#confronted

“Give it up, Villain! You have nowhere to run!” Hero called as he raced down the narrow hallway after Villain. 

“Never!” Villain turned his head for a moment to smirk at Hero, only to run smack dab into Sidekick who had been coming from the other side to corner him. Villain falls to the ground, caught off guard by the arrival of Sidekick. “Fuck.” He mutters as he tries to scoot away and get back to his feet. He hears Hero’s footsteps catch up to him, then finds himself yanked to his feet, power suppressant cuffs are quickly shoved onto his wrists. 

Upon noticing his distaste, Hero smiles slightly, as if he’s trying to comfort him, “Can’t have you escaping again, it’d look back for us.” 

“N-no please don’t take me back there, Hero!” Villain tries to squirm free from Hero’s iron grasp only to fail. “Please you don’t get it, you don’t know what they do people like me there.” 

Hero shakes his head and begins to drag Villain gently back down the hallway, shaking his head, “Always the dramatic one, aren’t you Villain? It’s just a prison, sure the food is probably terrible and it’s probably boring in there, but it keeps guys like you out of trouble.” Hero turns his back on the Villain, holding onto him by his cuffs, trusting Sidekick to follow him and make sure Villain doesn’t try anything. 

“But-but-” Sidekick quietly elbows him in the side, cutting him off from any further protest. 

Hero raises an eyebrow, not bothering to turn back, “But what?” 

Villain lets his head drop, “It’s nothing.” He forces a laugh, “Just me wanting to cause more trouble.” 

As the trio exits the building, they find the stairs flooded with reporters and police officers. The minute the first reporter lays eyes on the trio, they all converge, demanding to know everything about what went down inside the building. Hero puts on his best media face and stands a bit taller than he had been before, Sidekick quickly follows his lead. Villain, on the other hand, acts as one would expect someone in his position to. He shrinks down, as if he can disappear in his oversized prison shirt-- one that hides all the bruises underneath. Villain lets his hair fall in his face and tries to pretend he’s invisible, hoping that’ll make this all go by faster. Numerous reporters and civilians begin to holler questions to no one in particular. 

“How did Villain escape prison?” 

“What changes are you going to make to the prison security system to prevent this from happening again?” 

“How did it feel to get to take down Villain a second time?” 

“Fuck you Villain! You destroyed my home!” 

“Are you going to change Villain’s sentence?” 

Hero passes Villain off to Sidekick and gestures for him to be taken to the car that’s waiting. “Thank you, for all the questions.” Hero smiles, using his best customer service voice. “To answer your questions, we don’t know how he escaped, but now that he’s back we can review the security cameras to ensure this doesn’t happen again. So yes, we can expect some changes to happen around the prison depending on what happened earlier today. As far as his sentence, he might get some time added for escaping, but beyond that it probably won’t change much. I’m terribly sorry to hear that your home was destroyed, please feel free to reach out to my people and we’ll see about rebuilding your house and finding a place for you to stay in the meantime.” He glances to the side and sees that Sidekick and Villain have successfully made it to the car and sighs in relief, “And with that I have to go. Stay safe everyone.” 

Hero darts to the car, dodging everyone he can in the crowd as politely as he can. He hops into the front seat, locks the door, then sighs. “Never gets fucking easier.” Sidekick pats him on the shoulder. 

“You did great Hero!” Sidekick glances back at Villain, who is now cuffed to one of the bars and gagged as well. “Sorry, he was trying to talk his way out of those cuffs, and when that didn’t work he started threatening me and-” 

“It’s okay Sidekick, he can’t hurt you. Especially when he’s all locked up like this, isn’t that right Villain?” Villain nods, hoping it’ll get the gag removed from his mouth, but when it doesn’t happen he can’t help but slump in his seat. “Oh.” Hero says, noticing Villain’s disappointment, “Well if you promise to be nice for the car ride I’ll take it out.” Villain eagerly nods, then tries to hide his flinch when Hero reaches for his face. 

“Thank you.” Villain almost whispers once the gag is removed. 

Hero shrugs then turns back around, “It was nothing. Now let's get you back to prison.” 

The second Hero leaves Villain alone with the prison guards, his stomach starts to fill with dread. They silently drag him down several levels, but he can feel their rage coming off in waves. The guards shove him into a cell, and much to his dismay, they follow him in. Villain falls to the ground, off balance, and quickly tries to stand up. A guard steps on the chain connecting his cuffs and laughs, holding him to the ground. 

“Now, what do you think you’re doing?” One of the guards, that Villain has dubbed Red (yes based on his hair color) sneers as his foot gets dangerously close to his hands. “Y’know me and the boys were talkin’ about what would happen when Hero brought you back, and honestly, I pictured you on the ground for a lot of it. A kick lands in his side, bringing him from being on all fours, to on his side. 

“I- I bet if Hero knew what you guys were doing he’d be very angry-” Another kick lands, knocking the wind out of Villain. 

Another one of the guards, who Villain likes to call Grumpy in his head, laughs viciously. “‘If Hero knew’- who the hell do you think sanctioned all this?” 

“B-but Hero’s not that cruel.” Villain shakes his head, shocked by what Grumpy has said. “You’re lying!” 

Red stomps on his hand, causing him to scream in pain, “Don’t fucking say that. You’re the villain here. Don’t forget that. We are just guards helping make the world a better place. Superhero and Hero both agreed this was the best way to deal with you. Now, are we going to have to gag you or are you going to stop arguing?” 

“N-no please don’t, I’ll stop.” Villain buries his face in the ground as best he can. “I-I just still hurt so much from last time.” 

“Obviously not enough since you thought you’d try and escape.” Grumpy kicks his side, “If we’d beaten you enough you wouldn’t have done that, now would you have?” 

Villain sobs, “That’s not true.” 

“Stop lying!” Grumpy yells, stomping on his ankle so hard Villain feels like he can hear it crack. “Don’t be a fucking liar goddamnit!” 

Villain tries to shrink back until he hits a wall, “I’m sorry I swear!” 

As the pair continue to lay into him, all Villain can do is lie there and sob, hoping that’ll make the session of abuse even a little bit shorter. 

A week passed and Hero was nothing short of frustrated. All week the prison had been giving him the runaround about how Villain had escaped. First it was faulty wiring that resulted in his cell door opening, then it was that he beat up the guards around him, and then he was told Villain had escaped through the laundry shoot when no one was looking. Nothing that really made sense with the way Villain thought and operated. Hero had asked to see footage from the day Villain escaped, but most of the footage just slightly missed his escape. Hero did, however, notice that there was a gap in the recording lasting several hours. At the start of the gap, he noticed several guards entered the cell, then the camera went down for around two hours. When it came back up again, it was to show the guards leaving, and then Hero noticed the cell door was left open. He audibly laughed, shaking his head. Of course some idiots forgot to lock the cell, though the camera shorting out also concerned him. Hero quickly grabbed his keys and phone, heading for the door.

“Hey Sidekick, I have to go run by the prison, I think I figured out how Villain escaped and also noticed a fault in their security system!” Hero calls as he heads out the door, closing it before Sidekick even has a chance to respond. 

“So you’re telling me that my guards were sloppy and left a door open which let one of the most powerful villains in the world just walk out?” The warden asks after hearing the story from Hero. 

Hero nods, “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Warden. Oh! And one other thing, camera 28c went down for several hours on the day of Villain’s escape. I went back to check the camera’s logs to see if this was a regular problem and it looks like it.” 

“Tt, well I guess cameras could always use an upgrade.” The Warden shakes her head, “Though it is strange that only that one camera is failing, they’re all about the same age. But then again, if I just had to stare at a door 24/7, I would also want to die.” She laughs. “Anyways, thanks for coming down to tell me all this. Sorry if you had other things to be doing-” 

Hero smiles charismatically, “Oh please, ever since we arrested Villain, the crime rate has decreased quite a bit. I think the bad guys are finally getting a grasp on what happens if you try to commit crime here.” 

“Took them long enough.” She forces herself to try and match Hero’s smile, “Well can I see you out? Not that I don’t love chatting, but running a prison is not an easy gig.” 

“Absolutely, I’d hate to waste your time Warden.” Hero begins to head towards the door, then pauses. “Though, if you don’t mind, I’d like to check in on Villain if that’s okay. He seemed quite distressed about returning here, so I’d just like to see that he’s settling back in.” 

The Warden glances at her watch, “Please, be my guest. Though you’ll have to forgive me, I have a meeting happening soon, so I have to go take care of that. But I’m sure you’ll find your way to his cell easily. He’s on sublevel 2, in cell 36. I don’t foresee you needing to go inside, but if you do need to, the code to get in is 58484.” Beep Beep! “Oop, I have to go, good talking to you Hero!” The Warden runs off, leaving Hero to his own devices. 

As he rides the elevator down to talk to Villain, he thinks about what he’ll say. He knows prison isn’t supposed to be fun, but the minute he steps off the elevator, he feels his stomach start to twist and fill with dread. As Hero makes his way down the hallway, he can’t help but notice that all of the cells are empty, save for Villain’s at the very end. Once he reaches the cell, he peers inside the window, hoping to see the other man and then call it good. Unfortunately, the lights inside the cell are off, making it impossible to make out anyone inside. 

“Is he sleeping at this time of day?” Hero wonders aloud, quickly inputting the code to let himself into the cell. Hero enters the cell and finds the lightswitch on the wall, quickly turning it on so he can see how Villain is doing. The smell of urine hits his nose just before the light does, accompanied by the sound of whimpering. He takes a second to adjust to the light, then his eyes fall on a cage that looks like it’s meant for a dog in the corner. “Fuck, Villain?” He rushes over to the cage, instantly seeing how cramped Villain is inside of this tiny cage. 

Villain trembles when he hears Hero grab at the bars of his cage, the voice sounding familiar and new at the same time. Hero quickly smashes the lock on the cage, then opens the door. 

“Villain? Do you want to come out of the cage?” Villain nods, thankful he’s gagged so he can’t say anything stupid. He tries to get himself out, but his arms fail to hold his weight. “Can I help you get out?” 

Villain nods, flinching as he feels Hero gently slide his hands under his armpits to pull him out. Hero lays Villain on the floor once he’s out, taking in everything they’ve done to him. A blindfold is tightly wrapped around his eyes, accompanied by a muzzle over his mouth. A collar sits around his throat with a lock on it, and a loop where a leash could go. His wrists and ankles are chained as well, ensuring that even if he did escape the cage he wouldn’t make it very far. Hero goes to take off the muzzle first, knowing that it’ll hurt Villain’s eyes to take the blindfold off if he’s been blindfolded for a while-- which Hero suspects is the case. 

“Hey buddy, I’m going to take the muzzle off okay?” Villain nods eagerly, then lets out a sigh of relief once it’s removed. 

His voice cracks as he tries to talk, but Villain just coughs and tries to push through. “H-hero?” 

Hero gently places his hand on Villain’s, “It’s me, I’ve got you.” 

“I-I’ll be good now I promise.” Hero watches a tear appear from underneath the blindfold. “Can I please just go home?”  

Hero wipes the tear away carefully, “I’m gonna get you out of here, I promise.” He quickly picks the locks on the restraints binding Villain, then does the same for the collar. Villain moves cautiously to pull the blindfold off, only to be stopped by Hero. “I’m really sorry Villain, but that has to stay on for now. I don’t want your eyes to get damaged, but I promise once I get you out of here we can take it off okay?” Villain nods, trying to hide just how badly he is shaking. 

“I-I’m sorry, I won’t try to- try to touch it again. It doesn’t need to come off, Hero, sir.” Villain’s voice continues to crack and shake, “I’ll be good.” 

Hero’s heart breaks, “I know. Now, do you think you can stand, or should I carry you?” 

Villain tries to push himself up, but fails, “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can.”