The dark web wasn’t as sinister as some fearmongering news outlets made it out to be, but one still needed to be cautious with what websites they visited. A good VPN and a strong antivirus went a long way, in my experience, and I always double checked that both of them were in good shape whenever I started a browsing session.
Satisfied, I opened my browser and made my usual trip down to Masquerade.
There were no shortage of superhero fansites online, but I wasn’t the sort of person who wanted to waste her time on inane fangroups and mainstream news outlets. Masquerade was a forum that catered to people with less... wholesome interests.
If someone wanted uncensored footage of superhero fights? Masquerade had them in abundance, even if the videos were not for the faint of heart. Insane conspiracy theories about the heroes and villains of the world? Always welcome in the schizo-infested waters of Masquerade’s main chat room. And if someone wanted to hire a villain, or sell some supertech? Masquerade was a perfect spot for that too.
It was how I had organized that deal with the Kings, after all.
The site looked unassuming at a glance. A dark grey background with silver boxes surrounding the text of each post in each thread. The logo, ever present in the top left corner, was a chibi version of Dauntless giving the viewer the middle finger while his cape flapped behind him.
I had opened a thread in the video request subforum, used mainly by people who wanted footage of specific hero battles. Things that the news did not cover, certainly not uncensored.
‘Anyone got any archive footage of Bonfire Night? CCTV or whatever from before the explosion.’
by Toymaker.
157 views, 0 replies.
I clicked my jaw tight and huffed through my nose. Lassie, sensing my annoyance, rested her head in my lap. “I don’t expect much from people and they still find ways to disappoint me.” Every once in a while I posted the same thread, had been doing so ever since I first found Masquerade, but it always got lost in the shuffle of continuous daily threads.
If it wasn’t a fucking snuff film from Punchinello or the like, half the freaks on this part of Masquerade weren’t interested. Even so, I held out hope that something from that night had to exist. Something that could confirm my suspicions.
Accidents and tragedies happened every day, yet the idea of the Slade job going that bad, at that exact time? It stunk. And I refused to believe my dad was gone, that my entire life had been torn inside out, over a fucking coincidence.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
My eyes drifted to the top right of the page, a notification of a red envelope with a 1 beside it. A PM. I sighed and shook my head as I went to open it. Another bot looking to sell dick pills, no doubt.
To my shock, however, the title of the PM was something rather interesting:
‘U want the truth of bonfire night???’
from CH3SH
I narrowed my eyes, hovering my mouse over the message. Might have been a prank, I thought. I’d open this PM and be flashbanged with something horrible. Yet, despite my apprehension, I gave the link a click.
The PM contained no text, just a single black and white image of what looked to be grainy CCTV. I raised a brow, staring intently at the mess of pixels and artifacting “The hell?” I mumbled to myself.
My eyes drifted to the large white text on the top of the image.
NAT BANK OAK CITY – 09/22/2024 – 15:32:07
“That was only a few months back, and Oak City is...” I opened another tab and did a quick check. “Canada?” I searched for any records of a bank robbery in Oak City on that date but found only short and stunted articles, referring to nothing more than an ‘incident’ at the national bank.
A sense of unease formed in my gut.
Whenever the news reported of an ‘incident’ and released next to nothing to the public, that always meant ANVIL were involved and doing some kind of government hush job.
The more I stared at the image the more it made sense. It was a frame taken from outside a bank vault, depicting two security guards being knocked flat by... something blurred? Something moving at high speed, I realised. My eyes followed the blurred thing to the source, where I could see something long and thin like a rope attached to... a man’s arm?
The person attacking the guards had a similar rope protruding from the other arm and was dressed in a costume that contoured to his muscles. His mask covered his face, and was distinguished by what looked to be a pair of fangs where his mouth should have been,
“That guy looks.... familiar....” I trailed off as the blood in my veins turned to ice. “That’s fucking... Sidewinder?!”
Sidewinder had been one of the villains with my dad on Bonfire Night, the guy who had invited him along on the job in the first place. The only place he should have been was as ash floating on the wind, not alive on CCTV footage in fucking Canada!
My hands were a blur, curiously typing a message to this mysterious CH3SH, asking them where the hell this photo had come from. But the forum’s UI said they had been offline for over half an hour, and god knows when they’d be back..
“Shit,” I hissed to myself. Nothing could ever be easy.
Sidewinder being alive should have been impossible. And it wasn’t a matter of someone just taking up a piece of tech, like what happened with Flamethrower and Red Hippo. He was an Augment, not an Apex, his body modified with experimental cybernetics that gave him bulletproof skin and extendable steel coils in his arms.
From what I could remember, because I had taken the time to read what I could on all parties involved in Bonfire Night, the Circuit had been the ones who gave Sidewinder his upgrades. But they had been wiped out years ago, well before Bonfire Night.
So the idea of someone having the same implants, and a similar costume... It was possible, but it didn’t feel likely.
I stared at that image on my laptop, as if hoping my glare would will it into motion. “How the fuck are you there?” I muttered under my breath.
The sudden and loud clicking of the front door being unlocked snapped me to attention. I glanced over my shoulder and cursed, disconnecting from Masquerade.
An answer from CH3SH would have to wait. At least until Gail and Brian were done playing family for the evening. Yet, as I rose from my bench and made for the door, I could not shake that image of Sidewinder from my head.
If that was him, if he had information on Bonfire Night, then I’d pull that information from him. Even if I had to tear him apart piece by piece to get it.
