplies.

Only a single person was sitting on the couch. He looked like a simple guy with a pair of glasses, he also wore sweatpants with a jacket not zipped up. Underneath he wore a plain white T-shirt. And lastly there was a familiar living shadow behind the bar table. Vis was the only one without clothes, but Stacy couldn’t be sure since her clothes might be covered in the same shadow stuff her body was made out.

Stacy swore she saw Vis give her a smirk. Stacy took a deep breath before standing at attention.

“My name is Stacy, my hero's name is Justice, I have been repositioned here from Zone 1-”

Stacy was about to continue until she saw the teen snickering before getting whacked by the stone giant. The teen in turn let out a fury of punches, dealing absolutely no damage whatsoever. Confused, Stacy just stood still waiting for an explanation, Vis thankfully gave her one as she somehow appeared right next to her. Only startling her a bit.

“Zone 27 doesn’t care about anything like formalities.”

Stacy face flushed, but she let her shoulders sag. She was about to say something else, but the lights suddenly went out. In a few seconds the stone giant lit a match, and the room was bathed in a warm orange.

“Hey what's going-”

A young voice sounded out but was quickly silenced by the TV suddenly turning on and an old jingle sounded out. It would have been catchy if not for the strangeness. The colors white and black appeared in strips while moving diagonally downwards,

“Hello heroes of Zone 27!”

A figure appeared on the TV, someone wearing a black and white mask, the white side smiling and the black side frowning, with a bowler hat covering the top part. He wore a brown trench coat. A maroon tie and the edges of a charcoal suit were noticeable underneath the trench coat. He had spread his hands as if he was giving the heroes in the room a warm welcome.

“I bring you bad news!”

This caused the heroes in the room to approach the TV, as a high-quality video showcasing a simple-looking guy flipping through a magazine in what seemed like a gas station. The next second, a stick of sorts came out of nowhere and hit the guy on the side of the head, causing him to slump lifelessly. It was clear the video was recorded in first person.

This caused a terrified gasp and a loud tch to sound out.

“Ah the poor bloke seemed to have been put to bed early, no worries, he is alive since you heroes are seeing this! But he might not stay that way.”

The person suddenly clapped his gloved hands together. The next video that was shown was the same guy, this time he was being dragged somewhere, there was a cut, and the guy was tied to a metal bar.

“You heroes have exactly 14 minutes and 56 seconds till the next bullet train comes over and paints the area red.”

The figure seemed to laugh at his own joke. A laugh that increased in insanity every second, and an address was placed in the middle of the screen. Suddenly there was another cut and the man waved, no longer laughing.

“See you soon!”

With that parting message, the screen turned dark, and the lights came back on.

Silence filled the room, before the simple guy spoke up.

“Well, that’s 100% a trap. V do you have any records of this guy?”

“Nien and I don’t think I would forget someone like him.”

Stacy stayed silent for a bit as the heroes around her tried to come up with ideas.

“Even though it’s a trap, an innocent person is in danger.”

This caused Vis to let out a sigh.

“Ja, you’re right, but we can’t risk a hero’s life since we don’t get any help from other Zones and the crime rate here is through the roof.”

“But-”

“But I’m not saying we shouldn’t try at least Stacy and Thomas come with me. June, Eli and John stay here.”

Stacy let out a sigh of relief. She noticed the teen boy named Eli looked frustrated but didn’t say anything. The stone giant named Thomas moved out of the room in a leisurely pace up towards the roof, Vis simply sunk down into her shadows and Stacy followed Thomas.

Once the three were gone, Eli threw up his arms in frustration.

“Ugh why does everyone think I can’t go; super speed is super useful!”

“Because you are irresponsible and can’t control your emotions.”

The simple man named John stated, without bothering to look at Eli. Eli simply threw a TV remote at John. Which caused his glasses to fall off and bounce harmlessly off his leg and onto the couch.

The girl named June simply plopped onto the couch and pulled out a small sketch book and a pencil from her belt.

“You just proved his point.”

Due to how naturally quiet her voice is, Eli just looked over slightly confused. Before realizing what she said.

“Hey, don’t agree with him!”

Eli shouted angrily, which June just shrugged in response.

“June don’t use your sketch book inside. V stated it very clearly.”

John calmly said while fixing his glasses, June, like a rebellious teenager continued drawing without stopping.

“Don't be a bum, I’m just drawing something like a camera so we can watch the fight. Besides its not alive, it’ll be a machine.”