(January 6th, 2030)

  Once Shine had dragged Fake and Bella to her office, he was irked by how lavish the place was. Fully stocked bookshelves, liquor cabinets, a large television, and fine art pieces lined the walls. She also had huge cushioned chairs, and her desk was about half as lavish as the real Penspot’s had been before the Shining Darkness had torn it in half. It was clear that a good chunk of the funds that should have been going to maintaining the prison were being diverted to Benna’s personal comfort.

  Shine softly threw Benna and Fake into the chairs before he walked over to her desk. At first, it seemed he was going to take a seat, like a stern principal. Instead, Shine put his foot against the edge of the desk and pushed. It slid so hard that when it hit the door and barricaded it, its front had also cracked into splinters.

  With everyone sealed inside, Shine towered before his prisoners and stated, “Now, Benna. Tell me why there’s a Sally Penspot imposter in your prison instead of the real deal.”

  Benna looked to Fake desperately for help, but she diverted her gaze in terror. As Benna gulped, Shine slowly tapped his foot. Each tap made the warden flinch in expectation. Clearly, she was torn between a potential threat and the monster in front of her.

  “Okay, fine!” Benna screached on the tenth tap before she unleashed a torrent of secrets. “My bosses wanted Penspot and her crew freed, so they paid me double the usual to look the other way when they replaced her, Viper, and Powerhouse with these clods.” Benna then gestured at Fake, who flinched at the attention. “But, you can’t judge me! I needed- The prison needed the money. Even with the cops we’ve got slapping false charges on people, Disaster’s profits have been plummeting ever since you scared the good-for-nothings off the streets. I’ve even had to start extending sentences.”

  The more Shine listened to this rat ramble about her abuses of power, the more he wanted to yell at her. However, he didn’t want to risk that the spewage of information might stop by scaring her.

  With silent rage, Shine questioned, “Your bosses. Focus on them for now. Tell me everything you know about them. What are their plans?”

  Benna looked up at Shine as if she were a reprimanded child before she replied, “If… If I give this to you, I… I could be killed.”

  Annoyed into action, Shine leaned down to Benna’s eye level and retorted plainly, “And I could hide you away and torture you forever. Which is worse?”

  “But… But I thought you didn’t kill people,” Benna whimpered.

  The glow of Shine’s eyes intensified as he retorted, “I don’t.” He then straightened his posture and elaborated, “But you’ll wish I did.”

  “Mu- I… I… His name is Mr. Ravage… That’s what everyone calls him. He’s some kind of super crime boss.” As Benna talked, Shine could tell from her anxious glances around the room that she was expecting something. “He was working to turn Miracle City into this thing he calls a Sacrifice City. It’s this project to turn a city into a crime cesspit, pull in the profits, and leave the place to rot.”

  Although enraged at how casually these scumbags would ruin the lives of a whole city, Shine focused on the bigger picture. “This city’s been this way for decades. How much longer was this plan supposed to last, and how long does it normally take…? Is it still ongoing?”

  “Um… Mr. Ravage targeted Miracle City back in the 80s. I think there was just a little over a decade left until the city was supposed to be abandoned. People like me had a way out, obviously,” Benna admitted so casually, Shine nearly struck her by reflex. “As far as I know, he gave up because you’ve made most crime impossible to pull off here.”

  That explains a lot. Shine thought wrathfully. Death Head sometimes talked about how the crime in Miracle City was worse than it had any right to be. Hmm. If it hadn’t been for this Sacrifice City crap bringing more crime in artificially, I bet he and the Urban Strikers would’ve made Miracle City at least livable… This Ravage jackass must be old as Hell… Assuming it’s all been the same man.

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  As Shine growled, he asked, “Alright. It sounds like ‘Mr. Ravage’ has ties with the government, given what he can get away with. How much power does he wield? Also, tell me every other city he’s marked for sacrifice.”

  Once again, Benna glanced around the room anxiously before she answered, “I- I think Mr. Ravage’s empire goes across the Americas. Maybe even the world. As far as I can tell, he pretty much runs the world's underworld. And the other Sacrifice Cities? Uh, I know he’s targeting Twilight City now. As for existing projects, there-.”

  Just then, steel barricades covered the office’s doors and windows. As Benna and Fake yellped in fear, a red gas hissed free from the ceiling.

  Huh. That took longer than I thought. Shine admitted internally.

  Even before it reached him, Shine could tell the gas smelled awful. Like a smoker’s breath mixed with cheap whisky. However, Benna seemed far more concerned than a foul odor would warrant.

  “No! No, please, Mr. Ravage! I didn’t have a choice! He was gonna torture me! Please!”

  “Would you calm down?” Shine asked irately.

  Akin to a missile, the Shining Darkness ignited himself in white flames, shot at the window-side walls, and struck them with a full force punch. The sheer speed of this move caused two sonic booms, one from his sprint and another from his fist. Steel and cement rained on the roofs below the office as Shine’s glowing frame rivaled the setting sun.

  He then rushed to Benna and Fake, grabbed them, and jumped out of the room just before it could fill with pungent gas. They then landed on the roof of a cellblock. As Shine dusted off, he noticed Benna and Fake hyperventilating, so he ensured his healing flames stayed on until they caught their breaths.

  Once his hostages had been artificially calmed, and any damage his sonic booms might’ve done was repaired, Shine folded his arms behind his back, looked down, and told Benna, “Alright. You were saying?”

  |X|

  With all the info Benna could give in hand, Shine had started jumping back toward his hideout. Behind him, his former hostages had been left in the grassy fields far from the prison and warned to go into hiding.

  When Benna had begged Shine to protect her, he thought about leaving her to her fate, but realized it would be foolish to let Mr. Ravage capture her. So, once Benna figured out a place to hide herself and Fake away for a couple days, Shine gave her an emergency number she could use to tell him her location. Thankfully, with John’s technical know-how, this number couldn’t be used to track them down.

  As Shine soared through the air, he decided to contact John. But, just as he landed on top of a skyscraper, he was a bit startled when his earpiece came on by itself.

  “Okay, soooo, I was listening to a lot of that. I didn’t want to interrupt,” Hardwire’s voice admitted from the other end. “You, uh… You weren’t actually gonna torture her… right?”

  Hurt and shocked, Conner replied, “What? No! Of course not. I was just scaring her.”

  “Oh, oookay. Good,” John sighed. “So, got a lot to tell you: First, I got into Disaster’s security footage. If the Big Bads try to doctor it, I can release the real stuff.”

  “Really?” Conner asked, impressed. “I didn’t think you could hack a whole surveillance system that big at once.”

  “Heh. Yeah. A couple nights ago, I reworked the A.I. I made for my face-scanning program to help me cover larger networks. This stuff’s no problem for me anymore… Oh, speaking of A.I., I tracked down the company that created the deep fake tech used in that fake video of Chaos.”

  “Whoa. You’re working fast, Hardwire.”

  “Yep. Buzz is a Godsend… Oh, I’m calling my program Buzz,” John explained hurriedly. “So, this company, called Wink Tech, seems to be a shell corporation for a bigger company, Joust Link. Not sure how far it goes, but it’s probably connected to this Ravage guy and whoever else is part of the Big Bads.”

  Sitting on the building’s crown, Conner remarked, “Sounds like it. When you can, see if these companies are stationed in any of the Sacrifice Cities. Is there anything else before I rush back to base?”

  “Oh, yeah,” John replied with hesitant calm. “Uh… We’ve got company. Mask company. They’re waiting for me in the lobby while I finish this call.”

  Floored, Conner nearly slipped off the skyscraper as he asked, “I’m sorry, what?”