Enigmatic: Sapphire City Supers

Chapter 14: There's Always a Lair

When I came to, I was sitting in a rather comfortable chair in a well appointed office-like room. Taking a bewildered look around, I noticed that there were no windows, which suggested we might be underground. 

How predictable, I thought sarcastically. For surely, this was a Villain lair.

Though my first instinct had been fear at passing out and waking up in an unfamiliar place, that fear was quickly being replaced by anger, as it tended to be with me. Did I have some sort of Super and Villain lure on me that I didn't know about?

Across the desk from me as if we were in a business meeting was the Gareth lookalike, flanked by a Villain I recognised as Electron, and a female Villain I'd never seen before. Behind me, blocking the door was none other than Dopey. Sonic, thankfully, was nowhere to be seen. I didn't relish the thought of hearing her terrible scream ever again.

I glared at them all. "You have a lot of nerve, Gareth, or whoever you are. Where the hell am I? Obviously underground, because you lot have no imagination."

He smiled, spreading his hands apologetically. "My name is not Gareth, though I can see how you might think it is. I am sorry for all of the subterfuge. I do understand that you're a bit ... difficult ... but really, we mean you no harm. I'm sure you're aware that we'd prefer nobody know our location until we know that they can be trusted."

I snorted. "Of course. Now, what do you want? Spit it out."

The woman in red laughed. "She's got a temper."

"Well, Poison, do you blame her?" the man asked, with a chuckle that I didn't find pleasant at all. "I'm sorry that we had to use Poison to render you unconscious, but what we really have for you is more of a ... business proposition."

Poison winked at me, and blew out a little red cloud. That explained the dusty feeling. I made a mental note to stay away from her.

I focussed my glare back on 'Not Gareth'. "Why would you have any kind of proposition for me? You know nothing about me."

His smile widened. "Oh, Kenna, but we do. I know exactly who you are and I'll tell you right now that it would be very useful for us if you were to join our efforts. It's unfortunate that we had to get off on the wrong foot like this, but our other efforts to contact you have failed, so we got a little more proactive." He pulled out a black folder and flipped through a few pages for my benefit, where I could clearly see my name and some information written below it. It looked suspiciously like the file I knew that the Supers had on me.

My fury intensified. "I don't know how you got that, and to say I don't appreciate it is an understatement. I presume you'll have seen in there that I have no interest in getting involved in this world, and I suppose that's where you've learned that I'm 'difficult.' Let me tell you a few things in no uncertain terms. First, if you think that just because I'm not interested in joining the Supers I'll be interested in joining whatever nefarious scheme you've cooked up, then you really do know nothing about me. Second, if you don't back off and let me leave right now, you'll find out just how difficult I can be." There was no point in mincing words; they obviously knew what I could do from the file. 

I stood up, letting the chair scrape back loudly. I noticed Electron flinch a little beside the Man.

The Man motioned to Electron. "I'm sorry to do this, Kenna, but I really must insist that you do reconsider and stay to hear us out. As you were present at the museum the other night, you'll know that we failed in our objective of securing the amulet. Your talents would be enormously helpful to us in this. Since you insist on being 'difficult,' as you say, Electron will have to make sure that you don't leave quite yet."