#kidnapped Sidekick

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

we need more hero/arch-nemesis duos whose backstory is being bitterly, bitterly divorced

[wandixx]

Ghost of fries and Hero of cookies

All work words count: 14 593

Words in this part: 2 224

Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay Or Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway

This part summary: First meeting and training discussions Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

Duke was running out of fumes to run on. Last few days would be exhausting if it was just vigilante or just civilian stuff but no, he had to have it both. Because of Arkham break out he had been called in three nights in a row, not for a whole patrol but he couldn't exactly sleep it of during the day like others did, especially not in a week when every teacher decided they need to have test or quiz or what not. Naps meant he wasn't as sleep deprived as he could be but he needed far more. But he couldn't because crime in Gotham never sleeps so he had normal patrol to finish and there were about two ours left.

Would something bad happen if he just stopped for a moment and laid on a roof? Ten up to fifteen minutes. It was a slow day too...

Yeah, no, he deserved a moment to rest and if something disastrous was to happen in the meantime he would shame other Bats for not giving him enough time to sleep.

It certainly said something that he found gravel covering this roof to be quite comfortable. He set a timer for ten minutes and let himself close his eyes.

When loud screech of timer jolted him awake, he was suddenly fully aware that he wasn't alone anymore. He sat up a little too quickly.

"Oh, you're awake," white haired girl around Damian's age chimed, sitting cross legged just few feets away from him. She wore something that could only be described as an unholy mix of lab safety hazmat and skintight workout jumpsuit, white and black. When had Gotham gotten a new vigilante? "Good, I just returned from snack hunt," she added, gesturing at a big textile bag lying next to her. Duke didn't have enough brainpower to do anything more than ask.

"What?"

Girl shrugged, take out from BatBurger in her hand.

"You look like you have a bad day if not few days, so I've got you my cousin's bad day combo or at least closest thing I could. BatBurger burger isn't as good as NastyBurger but you certainly have better fries," as she spoke, second take out bag, 1 quart bottle of energy drink, juice bottle of same size and pack of convenience store brownies joined greasy paper bag sealed with a sticker.

"Is your cousin a speedster?" Excuse Duke, it was a totally valid question, he saw with his bare eyes both Wally West and Bart Allen when they visited Manor. Noone else would be able to stomach the amount of food they inhaled during their stays.

"Nah, we're not that fast or that hungry. Though I think I may get closer to speed of sound," So, clearly a meta if white hair and weir aura that let his eyes rest weren't enough indication "My cousin when he has bad few days he often forgets to eat so this combo has to help with there too. But I'll steal your fries of course."

Duke was not going to look gift horse in teeth, so he grabbed one bag and tore it open. There was classic combo with bigger fries and NightWings inside.

"Thank you..." he trailed off, hoping that girl would take a clue and introduce herself but she didn't. She just drowned her fries in ketchup and started munching. She had her own juice.

"My cousin always said that each part of this combo has different purpose," she explained instead, slightly muffled because of fries in her mouth, "This" she gestured towards fast food meal "is to sooth your stomach. This "she tapped energy drink "is to sooth your brain and kick it back online. This "she raised bottle of juice, "is to sooth your taste buds because energy drinks are war crime against them and this "she nudged brownies "is to sooth your heart because Ancients damn it, this day is awful and you deserve it. At least that's what he told me when I had day bad enough to deserve that," she shrugged, licking ketchup of her finger. Suddenly she froze "You aren't allergic, are you?

"No, I'm not," he confessed bewildered.

"Good"

For a long moment they sat in silence, devouring food the little girl brought. Duke distantly wondered if this was how night shift spent their snack breaks. It felt nice.

He was finishing his part of brownies when girl spoke up again.

"Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah" he was a little surprised to realize that it was true. He'll have to note down what she put in this 'bad day combo'. "Thank you"

"Don't mention it," she shrugged with general gesture of dismissal, "You're one of my cousin's favorite heroes because you're vaguely his age and handle Gotham alone during the day and I quote, "she did honest to God air quotes at that" 'As only hero in Amity-' which is a lie by the way, Val is doing great and even if he suddenly got problem with how she feels about his alter ego, he still has Sam and Tuck even if they're usually more of moral support. And I helped when I visited, so no, he isn't only one. Anyway as he said 'As only hero in Amity, my heart goes out for anyone who deals with this type of bullshit so Dani if you absolutely have to prank heroes, leave them out of it, especially Signal, he can't be older than Jazz, he doesn't need any more mess to handle.' All aliens and lanterns are also off limits because he is a space nerd. But you aren't space related so I'm like 80% percent sure he has celebrity crush on you," she slurped more juice, unbothered.

Duke was thankful he wasn't swallowing anything because for sure she would choke. He took split second to consider addressing... this whole situation and choose not to. He was not ready to be anyone's celebrity crush.

"Your name is Danny?" he asked instead.

"Dani" she corrected" with an I"

"Ok. It's nice to meet you Dani-with-an-I," She giggled, nodding her head slightly.

"It's nice to meet you too Signal"

Duke stood up, stretching a little. Dani joined him after hastily putting all the trash in her bag. She was a little higher than expected.

"I have to get back to my patrol"

"Cool," she drifted back a bit, making him realize that she was floating a few inches above the ground. She fixed her bag on her arm.

"Hey, can I hang out a little bit more? My cousin will go green out of jealousy when I tell him," she added with a mischievous smirk but Duke could tell there was more to it. He took a moment to consider it, which apparently made girl nervous "I can be invisible the whole time, like before," she offered, disappearing in the meantime. He could still tell where she was, because of her heat signature and other waves she excluded but for regular people she would be no different than surrounding air.

"Yeah, you can hang around and you don't have to be invisible. Just don't get in my way when I have to actually do some fighting."

She popped back to visible spectrum and pouted like Damian whenever he got benched.

"I can fight, y'know? I stopped mugging on a snack run."

It was ten god damn minutes, how could she get so much food and stop mugging in such a short time?!

Oh, right, superspeed. Still, impressive.

"I haven't seen it-" he started, channeling all Dick-trying-to-wrangle-Damian-into-socially-acceptable-activity energy he could muster "-so I don't know how you fight or even what powers do you have. If we tried to fight together we would trip over each other" It was a bare faced lie, Bat training made sure of that but he knew for fact that if he said anything else, the girl would be mad and probably did her own thing.

Was that what Bruce thought about all of them?

Oh no.

Dani still looked displeased but after a moment of consideration she nodded with a defeated sigh.

Suddenly she straightened like she got struck by lightning and whipped around.

"Wha-"

She just shushed, raising finger to her mouth. Duke did indeed quietened.

"I have enhanced hearing," she whispered "There is a mugging somewhere this way."

"Let's go then," he shot his grapple, waving his other hand at Dani to come with him before he jumped off the roof. He heard the girl giggle as she flew right after him.

"After this you'll show me the coolest gargoyles, okay? Sam asked for photos"

"Okay"

It seemed that the end of this patrol wouldn't be as bad as the start was. Hopefully.

And afterwards he was going to lock himself in his room until sky falls down or he was well rested.

Yeah, that was a good plan.

********

"Hey kid," Signal started, dropping from fire escape to cuff weirdo in clown mask who Dani just fought. He did it deliberately slowly to show her how to do it like he always did. She choose to not be to annoyed at being called kid again and noted to herself to come up with good codename later. All her previous ideas apparently weren't cutting it and she couldn't keep going by Dani because reasons.

"Yes?"

"Who gave you a combat training?" he asked getting up from a crouch and gesturing towards roof. So it's going to be longer talk, okay.

"My cousin," well, Flashes in Central taught her some stuff but it was more rescue and reassure type of deal not punch and kick, Sam tried to get her through basics of psychological warfare in activism, Tucker sweared he would teach her some programming and hacking but never got around to it, Jazz did some emotional training and Val offered to teach her Red Huntress skills when she got back, but yeah, all in all, Danny was the one to show her how to punch people. Even though it was more of 'shit we have to fight, observe maybe, idk' most of the time. She picked some tricks from Vlad too now that she thought about it, not that she planned to give him any credit for it, like, ever. "Why?"

"I have a bone to pick with him," vigilante announced, melting with the shadows. Dani sped as much as she could to beat him to the roof. She was competitive spirit like that.

Unfortunately he was first. She made another note to herself (she was so going to forget them in next five to ten minutes) to train her speed a bit more. She got tips from the guy with the title of The Fastest Man Alive for crying out loud, she shouldn't loose with the person who technically doesn't even have superspeed!

Signal sat cross legged on the gravel and tossed her a healthy granola bar. He kept doing it for some reason.

"I'm sorry to break it to you, but almost everything in your fighting technique is horrible. Your cousin did shitty job as a teacher" he started in warm slightly teasing tone. Dani felt attacked anyway.

"It's not like he has any sort of training either," she started, trying to sound nonchalant, rolling her eyes. "Cut him some slack," She bit a snack in attempt to cover her furry. It had chocolate and raspberries, was quite tasty and she was kinda hungry anyway. She wasn't sure she wanted to know how Signal knew it though "Everything he learned is from the trial and error by crashing through a few walls. Quite hard to care about 'technique'. I at least got his mistakes to learn from so don't you dare to speak about him like that!" alright, she lost it, she can admit it. But, Signal might be cool and Danny may or may not like him (she hoped he didn't, Val was much better option) but Gotham's hero had no right to say anything bad about her template. He didn't know anything. He didn't understand.

Signal looked like he was going to say something so she put her ghostly vocal cords to use and growled.

Don't-harm-family/will-fight/ protect-mine/don't-you-dare

She didn't stop to consider how unlikely it was for him to understand her. She crossed her hands on her chest, glaring.

Turned out, growl was enough of the warning. He carefully picked his next words.

"Sorry, it's not the way I should've phrase it," he started, his mouth doing the thing it did when people were embarrassed with themselves but in an uncomfortable, a bit angry way. He understood his mistake, good. She calmed her glare a bit. "I wasn't aware of you circumstances. If you want, I can show you some tricks, Batman is very throughout with his training"

"No, thank you, I'm good" she was still mad. So mad. And she was not pouting.

"Of course you're good but you can be better, more efficient."

"No." Whatever Signal would propose to her, she wouldn't agree. He said mean things about Danny not even a minute before. She couldn't let him have it on a principle!

"I'll give you a cookie after every training," he pleaded "The homemade, tasty one"

Well, that changed things. A lot of things.

"Yes please!"

He apologized anyway.

********************

Second part

I know democratic winner in poll for now is "publish all at once" and believe me, I respect democracy, especially now that I finally have rights to do things, but Tumblr wouldn't let me. Too long or something. So, it'll be in parts, sorry guys. I'll try to post all of the parts this weekend though (or one each day, I'll see).

Yes, I didn't have a name for this fic until five minutes ago, how did you know? It's quite alright though, I think. If you have better idea I may reconsider

[whump-galaxy]

The Villain finds the Hero’s secret identity and civilian home. They break in, not expecting to find much of use. Instead, they find the Hero’s best kept secret.

The Hero’s child, fast asleep in their bed.

[nelkcats]

Little shock

Every time Danny transforms into Phantom he relives a part of his death, his scars glowing a toxic green while he goes into small spasms; the first time it happened he held back tears to face Lunch Lady.

This caused him to try to stay more permanently in one form or another, usually changing only when he felt safe and out of sight; His friends told him that it wasn't healthy but they weren't the ones who suffered two to three electrocutions per day, Danny wondered if the transformations would ruin his nerve functions or sense of touch in the long run.

When he finally decides to move out after securing Amity and ends up in Gotham he begins to question which way he should stay, after all he's not too rushed to get a title yet. In the end he stayed as Phantom for over a week before deciding to go back being Fenton, unfortunately that transformation happened right in front of Red Hood.

Jason was calmly patrolling his territory when he saw the shiny meta that had settled in Crime Alley that week looking around, he followed him out of curiosity but before he knew it the meta had disappeared and a boy was left trembling and cursing while some Lazarus green scars glowed on his body.

As any sensible person would in such a situation, Jason took one of his pistols and bashed the supposed meta in the head with it; Danny shot him an offended look before trailing off, it was extremely weird waking up to Red Hood offering him some eggs a couple of hours later.

Because yeah, Jason wasn't going to let that obviously sore bat bait stay where B could see him, or where the League of Assassins got a peek so he just took the boy with him, having an excuse to cook was just a bonus.

[shortnotsweet]

APPLES IN THE SKY (excerpt from THE THRILLING AND NOT AT ALL REPETITIVE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MAN AND KID DANGER: “A CHRONOLOGY OF ENTIRELY TRUE AND HEROIC EVENTS COINCIDING WITH THE END OF HISTORY”) [1] [2] [3] [4]

[ Henry’s face is unreadable. In the background, desert mountains and vegetation rush past. Smoke rises in the distance, backlighting ambiguous red shapes that could be plant life, flaming crosses, or even ominous figures. The camera cuts to the back of the car with the invalid license plate reading “HERO”, speeding towards a red horizon. Ray twists back in his seat with a smile, reflected in the lens of Henry’s sunglasses. In the review mirror, Henry’s expression is contemplative. The shot pans to a bird’s eye view of the car eating up highway miles. ]

Charli XCX’s “Apple” from BRAT (2024): “I guess the apple could turn yellow or green. I know there's lots of different nuances to you and to me—I wanna grow the apple, keep all the seeds, but I can't help but get so angry you don't listen to me. To the airport—the airport.”

PANEL NOTES:

The smoke is an implication of wildfires in the surrounding area, which Henry and Ray simply drive past because there’s nothing else to do. Maybe those days are behind them. Maybe they’re just not adept in the art of firefighting, and the bigness of a wildfire is too rural or too raw for them to even adress. I think there’s a sort of irony to it, and it’s either heroes ignoring a disaster past their prime or simple not caring; they’re speeding off into an undefined future and therefore no longer grappling with apathy, but sliding into it. Thus, the road is interpreted as a junction between natural conflict running its course and urban obligation.

This was vaguely inspired, albeit not lifted directly, from my millionth or so reread of “Cuticle Tear” by atbash on AO3. Granted, it takes place in a broken-down truck and is not needlessly melodramatic, but AO3 user atbash does more with obligatory dialogue and omitted assumptions than I could do in 20 panels or so.

Specifically, the lyric “‘cause I’ve been looking at you so long now I only see me. I wanna throw the apple into the sky, feels like you never understand me, so I just wanna drive…” struck me as somewhat in line with the feeling—and example—I got from the fic.

Of course, neither yellow or green are used in the actual color palette, but the song carries themes of intertwined identity and generational effects passed down. I think Ray has imparted a lot of the best and worst things about himself to Henry, through the means of their friendship, professional, and mentor relationship. He’s not his dad. It’s worse, almost, that he’s not, because then it would at least be hereditary.

“Apple” is my favorite BRAT (2024) song right now, so of course it’s stuck in my head; I think there’s a flippant, escapist quality to it and can imagine two friends listening to it on the highway, checking out, but also—there’s not quite a realization, more like an unspoken feeling that what you are is a product. And it’s someone else’s fault. And when you look at each other, you’re seeing something else, or maybe you’re trying to. There’s something distantly escapist and obviously upbeat about the song, but there’s a disdain there, too.

It’s hardly visible, but the license plate on the car reads “HERO” singular, which is invalid but implies they have either a fake plate or Swellview is just so strange that their town itself has exceptions as to how they’re issued, again violating the laws and conventional physics of surrounding territory. They’re a weird exception, as always, and they’re getting away with it.

Their identities are so intertwined at this point that theyre conflated, so there’s an obligatory ego flattening going on as well as an erasure of both or one of them—most likely Henry’s—to accommodate. You might call it being a teammate, although how Henry feels about it after all this time is unsure.

Ray did this to him, the good and the bad doesn’t matter; it’s the fact that he did it.

[serickswrites]

Breakdown

Warnings: kidnapping, torture, restraints

"Hero," Sidekick called as they wandered through Base. "Hero, we have to go do--" But the words died in Sidekick's throat as they found Hero hunched over their desk, feverishly writing on a piece of paper. "Hero?"

"Can't talk." Hero didn't turn around. "I'm working."

Sidekick walked forward. Hero had been like this for days. And Sidekick wasn't exactly sure why. "What are you working on? Maybe I can--"

"Go away, Sidekick. You can't help me. No one can help me. It's all my fault," they said as they began to sob uncontrollably.

Sidekick had never seen Hero break down like this before. They weren't even sure they had seen Hero cry before. "There, there," they said gently as they patted Hero's back awkwardly. "I can try to help you. Tell me what's going on."

"I can't," Hero sobbed into their arms. "I can't tell you."

"When was the last time you slept, Hero?" Sidekick hadn't seen Hero leave this room in days. They had assumed Hero left and went to bed after they had. This display of emotion had them doubting that.

"I can't sleep. Not until I find them. I have to help them."

"Who, Hero. Who are you trying to save?" Sidekick tried to get Hero to look at them, but Hero only buried their head in their arms harder as they sobbed.

"Villain. I have to save Villain."

Sidekick tried not to recoil. "Why on earth would you save them?" They sneered.

"Superhero's gonna kill them. Instead of me."

***

Villain's chest was heaving as they sat in the chair Superhero had bound them to. The power suppressing cuffs kept them from breaking free. Kept them a prisoner for Superhero's torture.

"Why don't you just say it and we can be done?" Superhero paced around Villain. They had grown tired of this game. They wanted to end it. But they couldn't, not until Villain gave them the name.

"No."

Villain had been saying no for days. Days and days of denying Superhero. Days and days of pain and torture. Days and days of protecting the one person that mattered to Villain. Hero.

Superhero stopped suddenly in front of Villain, raising their fist high. Villain flinched. "You'll give me what I want. They all do eventually," Superhero chuckled.

"I'll die before I give you what you want." Though Villain was afraid, they knew their words were true. They would never betray Hero. Even if it killed them.

Superhero gathered their power as they raised their fist once more. "That can be arranged." And they released all their mighty power as they punched Villain in the gut.

[villainsandheroes]

Hi Hero

Sidekick sat tied in the chair. Taking deep, shaky breaths. “Y-you don’t ha-have to do this-“

Villain breathed in the fear, giving them a toothy smile. “That’s not what I asked you to sayyy. Why don’t we try again.” They stopped the recording. “Fifth times a charm~ Am I right Sidekick?!” They laughed manically before retuning back to a smile. “Now you can do It. Just need you to say: hi Hero. And can we try for a smile too?” They cooed gently.

Villain pressed record.

Sidekick couldn’t look up. Instead keeping their head don and squeezing their eyes shut.

“H-hi… Hero.”

[raiha-storm65557]

Prompt #29

Villain opened the door for Supervillain who carried Civilian carefully. Civilian feel asleep in the car, it would be cute if it wasn’t for the fact that this was one of the strangest hostage situations eighter of them had ever caused. “Supervillain and Villain have taken custody of Civilian.” Hero slammed their palm on the table, causing Sidekick to flinch. “Do they really think that they can take my future spouse from me?!” they cried out. It disturbed Sidekick, just a week ago they sat with a drunk, angry and crying Hero who had just been dumped by Civilian and now Hero was calling Civilian their ‘future spouse’? …this feels wrong.

Tag list: @mishinacoven

[random-writing-thoughts]

Thought #204

Warning: restraints, swearing

Feel free to change any pronouns if you use this. 😁

Hero pulled up to her house. She had just had the longest day of her life and she just wanted to sleep.

She reached up for her garage door opener and...

Froze.

Her garage was already open. And a car was parked in it. She lowered her hand and studied the car.

Black SUV. No license plate.

Someone got out of the car and Hero's heart dropped.

Not him. How did they find me?

Sidekick stood a foot taller than her and he had his stupid grin she had grown to hate plastered over his face.

Sidekick made his way towards the car.

"Shit." She put her car in reverse.

A car pealed around the street corner and stopped inches behind her car.

"No. No. No." She put her car in drive.

Another car came around the opposite street corner and stopped in front of her.

Sidekick was getting closer.

"I'm not going back." She unbuckled and crawled to the passenger door, throwing it open.

She jumped out of the car and sprinted towards the house across from her.

A hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her back. She stumbled and turned to see Sidekick smiling down at her.

"I'm not going back." She said clawing at Sidekick's hand.

He laughed and swept her up throwing her over his shoulder. "You don't get a choice."

He turned to her house.

"Or did you forget that you signed a contract. As far as I recall you still have three months left."

Hero kicked and hit at his back. "You think I'm actually going to help the group now?"

Sidekick stepped in the house and made his way up to the kitchen. He had already set up a chair in the middle of the room with ropes and duct tape surrounding it.

Hero's heart dropped.

Sidekick threw her to the ground and put his boot on her back.

Hero struggled kicking and fighting. "You're just not going to answer me. Bastard."

Sidekick chuckled and grabbed a length of rope. "I'm just going to let Villain answer your questions."

Hero froze. "He's... here?"

Sidekick grabbed her arms and pulled them together wrapping the rope tightly around her wrists.

"He sure is. And..." he pulled Hero to her feet and pushed her to the chair. "I don't think he's very happy with you."

Hero shook her head and stood. Sidekick pushed her back down. He wrapped a loop of rope around the chair and her wrists. She glared at him.

Sidekick smiled and tapped her nose.

"You're such a bastard. Why am I that important to the group? Why did you need to find me? Why..."

Sidekick rolled their eyes and pushed a balled up sock into her mouth.

"Too many questions." He grabbed the duct tape and put a strip of it over her mouth.

He sat down across from her and chuckled at her glare. "I'll be nice and answer one of your questions."

He pulled a small box from his pocket. Hero's eyes widened.

"I believe you were told to steal this and bring it back to Villain. But instead you disappeared."

Hero closed her eyes and shook her head.

Footsteps echoed through the house and Hero's eyes shot open.

Sidekick stood. "Looks like Villain wants to talk to you now."

[thelittlestspider]

realistically if superheroes existed, they would either be corrupt, exploited, or killed by the government.

[justbreakonme]

Punching Bag

(Sorry, life is still treating me as it’s punching bag, so…yeah. Here is this.)

“Well, I see why he isn’t the spy…” Assistant scoffed, looking back at the closed door, “And if he keeps walking on that cast, I’m taping him to the bed.”

Villain can’t help but laugh. This whole situation was so ridiculous. It was so strange and strained and fucking awful that they couldn’t do much else…

Their heart was breaking at the image on him on the ground, sobbing like they had never seen anyone cry before. Begging to go home. Did he mean back to Hero and Lover? Or was there another home, out there somewhere?

Maybe there had been, and wasn’t anymore.

It was hard to imagine feeling at home with someone who had left you for dead or worse… Hero didn’t know that they were different. That they wouldn’t hurt him. He probably thought that they’d broken out the thumbscrews and the rack already.

And he still wasn’t here.

“You still want him to stay here?” Assistant’s tone had shifted back to its normal somber tone, “Even after…?”

She gestured to where he had been laying.

“I-“ they rubbed a hand over their face, trying to think, “I guess it depends on what home means.”

“If it means with Hero and Lover?”

“Then they’ve got him fucked in the head, and he’s not going back.”

The anger that had been simmering since they saw Hero and Lover drive away was now starting to boil over.

“God, Assistant, you saw what they did to him. He’s practically a kid! And if that’s what he calls home-”

“I know…”

“I’m no angel, you know that, I know that, everyone knows that. But-“ they were shocked to feel tears coming on, “How could someone do that? They’re supposed to protect him…”

They wiped their eyes angrily. Hero and Lover had always been bad, but now, this was too far.

Assistant laid a hand on their shoulder. “Well, let’s hope that home is somewhere else. If not, he stays here. Safe. Alright?”

“Right,” they took a deep breath, pulling themselves back together, “Sorry, I just-“

She waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t apologize. You’re right.”

They stared up at the ceiling, sick to their stomach.

They’d been replaying the events of the day over and over in their mind, putting things together. It was too much.

Too much for them to just lay here.

They shoved themself out of bed with a groan and started towards the garage and their punching bag.

At least they had a punching bag that didn’t have feelings.

As they wrapped their hands, pieces started to fit together.

It had always been like that.

It’s why they had started doing this in the first place.

The first few strikes eased the sick feeling, cleared their head a bit.

We’re going to keep him here overnight. Then, tomorrow, we find out where home is.

Left hook.

If it’s somewhere else, we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it, but god that’s a bridge I want to cross. If not…

Right hook.

If Hero and Lover were all he had for a home, then I’ll make him a new one. Build it brick by fucking brick if necessary. But while that happened, he’d stay here.

Jab.

While he’s here, he’ll need medicine. Food. Sleep.

Cross.

He’ll need to know that no one deserves to be treated like that.

Crescent kick.

Especially at the hands of a mentor.

Side.

Not him.

Push kick.

Not me.

Roundhouse.

Not anyone.

They unwrapped their hands, letting muscle memory guide them into the shower.

They’d thought they were over this already. That they’d made their peace with it and left it behind but…

Back in bed, the sick feeling quickly returned, but thankfully exhaustion won out this time, and a dreamless sleep pulled them out of reality, past and present.

Tagging list:

@bleeding-letters @jadeocean46910 @summer1359 @hurtmebeautifully @haro-whumps @circus-of-pain @harri-007 @cupcakes-and-pain @blancasin @dont-touch-my-soup @celiacprincess @whumpitywhumpwhump @annablogsposts @epiclamer @aethernorwood @wolfeyedwitch @siren-of-agony @whumpy-butterflies @lettucecabbage-kun @suspicious-whumping-egg @pigeonwhumps @a-star-with-human-name @monochrome-episode @suffering-and-misery @briars7 @justice-for-rei @stayarmy321 @sacredwrath @dungeon-roomba

[wandixx]

Dani gives people heart attacks and brings down a lot of trafficking rings, making friends along the way. Everything by accident, really

Dani traveled around world, hadn't she? While doing it, she had to meet a lot of interesting people.

Like heroes or villains.

In civies or not or both who knows.

But to actually learn things about someplace you have to spend more than one night there. Like, idk? Month? Probably more but I doubt she would be able to sit in one place for any longer. In many places she is shorter.

Month is long enough to create some connections though.

Enough to get someone to realize when you disappear...

Yeah, Dani on her way of gremlin and self discovery ghosted bunch of people without second thought. They'll probably forget her in few months anyway. And she was everywhere in USA. She didn't left American soil only because she didn't want to be too far from Danny in case of emergency. Before anyone tells me he was in space so he could fly to her wherever on Earth she would be, Earth's atmosphere ends about 100 km above sea level and officially this is border of space. Telecommunication satellites are between 8000 to 12000 km up. It's about how wide Atlantic Ocean is.

Plus y'know, time. If she needs help, she probably can't quite wait until he flies all the way to Hong Kong, Wladywostok, Rio de Janeiro or wherever she is.

So America it is. For now at least. When they're 100% sure she is stable she'll fly elsewhere.

Anyway people who she ghosted are used to batshit crazy stuff but "this tween is alone on her road to self discovery and just left for new city" isn't first thing anyone thought about. Maybe outside of Martians. They know. Everyone else? No idea what happened to this tiny, chaotic, snarky, probably meta child.

First thought though?

She got kidnapped.

So now 3/4 of Justice League, some individual heroes and bunch of less intense rogues are scrambling around their cities tracking every trafficking ring they found glimpses of, trying to find Dani.

Flashes work with Captain Cold on this and seem to slowly descend into madness. At the same time, Dani eats ice cream with nice museum lady from Washington who introduced herself as Diana. Then she helps at animal shelter with kind stuck up boy called Damian. Oh, Danny likes aliens, let's visit Martian Manhunter. Maybe she'll manage to get autograph for her template. Wait Space Cops? Kinda sucks but Danny would probably like their signatures too. Let's go. Oh, Superboys are fun mess with and older one is like her! This Nightwing guy puns like Danny but she always feels like he looks at her weirdly. Billy should eat more, magic or not, fighting is tiring. Good thing she has Sam's money to buy him burgers.

She has time of her life while people she met are slowly dying.

She probably doesn't even hide that she is traveling but for whatever reason they don't think she actually left.

They don't bring it up on any meeting because no matter how concerned they are, it's not really whole league type of business. And Martians just discreetly enjoy chaos.

There is a lot of ways it can get resolved (or not) but I kinda thought about Jon introducing his old buddy Damian to his new buddy Dani because he thinks they would get along and they just stare at each other for long moment before:

"Dani..."

"Dami!"

"WHY DID YOU LEFT WITHOUT A WORD! WE THOUGHT YOU WERE KIDNAPPED OR DEAD!"

Some screaming and revelation that Killer Croc was looking for her too, Dani hits moment of realisation.

"Wait, is this what people think when you just up and go?"

"Honestly? Yeah"

"Oh, Ancients I did this to so many people. So many..."

Idk, just Dani traveling and leaving people behind.

Do with it what you will

[iwritewhump]

Experimental Injection

2023 year of whump

381 words

characters: hero, villain, sidekick

warnings: syringe, kidnapping, being injected

masterpost

~

Hero’s arm reaches out toward Villain, fist clenched. He lands the blow and Villain folds over, arms wrapping around his gut. Hero pulls back and smiles, “Sorry for the low blow. I need you still for this.”

Villain looks up, face twisted with pain as something jabs into his side. He turns quickly to see Sidekick capping a syringe. She smiles at him cruelly. 

Pain races through his veins, he doubles over and nearly collapses to the ground in less than a second. “What the hell is that?”

“I’m…not quite sure, to be honest.” Hero says. He squats in front of Villain and tilts his head, “Y’see, Sidekick and I were meeting with Supervillain the other day and she gave us a load of things she’s been cooking up. Some were labeled and some…” 

Villain moans in pain and curls into the fetal position. His vision turns white and he cries out. 

Hero coos and cups his chin, “Poor thing. How about Sidekick and I take you back to base and wait this out with you?” 

“No,” Villain manages, barely above a whisper. 

“Not a question.”

Sidekick picks him up, throwing him over her shoulder with a soft grunt. She follows closely behind Hero to the car and throws Villain in the car, not reacting when he shouts in pain. 

The drive seems to take forever, Villain can feel every rock in the road, his heart pounds in his chest and it feels like it’s trying to escape the torture. He presses his hand over his heart and feels it pounding, counting the beats. 

When the car finally stops, Villain whimpers at the sudden stop of movement. Without being jostled around, the only thing he feels is pain. 

The van doors open and Sidekick audibly rolls her eyes before grabbing Villain’s feet and pulling him closer to the end of the cab. 

She throws him over her shoulder again and carries him inside before grabbing his wrists and tying them behind his back; as if he could do anything to get away. She drags him to a table and ties him to one of it’s legs. 

“Alrighty!” Hero says cheerily. “As soon as that wears off, you let us know and we’ll get started testing out the rest of this stuff.” 

[msfcatlover]

So the Joker’s little “BANG!” guns can launch that flag pole out with potentially lethal force (at least, according to Batman Beyond). Which very much seems like the sort of thing he’d do—it’s a double punchline.

Why does no one ever just pull the trigger twice?

[serickswrites]

Make Me Your Villain XVIII

Master list here (includes chapter links, summary, and character bios)

Warnings: destruction, violence, kidnapping, drugging, burns

“You are so unbelievably careless and reckless, Liam!” Nova screeched as Liam materialized in the med bay. She had been waiting for him there for the better part of half an hour. She couldn’t watch the news coverage any further of the fire. Couldn’t watch the video feed that Henry had hacked into. She couldn’t watch and wait for Liam. Not when terrible things could be happening to him.

Henry had joined her, but nothing he had said had made her feel better. She was seething by the time Liam had materialized. Seething because it was far better to be angry than to experience the complete and utter terror she felt at the thought of Liam taking on Jude all alone. “Give me your arm,” she ordered gruffly.

“It’s fine. I can dress it.”

“Here, let me help you,” Henry said quickly as he hurried to one of the cabinets. Nova was sure he was beyond uncomfortable. But it didn’t matter. He hadn’t stopped Liam from going.

“Both of you are the stupidest smart people I know. Give me your fucking arm. I can heal you faster than it will take Henry to wrap you up.”

"I don't want you to drain yourself," Liam said as he sat on the exam table in the med bay. Nova watched as Henry began to clean and dress the wound. The flesh was deep, red, and painful looking, a stark contrast with his pale skin.

"It's a small one, Liam. Really it will take no energy at all." Nova frowned at Liam, her arms crossed tightly across her stomach. She had felt sick to their stomach watching the footage of Liam narrowly escaping from another failed attempt to assassinate Jude. She wasn’t ready to tell him about the baby yet. Not yet. Not when he had done something so terrifyingly stupid.

Liam shook his head. "It will heal on its own. Right now I need you to focus on growing your powers."

"I can't grow them anymore. Liam, it's useless. I can heal anything. I basically can't die. And I can heal anyone else of almost anything."

"Except death," Henry said softly, his eyes misting over as the memories of the last time Liam and Nova had found a civilian that Jude hunted—he could turn invisible, a handy power Jude would no doubt use to destroy more life. The civilian had bled out in Liam's arms from a deep slash to the gut because Nova hadn't arrived in time. Though she had tried to heal the civilian's flesh, she couldn't heal the civilian. The wound had passed beyond what Nova could heal.

"That's not what I think your powers are capable of. Sure you can't die because your cells are always healing, but healing others of death, that I think is impossible. I think there still needs to be a spark of life, a heartbeat—no matter how slow or faint—I think you need a heartbeat, Nova. I think it’s truly impossible to heal the dead. Death is the final thing that claims us all. Your power is life and to bring life. But you cannot bring life back where there is none.” Liam winced as Henry pulled the bandage tight. "I think your powers may be more similar to Jude's."

"If you're suggesting I'm a soul-sucker," Nova started angrily.

Liam shook his head, "Not at all, gorgeous. Calm down. Don't bite my head off, hear me out. In all my research about healing, there is some writings on some healers who could take away power, as a form of healing. I have traveled far and wide trying to find this information. I think this is it, gorgeous.”

"Are you suggesting that soul-suckers like Jude are really just giant walking wounds?" Nova couldn't believe what Liam was suggesting.

"Of the soul. Yes, I think that's exactly what they are. So not only are you Jude's answer to immortality, but you are also the answer to his destruction.” His eyes flashed with determination. Liam was so certain that this was the way to defeat Jude. And Nova couldn’t believe it.

"So, I'm just a weapon is that it?" Nova couldn't help but let anger color her words.

Liam's face fell, hurt flashing across his features. "I'm not saying that I--"

"That is exactly what you are saying. I'm either a weapon to be used by Jude or a weapon to be used by you. What about what I want?" Nova shouted the last.

"That's a lot to put on her shoulders, Liam," Henry scolded, "you could have at least given her some warning."

Liam's eyes shuttered and his face became guarded once more. Nova hadn't seen him like this in a long time, not with Nova or Henry at least. He only guarded himself against angry civilians now. "Would you rather I lied to you, gorgeous?”

Nova couldn’t believe him. Couldn’t believe he would sit there and lie to her. Couldn’t believe he would sit there with his perfect face and lie. Couldn’t believe he had been lying to her for five years. FIVE YEARS! Rage coiled in her belly and Nova was ready to strike.

"I'd rather you had left me in that house five years ago," Nova said, putting as much venom into her words as possible. Nova saw pain fill Liam's eyes as her words struck home. Liam's shadows pulled closer as if to shield him from further hurt. Liam quickly hid the hurt as he stared at Nova. His eyes were so impossibly sad once more.

Henry's face blanched. “Why are you saying this? You can't mean that, Nova."

Liam cleared his throat. "Oh, I think she very much did, Henry. And for that, I am sorry that I didn't leave you behind, Nova. I couldn't bring myself to do that."

Nova rolled her eyes. "Saint Liam. Ever the martyr who can never do anything wrong. Come on, Liam, be honest for once in your life."

Henry glared at Nova, rage filling his own eyes. "You should be ashamed of yourself. Liam has done nothing but help you. How dare you!" Liam put his hand on Henry's arm, silencing Henry with a gentle squeeze.

"Used me more like. How do you know that he didn't want to save me so that he could heal himself over and over? Why have a med bay when you have me?"

Liam opened his mouth, but Nova spoke first. "I don't want to hear it. I'm tired of your excuses." She pulled off her wedding band and tossed it at Liam. “I don’t think I want this anymore.” And she spun on their heel, running from the room. Nova half expected shadows to bar their exit, to wrap around her ankle and drag her back. But none came. She gave one last glance over her shoulder to see Liam's head in his hands, sobs wracking his body, his shadows blanketing him and Henry's hand on Liam's back. Nova glared and she ran outside.

By the time Nova had calmed down, night hand fallen. She sat in the most remote corner of the labyrinth—it had been the only place she knew that both Liam and Henry would leave her. Guilt roiled in her stomach as she realized what she had said. Why had she said any of those things? Why did she say it? She didn’t feel that way. Not even a little bit. She hadn't meant any of it, hadn't meant to say those things, to hurt Liam. But she had. She had to make it up to Liam. Had to beg forgiveness. If Liam would even forgive her. Nova would spend the remainder of existence begging Liam's forgiveness.

Nova stood and turned to return inside, but found invisible bands had tightened around her ankles. Her heart leapt to her throat as she realized only one person had that power. Jude smirked as he stepped out from behind a tree. "Well, well, well, if it isn't my failed apprentice's apprentice. Guess I'm your grand apprentice," he chuckled at his own joke.

Nova desperately tried to free her legs, but her feet refused to cooperate. "Let me go." Invisible bands crawled up her legs, wrapping around her arms and chest, further binding Nova to the spot.

Jude cocked his head. "Why would I do that?"

"I'll give you my power. Just let me go. Take it from me, I don't care. Just let me go."

Jude chuckled darkly. "I didn't catch you today for your power, sweets." Suddenly he appeared before Nova. Nova's mouth went dry as she realized she hadn't seen Jude move. Jude stabbed a needle into Nova's arm. He depressed the plunger. "I caught you so Liam will come to me."

Nova felt faint at Jude's words. She was going to be bait in a trap for Liam. As she felt their powers drain away, Nova realized what Jude meant to do.

"You know, Liam always believed your power was the power I coveted the most. He was wrong, of course. My apprentice was so good at seeing everything except what was right in front of him." Jude paced around her. He snapped his fingers and the invisible bands lifted Nova into the air.

"You don't mean to take his power."

“He's the first shadow wielder to be born in a thousand years. Of course I wanted his power. But once I realized that I couldn't absorb it, I decided to keep him with me, so he couldn't wield the shadows against me. But now," Jude stared into Nova's eyes, "now they're used against me. So you're going to bring my wayward apprentice to me, sweets.”

"I won't!" Nova wasn't sure Liam would come for her anyway. Not after everything she said.

"You will." Jude stalked closer, his face inches from Nova's. "And once Liam is good and dead, then, then I will take your powers. And then no one can stop me."

Tags: @dutifullykrispyland@jesssmolfur@parad0xical2@st0rmm@keeper-of-all-the-random-things

@pigeonwhumps@gala1981@allylovessweets@whumpitywhumpwhump

[the-sidekick-club]

Enemy of my enemy is my kid!

Part 1 : Part 2 : Part 3 : Part 4 : Epilogue

Written by:

@tratieisdabest★@heroes-villains-side-blog​​★@just-a-space-rabbit​​  

TW: Death mention, Kidnapping, Torture mention, Death threats, Attempted murder, Violence, Daggers

 ıllıllı ➎...➍...➌...➋...➊... ıllıllı

A tired and monotone voice spoke "Welcome to Nizorro Blimp News with Dawn and Dima." The usual studio logo and jingle quickly flashed on the screens, before cutting to a pan of the anchors on the blimp. 

“Coming to you live from the news blimp, this is your eye in the sky…” Dima started but quickly stopped, looking over confused at their co-host. “Dawn?”

“Oh... um… Hello, goodmoring, and hi...” Dawn said in a sleepy and exhausted tone. 

“Yes, folks, as you can see it’s been a long night in the news blimp,” Dima said, trying to sound like her normal self. “This is the 8 o'clock morning news.”

Dima braced herself so she could calmly deliver the next words, “First off, an update on the Masked Mender case. It has now been a full 12 hours since the disappearance of the hero sidekick, The Masked Mender. Mender went missing during their patrol last evening. Her last known location was close to Monument Street at 19:37, where she reported that she had begun the tracking of known villain, The Shadow Man, who is still the main suspect in this case.” Dima looked over at her unusually quiet co-host; she could tell that Dawn was clearly worried. 

“All available heroes are still out searching, but there has been no official update from the agency. However there has been a rumour that Lady Alexandria has gotten in contact with Hirra, Masked Mender’s long-time rival and Shadow Man’s very own sidekick. No one knows if the rumours are true, or what it means if they are, but we can only hope for the best. And we will update you all as soon as we can…” 

 ❘〣❘〣❘★ Enemy of my enemy: Part 4 ★❘〣❘〣❘

“Get a move on!” the henchman yelled as he dragged Mender out of the small cell and in among the group. Mender, confused and scared, still tried her best to get an overview of the situation. But as soon as she and Shadows were out the door they were both blinded by sharp spotlights. 

The last they saw was a glimpse of Dragonfly who had begun to fly around the room, while his men cheered him on. 

Mender let out a small yelp in pain as the henchman suddenly made a hard tug on her shoulder. She wasn't sure if the henchman was doing it on purpose, as her entire body was beginning to feel sensitive from the powers suppressing cuffs draining her healing powers. 

After another push, she and Shadows fell forward, landing on their knees in the middle of the room. There was a wince from Shadows as he hit the floor next to her, clearly still in pain from the beating earlier. The cheering only grew louder and, looking around, it seemed that Dragonfly had gathered every henchman he had to the old warehouse they were in. Clearly, Dragonfly wanted to make a show out of whatever he was planning.

Then, all the cheering stopped as Dragonfly landed in front of the two captives. The atmosphere was thick as he smirked down at them. Suddenly, he yelled “Tie these two up!” 

The people on the floor above them cheered as the group below swarmed Mender and Shadows. The henchmen made quick work of the two despite them trying to get loose from all the ropes binding them in place.

“Hoist them up!” Dragonfly yelled, now from above them.

Mender's stomach made a jump as she lost touch with the ground. Normally, she wouldn't mind, as she often lept from building to building, but when it was by someone else's will, it was unnerving. Shadows, however, still had his quips, it seemed, “Really? Dangling over a pit? You’re just as unoriginal a villain as you were a hero!” he yelled as they came to a halt, hanging together in mid air.

“Bold words from someone at my mercy. Besides, it's not unoriginal, it's a classic!” Dragonfly answered smugly.

It was only now that Mender noticed that the power suppressing cuffs had finally been taken off, not that it was of much help to either of them now. They were both exhausted from the after effects; Shadows couldn't use his shadow-teleportation abilities, and Mender's body was ever so slowly healing itself. There was no chance either of them could escape that way, and it seemed neither had a backup plan. 

“Classic? Ha!” Shadows laughed. 

This confused Mender, ‘How can he laugh at this?’ she thought.

“So you like classic? What's next, then, Grandpa?” he mocked. “Gonna bind Mender to the railroad? Or bring out the shark tank? Ooh, or maybe piranhas, which is stupid by the way. Most can't even hurt humans. But, hey, you're too dumb to know tha–"

“Shut it!” Dragonfly snapped. “I’m only doing it as it’s needed to demonstrate the true power of the most dangerous weapon ever created!” Dragonfly tried to sound threatening, but he was clearly still salty from the insults.

“What do you even stand to gain from this?” Mender asked, before yelling  “Besides making an enemy out of everyone – both heroes and villains!” 

“Because, little one,” Dragonfly snickered, as he flew close to Mender’s face, “You can’t have fame without enemies!” 

“Of course, you can!” Shadow said, kicking in the air to make him and Mender rotate so he faced Dragonfly. “You just need time and discipline. Two things you sorely lack!” 

“I do have both time and discipline!” Dragonfly snapped back at Shadows. “Do you really think it was easy to track down Professor Andaka? NO! It took months of hard work!” 

“Professor Andaka?” Mender thought out loud. “Wait, it was you who kidnapped and killed Professor Andaka?! Why? What could you possibly stand to gain from that?” she said as the dots were now forming in her head. They still weren't connecting though. But Dragonfly just chuckled darkly, sending shivers up Mender's spine.

“Ah, yes. Almost forgot that you were a hero sidekick. With the way Shadows seems to protect you, one would almost think that you were his kid instead. Bet you heard a thing or two about good old Andaka and the Emanation and Growth Genesis, the last few weeks” he smirked at Mender’s face that was now filled with horror – clearly she did, she knew exactly what was about to happen to them.

He continued. “Professor Andaka, was a weak fool for not understanding the gift given to him.” 

“Professor Andaka was a better man than you’ll ever be!” Shadows yelled, far angrier than Mender had ever heard him before. Ane if she could've seen him, she would've noticed his watery eyes. 

“Oof, touchy subject there? Forgot that you actually looked up to that old fool.” Dragonfly said mockingly as he flew further away from the two captives. “Not my fault he never succeeded, all I did was take what he started and bring it over the finish line! Now, let’s show it to them!” he yelled at the engineers below.

On cue, the tall curtains opened up, finally revealing the corruption of Andaka’s dream. Shadow looked horrified. “In the notebook of that old coot,” Dragonfly began monologuing, “he talked about the struggle to suppress the E.G.G.'s powers. When activated, it would drain any and all Aura out of a person, leaving nothing but a petrified statue, but for some reason, he seemed to think that it was a problem. I disagree. It was never and will never be a tool because it’s a weapon! And I am not a coward for being willing to use it!”

“Only a coward would resort to killing unless absolutely necessary! You are an evil excuse for a person!” Mender yelled and while she couldn't see it, Shadows gave a small smile at that one. But Dragonfly ignored her as he signalled the engineers, who all began the activation process.

“I wonder who will be brave enough to call me a coward when I become the most powerful and famous villain in the world! And what a start to my legacy: to be known as the villain who finally defeated the legendary Shadow Wraith!”

“Sir, we are ready to go in 120 seconds!” the main engineer called out. 

“Start the countdown,” Dragonfly ordered back before turning to the other two. “Shame how the little hero fledgeling ended up mixed up in all this.” He said in a mocking tone “I don’t need a healer right now, and the ransom that the agency is willing to pay for the return of a sidekick is just not worth the work. So, off she goes. But it’s nothing personal, just villain business.”

“That’s not true!” Mender yelled, but before she could continue, Dragonfly had already soared out of range. She felt her heart pound against her chest as all the henchmen began chanting along with the numbers. Then in all the panic, she suddenly felt a hand. 

“Hey…” Shadows said in a soft voice as he grabbed her other hand. 

“Are monsters good at maths?” he asked.

“What?” Mender replied, confused.

“Not unless you Count Dracula…” 

Mender’s panic seemed to subside a little, replaced with confusion. ‘Egging on a villain with the power to end you is one thing, but now he’s making maths jokes?!’

60 seconds... 59 seconds... 58 seconds... 

“Sorry” He said after some silence, “force of habit… I always joke with Hirra in stressful or dangerous situations… helps calm her nerves. Also, I’m not giving Dragonfly any more attention. So yeah…”

“I see...” Mender answered, thinking a bit before asking, “um… do you have any more jokes?” 

Mender was not sure, but she could almost feel Shadows smiling as he began, “Who’s the king of the pencil case?”

42 seconds… 41 seconds… 40 seconds... 

“I don’t know? Who’s the king of the pencil case?”

“The ruler.” Shadow said, smiling as he felt Mender begin to relax.

Then there was a sudden “Hey, what are you doing! You're supposed to be crying about the fact that you’re about to DIE!” Dragonfly yelled as he noticed that neither of them were focusing on the situation. 

35 seconds... 34 seconds… 33 seconds…

But before he was able to take Mender’s concentration Shadow started again louder this time “What’s the smartest kind of tree? A geomeTREE!” At that Mender gave a small giggle; geometry had been her favourite kind of math in high school.

So… when Dragonfly yelled “STOP!”... 

Of course, he did one more. 

“Do you know why seven eight nine?”

“Why?”

19 seconds… 18 seconds… 17 seconds… 

“Because you’re supposed to eat three square meals a day!”

He knew he had her, as Mender began laughing out loud. And the angry yelling from Dragonfly became an incoherent mess. “ARRRR!!! Shut up! STOP LAUGHING!!! YOU LITTLE—”

3 seconds… 2 seconds… 1 second… 

The entire building shook and smoke filled the room. For a few seconds, Mender thought she had truly died as the shock wave hit her and Shadows, sending them swinging backwards in full force. As Mender's ears were finally able to hear again, the first thing she was greeted with was a loud scream “NOOOOOOO! My weapon!” turning around Mender saw Dragonfly land by the rubble of what was once his master weapon. 

Mender looked down in shock as the engineers shakily got back on their feet “What happened?” one of them asked.

“The idiot probably built it wrong,” Shadows said smugly. There was still smoke coming from the machine and people were running about everywhere. The two looked down at Dragonfly as he tried to get a grip on what happened. 

Then, there was suddenly another loud bang coming from one of the walls of the base! “Oh, great! It's really my day!” Dragonfly cried as he jumped into the air and began to soar. All eyes shot upwards just in time for someone to break through. 

“Alexandria!” Mender and Shadows beamed when Lady Alexandria came into view. 

“And Hirra too!” Hirra yelled, smiling, as she appeared from behind Lady Alexandria with her favourite sword in her hand. 

“You brought Hirra? Here?” Shadows' look of gratefulness was replaced by a deadly glare. Lady Alexandria was unfazed though. 

“Sorry, but she just wouldn't take no for an answer!” she said, shrugging. Before turning her focus to Dragonfly who had moved up all the way to Shadows and Mender “You better have a good explanation for this!” she yelled out to him.

“What, I am just trying to deal with two trespassers, nothing out of the ordinary,” Dragonfly waved dismissively. “And I guess now I have more pests to deal with.” 

Suddenly, he signalled to his guards, who began charging at them. They were quick, but Alexandria was quicker. Wasting no time, she grabbed her famous shield and tossed it at full speed towards Dragonfly who went down with a bang at the other side of the room.

Then, just before the henchmen was about to reach them both, she grabbed onto Hirra and tossed her into the air towards Mender and Shadows. Soaring through the air, she cut through the main rope in one slice. The only thing Hirra heard as she continued in her forward momentum was Mender screaming as she fell backward on top of Shadows after he fell to the ground first with a loud thud.

But Hirra had no time to check on them, as she landed on the boxes next to the now grounded Dragonfly, who barely just got the nearly 40 kg shield off of him. 

They both locked eye contact with each other. 

Hirra may be smaller than Dragonfly, but she was clearly capable, and the other villain wasn't unaware. Dragonfly gulped almost cartoonishly when he realised Hirra was about to go for him. 

“Not so brave now without your henchmen, are you?!” Hirra snarled as Dragonfly finally tossed the shield off him and got up. 

“Isn't it past your bedtime or something?” he said, trying to regain composure as Hirras eyes practically lit up with rage.

“You tried to hurt them! I won't let you get away with this!” She pounced forward and began to move to attack him but Dragonfly was too fast.

The attack was quick, and in one swift moment Hirra fell back several feet and landed on the floor, while Dragonfly started to bolt past her to the exit. 

Scrambling to get back up on her feet in time, Hirra turned towards Dragonfly who was nearing the exit, and in one continuous motion she created a small knife and tossed it towards him, before she fell back down. What followed was a loud ear-piercing scream as one of Dragonfly’s wings fell off, but that didn’t stop him from running. 

The last Hirra heard of him was an angry “I’ll get you for this!”

Hirra sat in shock looking at the fallen wing before she remembered. Looking back to where Shadows and Mender had fallen, the anger in her face shifted to worry, a single whisper slipped her, “Dad…?”

While Hirra had dealt with Dragonfly, Lady Alexandria had made quick work of all of his men. They seemed to take the hint after she easily picked one of them up and tossed them at a whole group, sending them all to the floor. There was full chaos, as they all began to flee out the same hole that she had made only minutes prior.

Meanwhile, down in the pit, Mender had gotten loose from all the tangled ropes, then she had dragged a barely moving Shadows away from the centre to hide, before trying her best to heal him.

One by one, Mender used what little energy and power she had available to heal all his broken bones. Even with the gentlest touch she could give, Shadows still winced in pain as the area began to glow. After going over both feet that had broken in the fall, she made sure Shadows did not have any critical damage, then she stopped. 

“I’m sorry, I can’t heal you any more than-” she began, but he interrupted her.

“Don’t apologise! Thank you! And don’t worry, I have a healer friend that can patch me up when I get home.”

Mender just nodded in response. There was a sudden silence between the two, as all the fighting around them began to calm down. 

“Sorry that I got you into this,” Shadow said, breaking the silence. “I… I should have noticed you. This is all my fault.” 

Mender only looked at him curiously.

“You’re getting good at sneaking though” he continued. “I had no idea you were following me,” he chuckled, only to regret it immediately as pain overcame him. 

There was a sudden yell from above as Hirra jumped down and ran to them both. “Dad- uh.. S-Shadows!”

“Hirra! There you are!” Shadows smiled as she sat down next to him.

“Is he going to be alright?” she asked, looking over to Mender. 

Mender sat down on the other side of Shadows and answered in a tired voice “I have done everything I can.”

“Don't worry, Dagger,” Shadows said, trying to be cheerful. “I’m in a little pain, but I’ll be fine. Mender healed me as best she could with the little energy she had to give.”

Hirra just nodded, as she made a little sniffle while holding back tears. She was silent for a moment before finally speaking “I… I cut one of Dragonfly’s wings off” she said in a tone of mixed feelings.

“Did you? So that was what that scream was?” Shadows asked her, holding her hand. 

“Didn’t mean to cut it off, I just… I’m sorry”

“Don’t worry, Hirra!” said a calm voice. “He loses them all the time, he doesn't even feel pain. Dragonfly is just dramatic like that.” Lady Alexandria smiled and joined them. “He’ll probably grow a new one by next month.”

“My lady. I was wondering where you got off to.” Shadows said, smiling. His earlier anger about Hirra being allowed there was put aside. 

“I was securing the area, and giving the signal to the search team.” Alexandria answered, kneeling next to Mender, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m not badly hurt,” Mender replied, “and right now, I just feel tired.” 

Alexandria nodded, and was just about to say something when Hirra chimed in, “Bet you feel lucky though? That we were able to get here in time!” she smiled, seeming to have finally gotten over the wing incident.

Both Shadows and Mender answer together “Um… Actually, you weren’t here in time…”

“WHAT!?” was all that Hirra was able to say. After all that effort they had still been too late to… well Hirra wasn't really sure but it sounded like she and Lady Alexandria had missed something. 

Mender continued, telling both her and Lady Alexandria about Dragonfly and the E.G.G. and how the weapon got destroyed, and Shadows explained what Dragonfly had admitted about Andaka. Meanwhile Hirra just sat silently and held onto Shadows’ hand, while Lady Alexandria listened silently to every word; clearly there was more to learn of the situation than what time would allow. Finally, when they were coming to the end of it, there was a sudden sound from Lady Alexandria's work phone. 

After looking at it for a moment she turned to the group. “The area is about to be secured, Shadows if you can make it out of here on your own, then now is the best time to leave. The hero agency will deal with the rest of Dragonfly’s base.”

“So, you’re letting us go?” he asked suspiciously. 

“Yes,” she said smiling, “since Hirra was so kind and heroic in helping us free you, I think it would be wrong to arrest you both right now.”

“Oi! Don’t call me that!” Hirra yelled, but both Lady Alexandria and Shadows ignored her.

“Yeah, I got enough energy to get us home, thank you!” he said, smiling back at her. He slowly got back on his feet, and with support from Hirra, they began to walk into the shadows. 

"Wait!" Mender cried out. 

They stopped and Shadows turned with a look of concern on his face. "Is something wrong?" 

Mender bit her lip and then spoke, "No, just… Do you know which king loved fractions?" 

Shadows paused, confused, and then smiled. "No, I don't, which one?"

Mender giggled to herself and then replied, "Henry the eighth!"

Shadows burst into laughter that then turned into coughing and then turned to the shadows once more. As he walked into the shadows, he called "Good one, kid!" before disappearing with Hirra.

Lady Alexandria then gently picks up Mender who now was completely exhausted, up in a bridal carry. She was confused about the exchange that just happened, but would ask when Mender was less exhausted. 

“Hey, Alexandria, did you find the E.G.G.?” Mender asked

“I did not see it in the rubble but please leave that for now and rest. I’ll get you out of here and hand you over to the healers.”

“I wonder where the E.G.G. is now, it can’t have been destroyed?” Mender continued in a meek and sleepy tone.

“Mender, please, less wondering, more resting, okay? We will deal with everything when-” She stopped in her tracks, eyes locked in place.

“What is it?”

Alexandria stood still for some more time before she spoke again “Kim… I think I saw Kim beside the ruins of the weapon for a second, but when I looked back, they were gone…”

Mender, whose abilities seemed to make it easier to counter Kim’s, looked over to the spot Alexandria mentioned and began searching but… “I can’t see them…”

“Well, if it was them,” Lady Alexandria said “then we at least know who it was that sabotaged the weapon. And…”

“And? And what?”

 Lady Alexandria turned to look at Mender. “There is no way the E.G.G. is still here.” 

And at that, the echo of several heroes yelling Mender and Alexandria’s names began to fill the now abandoned base. Lady Alexandria called out to them.

Meanwhile, Kim tossed off their lab coat and easily snuck past the incoming heroes. The E.G.G. and some other objects were securely hidden away on them. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Part 3 : Epilogue

Master List : Character list