When I opened my eyes, I noticed that I was in a very large room. It was nearly empty.

Then I noticed that I was tied to a chair and had a piece of fabric covering my mouth.

What happened? It was then that I remembered the strangers, the weird lavender smoke and falling to the ground.

"Oh, you're finally awake!" A voice said from behind me. "Didn't think it'd knock you out for that long, to be honest. Mercator severely underestimated its effects, I see."

I attempted to look over my shoulder, and caught a glimpse of a sad face mask. Nightmare.

I tried to say something, but it was muffled by the fabric, so it sounded like I was just making noise. I noticed a small table nearby. On the table was my phone and the pebble Foolish gave me, so they'd clearly emptied my pockets.

"Oh, sorry about that," Nightmare said as he noticed my attempt to speak, "but we had to stop you from shouting for help somehow."

I shot a glare in his direction as my phone started ringing.

"Oo, lets see who this is, shall we?" Nightmare read the contact name out slowly. "Crepitus. Hm." He answered the call.

Crepitus' voice rang out. "Hi. Just wanted to check that you made it home okay- Foolish said you were determined to walk home by yourself." I could hear the eye roll in his voice.

"Sorry, wrong number." Nightmare chirped.

There was a pause. "Who's this?"

"Well, you'd think that you'd know my voice, the amount of times you've fought me!" The villain said brightly.

I opened my mouth to yell for help, to tell Sam to get off the phone and call the police or something. He must have noticed my sharp intake of breath, because Nightmare's head turned towards me quickly and he shook his head. I closed my mouth.

"Where's Y/- Echo?" Sam asked, his voice eerily void of emotion. "How did you get their phone?"

"Oh, is this Echo's phone? I'd never have guessed. I just..." Nightmare paused with mock thoughtfulness. "...found it on the side of the road?" He tried.

There was a beeping sound as Sam put the phone down.

"Well done, now your pathetic hero friends know you're with me." Nightmare spat.

How was that my fault?! I raised one eyebrow, trying to convey what I was thinking without humiliating myself by trying to speak.

"Don't give me that look." Nightmare muttered. "I invented that look."

Was he really joking with me when had just quite literally kidnapped me?

I glanced up as someone else walked in. It was Spectre, who looked a mix of guilty and amused.

"You really think it's a good idea to keep Echo in the same place Zaeim and Lucendi we're investigating only months ago?" The villain queried, glancing at me.

I didn't respond, turning my head away from him and closing my eyes as I remembered the discovery of his identity a week ago.

"They're pretty insistent not to say anything." Nightmare said with a shrug.

"Probably because they can't speak." Spectre- Will- walked over and removed the piece of fabric from my mouth.

"Wi- Spectre! Why would you do that?!" Nightmare snapped, rushing over to fix it.

"Geez, maybe so I can speak? Why else would he do it?" I snapped.

"Exactly." Spectre defended himself.

"Shut up you, I was speaking to Nightmare." I muttered crossly, still refusing to look at him as I opened my eyes.

"Jeez, someone's sensitive. What did he do to make you mad?" Nightmare asked with a laugh.

"Why am I here?" I asked, avoiding his question.

"Well... partially because the heroes have hurt a lot of recently, and a lot of them seem to be rather attached to you... and partly because they can help us set up a trap for that Deactivator kid." Nightmare said calmly.

"Why would you tell them that?!" Spectre hissed, elbowing the other villain.

"Well, by the time they get out of here, it'll be too late for the heroes to stop us anyway." Nightmare muttered.

——

I blinked open my eyes. Had I fallen asleep already? Jeez.

Wait, I was in my room?

Maybe it was just a dream.

I got out of bed carefully, rubbing my eyes with a yawn. Huh. I slept with my mask on. Weird.

I heard a knock at my front door.

"What is it?" I muttered, somewhat cautious.

It was Crepitus, in his hero outfit.

"Oh, hey Crepitus. Why are you in your hero stuff?" I yawned.

He didn't respond, glancing around quietly.

"Crepitus...?" I asked warily, following his gaze.

I slammed the door in his face as his eyes flickered red. That's what his eyes do when he's going to blow something up! ABSOLUTELY NOT PLEASE DON'T BLOW ME UP, MY FRIEND.

"Okay, are you having problems with your powers or something? Because Puffy or Swift can probably help you with that! Not me!" I went to lock the door, but the lock was.... Gone? What the hell?!

There was a loud bang as the door blew up.

——

My eyes flew open with a gasp. I was back in the chair, and the right side of my face where the explosion had caught me -in my dream?- was covered in blood.

"Well, that was certainly an interesting dream. Was it fun?" Nightmare asked.

Fun?! "No, it wasn't! There was an explosion, and- wait. Nightmare. Why did you do that?" I asked, trying to stop my voice from trembling. I closed my right eye as blood trickled into it.

"Well, we need to have some leverage against the heroes, some sort of threat- we're basically just babysitting you if we let you just sit in the chair till they come to rescue you." Nightmare said as if it was obvious.

I closed my other eye, turning my head away from him. I just hope the heroes can find me quickly. If they don't, I guess I'll just have to get out of here myself...

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