Chapter Text
“Hey, pretty boy. You’ve been a real pain in my ass these past months.”
There was a reason he really only delt with the weaker criminals. He really wasn’t suited for offensive hand to hand combat.
“I send the low life criminals to survey the area, criminals that the heroes aren’t bothered to deal with, then you show up, and all the money I spend on explosives and training the dumbasses I send, wasted.”
The villain’s fingers tightened around his neck, pushing him up the wall as he weakly kicked his legs.
“Leading that hero that I thought I got rid of out of his little hole, luring him to every single attack… all done by some little twink in pink and white?”
“At least… I have… some style…”
If he was going to die, he had to get some digs at this asshole. His grimy fingers wrapped his neck tighter, bringing Cuteguy’s face right up to his own, an adherent stench filling the smaller’s nostrils.
“Who’s gonna save you now? I made sure your little hero friend was occupied…”
As he felt his vision go black at the edges, he heard a familiar shout from above. The man holding his neck released him, collapsing to the ground. A black figure landed next to him, helping him balance.
“Thanks.”
Hotguy sighed, looking at the collapsed figure next to him.
“He installed some tech blocking device on himself, I couldn’t radio in to you at all. Lucky enough I found you…”
Cuteguy exhaled, pushing himself off the wall, and flexing his wings out.
“You saved my life again, I swear, I need to take you out to dinner one time.”
At this, Hotguy laughed, placing his hand on the shorter’s shoulder.
“You strike me as the kind of man to always say he’s going to pay but has no money.”
Cuteguy opened his mouth to argue back, before promptly shutting it. He wasn’t wrong. The two began propping the villain up, silently thinking about what to do with him, before Cuteguy heard a familiar set of shoes walk up behind him.
“Ah, Engineer…”
The usual cheek was gone from his voice, replaced by a faulter at realising that Hotguy was now coming face to face with a hero. To be fair, he had no idea how he would react.
“I heard that you had gotten taken by some villain. I came to clean up, but I see you have another attending to you. Seems I am not the only one to take note of your incompetence.”
Hotguy turned around, too fast to be natural.
“My partner is not incompetent. He is just new to this, and for a newbie I think he’s doing pretty well.”
Cuteguy smiled a bit, not expecting the praise.
“Most ‘newbies’ keep their heads low and don’t get on national news.”
“Most heroes aren’t usually assigned to taking credit for someone else’s job. Or clean up for said newbie.”
Cuteguy didn’t know what to do. The tension was thick, and it was obvious that Hotguy had struck a nerve.
The Engineer shot an unreadable glare in the shorter’s direction. “Your partner has no idea what he’s gotten into.”
“Then why is he doing a better job then you?”
“If you think being a hero is so easy, who do you hide?” The Engineer lurched forward, pressing a finger to the middle of the brunette’s chest. “You vigilantes think being a hero is all media attention and think you’re so special and unique for hiding in the shadows and making us real heroes jobs so, so much more difficult just so you can have a taste of the so called glory you think us heroes experience.”
Hotguy stiffened, his expression darkening, a scowl appearing on his face. “You’re exactly why I don’t trust you god complex asses. You think yourself higher than everyone, you think you can just go about doing what you please, mowing down anything or anyone in your path. Then you go and play the struggle? Suggest your life is not as easy as it seems, as you sit on thrones made of the blood sweat and tears of the powerless and poor?”
Cuteguy had never seen either of the two like this. Hotguy, his permanent smile dropped, and despite his eyes being covered, he could see him burning with a rage that spoke to something deeper about his experience with heroes, somewhere where this anger came from. And, the other side of the same coin, the Engineer’s calm exterior had been exposed, his shoulders heightened, looking his opponent dead in the eyes.
This wasn’t going to end well.
“Useless hero.”
The Engineer snapped, grabbing Hotguy and lifting him up by the neck.
“What was that?”
Instinctively, Cuteguy flung forward, knocking over the Engineer, bringing the three of them to the floor. He peeled the Engineers hands off his partner, pinning his arms to the floor.
“Stop.”
Hotguy rubbed his neck, shooting a smug look at the hero.
“Both of you. This argument is useless.”
They both sighed, as Cuteguy released the man under him. As they began dusting themselves off, an awkward silence arose, so Cuteguy pulled out his communication deceive, only to discover it wouldn’t turn on. Had he dropped it? Turning it over in his hands, he couldn’t see any physical damage to it. The jammer device. They mustn’t have deactivated it. Sliding his eyes over to the limb figure of the unnamed assailant, he frowned. He swore that had been facing a different direction as he fell. Glancing back up at the vigilante and hero, he unknowingly made the worst mistake of the day.
A soft click aired, and Hotguy tensed, and the Engineer snapped his head toward the noise.
“You saviour types… always arguing. Your biggest flaws.”
Before any of them could react, the man had shot off the ground, hands reaching around the black-haired hero’s neck.
“And look who came crawling back to the world he swore to leave.”
Fight or flight was not helping. Cuteguy felt his feet glue to the ground, eyes darting between the three men.
Hotguy looked panicked, clearly. All his devices had shut down, and he had no way of fighting back. Sure, his physical ability was impressive but who knew what this unknown villain had up his sleeves.
The Engineer was struggling. As much as anyone who is being actively held in the air by their own neck would be. But there was a fear in his face, something that ran deeper than this single encounter.
And that villain, he looked hungry. That was the only way to describe it. There was the want in his eyes, the achievement of this moment. What did he even mean, ‘crawling back’?
“One day, I knew you’d cave. I was right. You’re just as weak and useless as that day.”
Before he knew what he was going, Cuteguy punched him. Hard. A square knock on his jaw. The sound of someone crumpling to the floor next to him, and watching as the man in front of him stumbled back.
“Just who are you?”
Beady black eyes stared back at him. Nothing behind them seemed human.
“I could be your saviour. Your god. The one to take you to salvation. Say…”, the man slunk forward, his putrid smell filling the blondes nostrils again, clouding his mind with some kind of toxic smell that made Cuteguy want to claw his skin off. “…you look like someone who would greatly benefit me. So much… potential.”
The way he said it made the younger squirm. Everything else seemed to blink out of existence, the two of them encased in some void. It felt so wrong. The paise he was given felt to alien, felt so condescending… but something was telling him to follow that grainy, thirsty voice. Something was lulling the logic that he usually at least tried to rely on to forget itself.
“That’s it… listen to me. You’re such a pretty boy, would fetch me a pretty penny to sell you, hm?”
A distant voice called to him, but he couldn’t pin point the words. He felt so wrong. Something about the man in front of him. He needed to tear his eyes out of his gaze. He swore this was the man who was baselessly insulting him before. Why couldn’t he string a single thought together on his own?
“Cu… uy!!! …teg… …ake up!”
“Its… …ability… …unch…”
He was suddenly torn from the world, their eyes separating. The sound of plastic crunching accompanied it.
“Stupid vigilante…”
Hotguy stood on the remains of what he could guess was the tech jamming machine. And he was royally pissed. The Engineer had gotten up, and he threw a small machine to Cuteguy.
“In your ear and get out of here. He wants you.”
Obliging, he slotted the device into his ear, stepping back as his two seniors turned to the villain.
Who was laughing.
“Your little trinkets won’t save you, Engineer.”
There was a sneer to his voice that made the trio recoil.
“I’m not leaving here without that boy, dead or alive.”
From there, chaos began. The grimy man reached out, and the winged vigilante jumped away, floating up with a beat of his wings. Hotguy immediately went to pin him down, and the Engineer began feeding instructions into his new partner’s ear.
“This villain is dangerous. He may look fragile, but once he locks on one person, he will do anything to get to you. Even outside of you vigilante disguise. So, stay up in the air, and just watch. Me and your… friend can deal with him.”
While he was upset on missing out on the action, he understood. Also, he got to watch two professionals at their job. Maybe even working with a hero he could get a better grip at him new gig… but now was to time to think about that.
The villain pulled out a handheld weapon, and began pointing it at the men next to him, yelling obscenities. Hotguy’s first mover was to kick the gun out of his hand, boot connecting with wrist and successfully disarming him. Once the gun was in the air, the Engineer moved forward, retrieving the weapon from the air, and storing it away on his belt. Words were exchanged, and suddenly the man opened his arms, and shadows began pouring out of his hands.
The Engineer was frozen on the spot, and Hotguy was struggling to locate the man.
The situation was getting out of hand. Should he step in?
He was told to hang in the air. But he could see the shadows moving toward the hero. The hero whose feet were firmly stuck to the ground. The thick black smog was clouding his vision, and he felt his hands get clammy, the crossbow that he hadn’t realised he’d grabbed slipping slightly in his grip. He pulled the weapon up, pulling an arrow taught, and letting it fly downward. A small rope whistled down with it as the arrow made contact with the man’s shoulder.
A lucky hit. He could barely see anything going on. But he heard a yell, followed by a loud cheer from a familiar voice. The black fog beneath him began to clear, and he heard a small crackle in his ear.
“That was AMAZING Cuteguy!”
He smiled down, not able to see any expressions but a clear black and orange figure was now darting around excitedly. The smoke had cleared enough to see some specks of red, and slowly the Engineer moved away from the smog.
“Yes, yes, while we celebrate can we concentrate on the situation-”
“Cuteguy, you see that small red button?”
Small red button was an overestimation, but there was a little dot on the side of the crossbow.
“Click it.”
The cheek to Hotguy’s voice told Cuteguy all he needed to know. Someone was about to be livid, while Cuteguy could experience the ‘science’ of his mentor, so he pushed the button.
His bow pulled down, curving his slow ascent downward for some time, until the rope became taut and began pulling. The rope had wrapped around his arm and was pulling him off the ground at an alarming pace.
The Engineer was tapping on his earpiece, clearly trying to get a message through, and so was Hotguy, but all he could hear was static. As he looked down upon the man being lifted to him, despite the horrific sight of his shoulder he still had a sick smile on his face. The sides of his vision began to blacken as his body felt like seizing.