When the anonymous call came into the police station, no one knew what to make of it. The person on the other end spoke the second they'd picked up, not even waiting for the officer to speak.
"You need to go to 118 Eclipse Way."
The officer blinked. "Is that the correct address? That's the home of [Hero]--"
"I know it is. And you need to get there now. [Hero] has captives being held there."
The officer paused, unsure of what to say next. They waved a few more officers over and put it on speakerphone.
"I'm sorry, can you please repeat your last statement?"
"[Hero] has been holding people captive for months. You need to go to their house and free them."
Now all of the officers were stunned, but skeptical. [Hero] is beloved by everyone in the city. They would never do something like this.
"I don't expect you to just blindly believe me." The voice suddenly spoke again. "I'm just asking you to go and look. Actually look. Don't take [Hero's] word for it. They're kept in a cellar."
The police chief, who had been listening from their office, walked to the phone.
"And how would you know about all of this?"
It almost sounded like the caller was... crying?
"I know... because they've bragged about it to me when they took my partner."
The caller was sobbing now. They abruptly ended the call before anything else could be said.
The officers all looked at one another.
"Well," the chief began, "let's go pay [Hero] a visit."
--------------------------------
[Villain] stood in front of the payphone, covering their mouth to quiet their sobs. They were trembling, leaning heavily against the side of the little half-booth to keep from completely collapsing. Now they could do nothing but pray the police would listen to some anonymous caller about the "beloved [Hero]" and investigate. If not, [Villain] knew they'd never get to see [Vigilante] again.
