The laughter in our corner of The Daily Grind had just died down after one of Jake's particularly terrible jokes. I was swirling the last of my tea in my cup, a small, genuine smile on my face.
In that moment, the world felt simple, warm, and contained within the four walls of the coffee shop. It was a fragile, beautiful peace.
And then it shattered.
A chime, synchronised and sharp, echoed from every datapad at our table.
A priority news alert from V-Net, the same one that pinged on every device in the city. The headline, in stark, crimson letters, was a gut punch.
EVIL VILLAINESS DECLARED PUBLIC ENEMY #1 FOR CHILD KIDNAPPINGS; GUILD ISSUES 'DEAD OR ALIVE' ORDER.
The warmth in my chest instantly turned to ice. My smile vanished. I tapped the link, and the news report filled my screen.
It showed the grim, furious face of Director Valerius. It showed the grainy, heartbreaking photo of a missing six-year-old girl.
And then it played the recording.
Pathfinder's voice, choked with static and terror. "…my god, the children… they're taking the children… a voice… that terrible, layered voice… it's her! It's the Villainess!"
I stared at the screen, my blood running cold. The voice in the recording… it was a cheap imitation, a distorted mockery of the voice I had used on Caden.
But to anyone else, it was damning. It was undeniable. They had framed me. They had taken the most heinous crime imaginable and laid it at my feet.
"This is insane," Jake whispered, his face drained of all colour.
"Kidnapping kids? That's not us. That's not you."
"It's a fabrication," Mark said, his voice trembling as he analysed the audio file's metadata.
"The waveform is all wrong. The layering is artificial. It's a fake. A damn good one, but it's a fake."
"It doesn't matter if it's fake," Maya said, her voice low and hard, her eyes scanning the panicked reactions of the people around us.
"They've broadcast it to the entire city. They've made it the truth. Look."
The mood in the coffee shop had shifted. People were staring at their screens, their faces filled with horror and outrage.
The name 'Villainess,' which had been whispered with a kind of rebellious glee, was now being spoken with fear and hatred.
We weren't symbols of anti-establishment justice anymore. We were baby-snatchers. Monsters.
Our moment of peace was over. Our summer vacation had lasted less than a day.
Warehouse. Now, I typed into our secure channel, my fingers numb.
We left the coffee shop, melting into a crowd that now looked at every shadow with suspicion. The walk was silent, the weight of the city's newfound hatred a physical pressure on my shoulders.
In the cold gloom of the warehouse, the reality of our situation crashed down on us.
"They put a kill order on you," Jake said, pacing back and forth like a caged animal.
"Not just the Guild, everyone! Every cop, every wannabe hero trying to make a name for themselves… they'll all be hunting you."
"They're not hunting me," I typed, my words appearing on the projected screen.
"They're hunting the Villainess. But if they ever connect her to Luna, I'm dead. And they'll come for all of you next."
"So what do we do?" Leo asked, his newfound confidence shaken.
"How do we fight this? We can't just release a statement saying 'it wasn't us.'"
"We have to prove it," Maya said, her mind already working, her fear being channeled into strategy.
"We have to find the real kidnappers and expose them. It's the only way to clear her name."
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Mark countered, frustration creeping into his voice.
"Run a city-wide investigation? We're five teenagers. We have no resources, no infrastructure. Our last mission succeeded because we had the element of surprise and because we were stealing data, not fighting a war.
To do this, to go up against the Guild and whoever is really behind this, we need… more."
He was right. Our operations had been running on a shoestring budget: my meagre VP earnings and the cash from our part-time jobs.
For what lay ahead, it wasn't enough. We needed secure servers, untraceable comms, burner datapads, safe houses, transportation that wasn't a hot wired construction hauler.
We needed money. A lot of it.
"I can solve the 'how to store it' problem," Mark offered, seeing the direction of the conversation.
"I can build a ghost network. A series of encrypted, offshore bank accounts, layered so deep and protected by so many shell corporations and false identities that even the Guild's best forensic accountants could chase the money trail for a year and never find the source.
If they get close to one account, I can make the money jump to another, leaving a dead end behind. It would be… untraceable."
He had given us a vault. Now we just had to find something to put in it.
The System, ever the opportunist, chose that moment to intervene. A new mission prompt appeared in my vision, its scope larger and more complex than anything before.
[New Mission Type Unlocked: Campaign]
[Campaign Mission 1: War Chest]
[Description: You have been framed for a heinous crime and are now the city's most wanted fugitive. To survive and fight back, you require capital.
This campaign will focus on acquiring the necessary resources to fund your war against the corrupt establishment. Your enemies are wealthy and powerful. It is time to make their power your own.]
[Objective 1: Acquire a minimum of 5,000,000 credits in untraceable funds.]
[Objective 2: Uncover actionable intelligence regarding the true perpetrators of the child kidnappings.]
[Primary Target: Julian Thorne, brother of the City Mayor. Thorne runs a private security firm, 'Thorne Security Solutions,' which is a front for a massive money-laundering operation.
He holds illicit funds for corrupt heroes and politicians in a privately-owned, off-the-books vault. The vault currently contains approximately 8.3 million credits in untaxed, unmarked currency.]
[Reward: 1000 VP, 250 EXP, 1x [Team Skill Slot].]
[Failure Penalty: The current location of all team members will be anonymously leaked to the Hero Guild.]
The penalty was absolute. A total party kill. But the reward… it was everything we needed.
Money to fund our war. A lead on the real kidnappers.
And a "Team Skill Slot," something I had never seen before, something that hinted at a new level of power for us as a unit.
I shared the mission details with the team. The fear in the room was still there, but it was now being forged into something harder, sharper. It was becoming rage.
"The Mayor's brother," Maya breathed, her eyes gleaming with a fierce light.
"They use their power to protect rapists and frame their enemies, while their own families get rich off the corruption. The hypocrisy is staggering."
"So we're robbing the Mayor's brother to fund our investigation into the crime the Guild framed us for," Jake said, a slow, dangerous grin spreading across his face.
"Man, I love this job."
The mood had shifted. We were no longer victims backed into a corner. We were a cornered animal, yes, but we were deciding to bite back. Hard.
Oracle, Maya,I typed, my command ringing with a new, cold authority.
I want everything on Julian Thorne. His vault, his security, his habits, his weaknesses.
I want to know the name of his pet goldfish. Havoc, Ghost, rest and prepare. This will be our most dangerous mission yet.
They all nodded, a silent, unified agreement. The carefree teenagers who had been celebrating in a coffee shop an hour ago were gone. In their place stood Ghost, Havoc, Oracle, and our Historian.
And me. The girl they called the Evil Villainess. Public Enemy Number One.