Chapter Text
The escape plan was simple. Wait until dark so there wouldn’t be any chance that agency spies could see them and report them to Acutulus.
Was Spoke being paranoid? Maybe. But he’d rather overthink the plan than get caught and thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. If that happened to them, he wouldn’t hear the end of it from Mapicc.
Spoke looked at the clock in their room. It was already pretty late but if he was right, it’d be best to wait till 12 before setting the plan into motion.
“Spoke, it is 10PM, bro.” Mapicc complained as he spread out his arms on his bed. “Minute’s older than time itself, he’s probably asleep, why are you so worried?”
“You see my dear Mapicc, being ancient doesn’t mean someone sleeps early, plus, imagine he’s still awake, he has no reason to not just report us for trying to escape.”
“If old people don’t sleep early, then Ash must be an anomaly. He’s the kind of guy who sleeps at 8PM sharp or something.”
Spoke rolled his eyes.
“Also, if you’re so worried about him seeing us sneak out, we have a window right here.” Mapicc pointed towards the window of the room, it was big enough to crawl out of that’s for sure.
“We’re not going to break a window, Mapicc.”
“Who said anything about breaking it? See, bro, this is why I’m the smarter one, you always go towards breaking things first.” Mapicc joked as he walked towards the window and began attempting to open it, though he was struggling to figure out how exactly it opened or if it even opened at all.
“You have to unlock the—here, lemme do it.”
Spoke searched around the top of the window before finding the two latches, twisting them to unlock the window. “See, this is why I do all the planning.”
Spoke attempted to lift up the window, yet to his dismay, it wouldn’t budge. The best he got was barely a quarter of the way open. Out the corner of his eye, he could see his brother struggling not to laugh at his futile attempts to open their shared window.
“You’re actually a twig, Spoke, oh my God. This is why you need to eat more instead of refusing whatever isn’t chicken nuggets and Mac and cheese.” Mapicc lightly pushed Spoke aside before opening the window with practiced ease.
“For your information, I don’t even eat Mac and cheese!” Spoke huffed, crossing his arms.
“Doesn’t help your point.” Mapicc said, climbing out of the window.
“Slow falling?”
“Already on it.” Spoke smiled as he activated his power. A small number of effects appeared in front of him, he scrolled until he found slow falling and applied it to both him and Mapicc.
Climbing out of the window, Spoke had a brilliant idea.
“Hey Mapicc.”
Mapicc tilted his head towards the side before realizing what his brother was going to do.
“If you’re going to dive out, do a flip.”
“20 dollars says I land it.” Spoke hummed hanging off the windowsill.
“If you don’t hurry up you’re not getting anything.” Mapicc was already on the ground, waiting, tapping his foot, feigning annoyance that Spoke knew all too well with all the other dumb things he’s pulled off.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming, I’m coming.” Spoke looked at their room one last time before leaping off from where he was perched. He did some sort of weird frontflip, landing on his feet safe and sound. Perfect, just in time for his slow falling to run out.
“And he sticks the landing! So, how about that 20 dollars?” Spoke held his hand out expectantly.
“Never agreed to that by the way. Plus, what do you even need 20 dollars for?”
“I’m going to DoorDash order another George, duh.” Spoke began walking backwards, facing Mapicc as he talked.
“You can DoorDash an alive fish?” Mapicc questioned as he followed Spoke.
“How else do you think I got the other 50?” Spoke smirked mischievously.
“I don’t know, a pet store? Like a normal person?”
“You see, Mapicc, that's where you’re wrong, I am no normal person.”
“Yeah, we can tell,” Mapicc deadpanned. “Also, turn around, you're going to walk into a pole.” Mapicc began steering Spoke around to prevent him from bumping into anything
“Pssh.. I'm a master at walking backwards, don’t doubt me.” Spoke waved Mapicc off, putting his arms behind his head as an attempt to show off.
“You almost walked into a pole just now.”
“So what? That’s only one time—“
“And two weeks ago, and a month ago.. must I continue?”
“Okay, okay! I get it. No more walking backwards.” Spoke sighed, turning around, opting to instead follow Mapicc’s pace to the best of his ability.
“Do you even know where we’re going? It feels like we’ve passed the same street light twice now.”
Spoke pulled out the phone he created with his power, checking the map app for directions.
“Yeah, of course I do. We just need to take a few more lefts.” Spoke waved the phone in the air as he showed Mapicc the GPS directions.
Spoke and Mapicc continued walking. Both fell into a comfortable quiet, the type of quiet that only exists when you’re near your best friend who won’t judge you for speaking too much or too little. Spoke doesn’t really like the quiet; it is often deafening and suffocating. Silence brings him back to the same building where he was holding a cornflower and in front of him, a corpse laying on the floor that still seemed fresh. He can still remember her last words, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she begged and pleaded. Ash said she needed to be removed, said she was one of the cruelest, one of the sickest, most evil to ever grace the earth, said that she had to be silenced. That same silence is why he and Mapicc got captured—
“—poke. Unstable to Spoke you there?” Mapicc waved his hand in front of Spoke’s face, trying to get his attention. There was a look of concern written all over his face.
“Huh? Oh, right, yeah?”
“Dude, you really got to stop zoning out. I know you’re probably plotting a huge thing, but keep your head in the game, bro.” Mapicc scolded before sighing and beginning to restate what he said. “I was asking, is that it?” Mapicc pointed at a warehouse. It was worn down and abandoned with random graffiti on the walls. The walls had cracks and some plants coming out of them. It was perfect villain hideout material.
“Yeah yeah, that’s the place, Maker said it would be a ‘magical’ warehouse.”
“I wouldn’t say magical, it looks straight out of a horror movie.” Mapicc squinted in suspicion at the building.
“You can be skeptical later, plus, it's perfect, the mafia has tons of mysterious warehouses of doom and despair.” Spoke rolled his eyes and grabbed Mapicc’s hand, dragging him inside.
Inside was as dingy as the outside was. It was hollow and devoid of much furnishing, with a couple of windows streaming moonlight into the building.
“You’re finally here!” A distorted sing-songy voice rang out as Maker stepped into view. They had on a dark orange costume with copper colored linings representing her rank in the organization plus the signature gas mask most Mafia members wore. “I was worried you’d get caught on your grand escape.”
“It was nothing. In fact, it was totally easier than we thought it would be.” Mapicc stood proudly as he boasted.
“I’m sure it was! Nothing that Golden Chestplate and Fish Bucket can’t handle, after all, Ash has said you’re some of the Mafia's finest members.” Maker hummed.
“So, you’re Maker, right?” Spoke waved the phone he had with Maker’s contact selected.
“Ding ding ding, in the flesh! I’m here to get you both back on the field and doing some missions. You know what they say, the Mafia never rests.”
“I did not know that was a quote we had but the wind blows in weird ways I guess.” Mapicc shrugged, looking over towards Spoke who returned the same confusion.
“It’s close enough!” Maker frantically waved her hands in an attempt to brush Spoke and Mapicc’s confusion off. “So, do you guys have your costumes and voice changers?”
“They got confiscated.” Mapicc sighed, crossing his arms as he muttered under his breath about ‘how stupid the Hero Agency was’ or something similar.
“And it’s a shame too, because I really liked those designs.” Spoke nodded, wiping away a fake tear from his eye dramatically.
“So what I’m hearing is I get to use my power and get you both costumes?” Maker clapped her hands excitedly, they were probably a part of the support division now that Spoke thought about it.
Most of the heroes knew that the Mafia had ranks regarding the color of a villain's costume, ranging from rusty copper oranges, to shining blue hues each representing a different rank. But another thing the Mafia had regarding ranks, were classifications based on your power type. People who were more suited to aiding escapes of important Mafia members and making things run more smoothly, were labeled as supports as well as whatever ongoing rank they had. So in the case of Maker, they would be a support copper rank.
Maker extended their hands outwards, closing their eyes as a soft warm light enveloped the space. Spoke stood, mesmerized at the bright light as Maker used their ability. As the light faded, a newly tailored costume with a voice changer and signature gas mask attached replaced it.
“This one is yours, Golden Chestplate.” Maker handed the costume to Mapicc, it had dark gold accents all over it to represent his rank in the mafia, paired with some semblance to his original costume that was still in Agency custody.
“Wait, how did you do that?” Spoke tilted his head to the side in confusion.
“It’s my power, silly!”
“Yeah well I know that, but how does it work?”
“I’m curious too, imagine what all I could do if I copied that power.”
“Well my power is called imagination. If I imagine something I can recreate it from my mind with my power. The only drawbacks are that it has to be feasible in real life, and I need to know what materials it’s made out of.” Maker held their fingers up, using them to try and demonstrate how her power worked. “However, because of the drawbacks, I sadly cannot create springtrap from Five nights at Freddy’s.” Maker pouted slightly over that fact.
“Anywho, you can change over there, they made some sort of weird room with walls when this place was in use, think of it as a budget changing room.”
Mapicc nodded and walked off to get suited up for their late night shenanigans.
Maker began the same process for Spoke’s costume, holding out her hands; the same warm light engulfed the air. Before long, it faded with a new costume in its place.
Spoke looked at his new costume. It was similar to his original one he made himself. It carried the same turtle neck, it had the same goggles, it had the original lightning bolt design, but it lacked one key detail.. His original costume displayed red accents over it, yet in this new costume they were replaced with gold symbolizing his rank in the Mafia.
“Oh right, you’re probably wondering about the changes.” Maker said handing over the costume to Spoke. “The original design of the costume was nice but the red accents were strange, it makes more sense that they’re gold after all we’re all together in this mafia, so outliers wouldn’t make sense. You know?”
“Yeah, just—you know, miss the red.” Spoke smiled softly, looking at the costume that lacked the same sentimentality of the one he made.
Maker nodded along sympathetically.
“Oh, right before I forget. Ash had a message for you, Fishbucket.” Maker pulled out their phone trying to find the original message they were supposed to pass on. “He said, ‘you are exceptional Fishbucket. If you continue at the pace you are at, you’ll soon qualify to test for diamond rank.’” Maker read off the message, congratulating Spoke for such a great job.
Spoke felt himself smile. His hard work was finally paying off. Maybe once he reached diamond rank they could finally crush the hero agency. Time will only tell.
“Whats got you so happy?” Mapicc walked out in his new costume.
“Oh nothing, just the fact I might get another promotion soon!” Spoke ran up to his brother and hugged him out of pure excitement, almost toppling them both into the ground.
“Seems like that last mission really paid off, huh?”
Right, last mission.
“Yeah… it was for the greater good.” He felt himself smile too widely, it was as forced as it could get.
Since Mapicc stepped out in his new costume, it was Spoke’s turn to change.
Spoke suited himself up, and took extra care to fit his goggles on snuggly, making sure each detail of the costume was visible. The new costume reminded him of a perfectly tailored outfit unlike his old one.
As Spoke stepped out, he showed off his costume to Mapicc, making sure to do a fancy over the top twirl.
Some time passed on, most of it was Mapicc and Spoke checking out their costumes and talking about random nonsense while Maker accepted a few phone calls—something about not wanting to work with another villain named Gambit and other calls regarding the mafia or whatever, Spoke wasn’t paying too much attention—sighing as they ended their calls and put their phone away, “It seems I’ve got some more work cut out for me. So I’ll be seeing you both later.”
“Thank you, Maker!” Mapicc and spoke waved as they exited the warehouse.
“Good luck, boys! Just watch out for any patrolling heroes tonight!”
“So, what now? What schemes are we up to tonight?” Mapicc took off his gas mask and began to lean on Spoke.
“Well, I was thinking we could check in with Ash.”
“Dude it’s always Ash whenever we’re suited up, I’m already so sick of doing 30 missions in a rowwww.” Mapicc complained leaning more on Spoke.
“Dude stop leaning on me so much you’re gonna make us fall!”
“And what are you going to do about it?” Mapicc smirked slyly, further leaning on Spoke till most of his weight was on his brother.
“Do you wanna go?”
“Annnd what are you planning to do, exactly?” Mapicc lifted himself off Spoke, crossing his arms, giving an even more smug look than before.
“I’m going to apply levitation on you for hours on end till you can wave to the moon, that’s what I’ll do.” Spoke grinned, he did his best to seem menacing as he did so.
“So then you’ll fall asleep on the floor from using your power too much that I’ll have to drag you back to the house?”
“Nuh uh!”
“Yuh uh.”
“Nuh uh!” Spoke lowered his gas mask to stick his tongue out at Mapicc.
"Yuh u—"
“And what do we have here?” The duo froze in their tracks. Spoke could feel his blood running cold. He recognized that voice from somewhere. Turning around the duo was met face to face with the Pink Devil, a mercenary for higher, and more importantly, currently working for the Hero Agency.
“I thought you two were in custody and placed under house arrest.”
Spoke looked towards Mapicc, he was nervous. The Pink Devil was rumored to be quite powerful. There was no doubt in Spoke’s mind that if they were to end up in a fight right now, they’d turn out getting arrested again. But then once more, defeating Boomie was just the thing he needed to prove his worth. To become a diamond trim you have to be strong after all.
Spoke looked towards Mapicc, his eyes gave away the exact words he wanted to say ‘if you’re in this fight, I’m in this fight.’ And that’s all Spoke needed to know.
“I hope you know I’ll have to bring you both back. It’s nothing personal.” The Pink Devil said as he unsheathed a netherite spear.
With one last glance, Spoke and Mapicc nodded at each other before springing into action.
Spoke summoned his exploit, looking for anything they could use to combat a spear. He had a long list of items ranging from exploited items to potions.
Finally, he landed on a sword. He probably didn’t have enough energy to spawn in two swords. So he’ll have to focus on supporting Mapicc in this fight.
“Maverick catch!” Spoke threw the sword to Mapicc who caught it with practiced ease.
“Really? Just diamond?”
“Would you rather it be iron?”
“Fair, fair.” Mapicc rolled his eyes before charging straight at the Pink Devil.
Mapicc lunged, it was a perfectly aimed strike meant to go right through the Pink Devils defenses, till he realized the strike hadn’t even landed. It was absorbed by some sort of pocket dimension.
The Pink Devil wasted no time in using the opening to slash at Mapicc, using this spear to tear into Mapicc’s side. Mapicc hissed in pain, backing off before The Pink Devil could make the gash in his side any deeper.
“Is it deep enough for regen or do you think you can tank a few more hits?” Spoke called out, there was a hint of concern in his voice hoping that the wound was shallow for easy healing later.
“I think I can tank a couple more hits—EXPLOIT, INCOMING!” Mapicc eyes widened as The Pink Devil lunged towards Spoke at full speed.
“SHOOT—“ Spoke was barely able to summon a shield in time. Any later and he would have been dead.
However now was not the time to freeze, The Pink Devil’s attacks were relentless.
Mapicc quickly ran to help, but not before The Pink Devil used his spear to sweep Spoke off his feet causing him to tumble to the ground.
Mapicc attempted to land a bunch of hits on The Pink Devil, to no avail, as they were all mostly blocked by the stick of his spear. Except for a small slash towards his face, sadly for Spoke and Mapicc, the spear shielded him from any real damage.
Finally, it was The Pink Devil’s turn to strike, he made quick jabs and slashes at Mapicc, each with varying success at getting past Mapicc’s sword.
Their weapons could be heard clashing from a mile away, metal meeting once, then again in a never ending brawl.
Spoke swayed side to side attempting to regain his footing. He picked up his shield from off the floor and tried to ram it into The pink Devil.
Tanking the hit, The Pink Devil skidded backwards, his face carrying a look of irritation towards the duo’s efforts.
“Exploit, bro, can you get me some regen?”
Spoke nodded, summoning and searching for regen on the panel.
Up in the air, The Pink Devil floated, his long pink hair drifting in the night wind, his figure being encompassed by the moon in a menacing spectacle of power.
“Golden ring, shrink to a dime.” The Pink Devil said, his voice cold as ice.
Mapicc looked towards Spoke in horror, shouting something Spoke couldn’t make out. It was probably a warning, something about him needing to move out of the way.
Time paused for Spoke. Around him, a large golden ring began to shrink at an alarming pace, he’d have no time to react. Was this the end? Did he fail Ash? Did he fail Mapicc? He questioned without answer, maybe this was him giving up. Maybe this was his karma, doomed to forever be unreached potential…
Spoke closed his eyes. Maybe it would be painless like that.
Yet as he waited for the ring to close in and crush him. It never came.
Peaking open his eye, he could see a shadow holding it open.
“EXPLOIT FUCKING MOVE!” Mapicc yelled out,
Snapping out of the confusion he was in, Spoke slid out from under the golden ring’s closing radius. Behind him the shadow restraining the ring dissipated, causing a loud snapping sound as the ring finally shut.
He wasted absolutely no time diving into Mapicc, hugging his brother while trying his best not to cry. He almost died. He almost left Mapicc alone in the world because he wasn’t paying attention. What a joke. Ash would be disappointed.
Burying his face into Mapicc’s costume, he could feel his eyes pricking with tears threatening to spill out as his brother lightly patted his back. Outside of their bubble he could make out the Pink Devil saying ‘they’re all yours.’ Presumably to the third party who saved his life.
Though from the sight of the shadow alone he already knew who came to his aid.
Guardian.
Walking up to the duo in all his stupid, stupid, glory. Guardian was surely going to report them to Acutulus, and then they’d get sent to jail and then they’d have to plot an even more elaborate escape than just opening a window in some guy's house.
Guardian stopped right in front of the duo, looking down at them.
“Mind telling me why you two are out? Last time I checked, I arrested you both.” Guardian crossed his arms, he reminded Spoke of a disappointed parent.
“For your information we were let out on good behavior!” Spoke said, giving Mapicc a look to signal him to play along.
“Facts!”
“Uh-huh, so then why are you out terrorizing the city in full Mafia uniforms?” Guardian sounded unamused tilting his head as he spoke.
“You’re old, you just wouldn’t understand modern fashion.” Spoke smiled smugly as he insulted Guardian.
“So do all youngsters just wear gas masks and goggles now?”
“Ew, don’t say that word ever again.” Spoke felt like saying ick over that entire sentence.
“D’alright. I’ll cut to the chase. You’re both obviously not supposed to be out right now.” Guardian pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “I’ll give you both a choice. Either I escort you both back to your dad’s house, or I can arrest you again.”
“He’s not our dad!” Mapicc shouted.
“And who says we won’t be able to jump you and then go on our merry way?” Spoke tilted his head attempting to lower his voice into a more threatening tone.
“Are you sure you’d want to test that?” Guardian raised an eyebrow from underneath his mask, obviously unimpressed with the display.
Spoke glared at the hero, yet any attempt to hold power was futile under Guardians intense gaze.
“Whatever.” Spoke rolled his eyes, putting his hands in his pocket as he lightly nudged Mapicc’s shoulder.
“That’s what I thought.” Guardian signaled them to follow as he spoke.
What followed was a walk of agonizing silence. Spoke was so tired of the silence of the whole night. The walk back felt like it was going on forever, his legs felt like they were going to give out, and they were basically right back to square one on escaping.
“You still owe me 20 dollars.” Spoke said, turning to Mapicc and finally breaking the silence that loomed over them all.
“Bro, I already told you I didn’t agree to that!” Mapicc huffed, “Plus fish probably cost less than 20 dollars—wait, how much do salmon even cost?”
“I’m not sure actually..” Spoke began to hit an over exaggerated thinker pose as if he was pondering some sort of academic theory.
“They usually cost more than 20 dollars. It just depends on weight.” Guardian interrupted.
“How do you just know that?”
“You’d be surprised what being a hero needs you to know.”
As the trio continued walking Spoke blabbered about random things on his mind. From random facts, to why he named all of his fish George Jr. Sometimes, Mapicc would chime in with small retorts or question his antics. It was nice to have these nonsensical conversations. It never failed to make the world feel less heavy. Yet, he couldn’t shake off the expression on Mapicc’s face. He looked at him with concern, which shouldn’t be possible because Spoke was fine. So unbelievably fine despite the amount of injuries and bruises caused by the fight.
“Spoke, you good, bro?” Mapicc questioned.
“Yep! Just thinking about that one mission we did. You know the one where we totally got that other guy in trouble?”
“Oh my God, don’t remind me. I thought for a second we were in trouble, only for Ash to totally slime out that guy.” Mapicc chuckled, waving off the experience as a silly story.
Guardian turned his head around as if that wasn’t the most normal thing ever. Maybe it wasn’t normal for him, after all, he was a hero who could do ‘no harm’ in the world.
After what felt like years they reached Minute’s house. Still the same, just no car out in the driveway. Which was weird, who even stays up till like 1AM anyways? Other than mafia members. But that’s just because they’re better.
Guardian turned on the lights before instructing the two to go sit on the couch. Who does this guy even think he is?
Huffing loudly, Spoke plopped down on the couch. Mapicc followed soon after, crossing his arms looking as if he wanted to be anywhere but here.
Guardian, weirdly enough, found a first aid kit in the house and set it down on the table before opening it.
“Do you mind taking your goggles and gas masks off?”
Spoke stiffened and immediately moved closer towards Mapicc, holding his goggles with his hands closer to his face as Mapicc did the same with his gas mask.
Guardian sighed. “I get it, you both don’t trust me. But I’m just going to be checking for any injuries. I promise I won’t try anything.”
Spoke looked at Mapicc before looking right back at Guardian, still unconvinced.
“Look, I don’t know the restrictions regarding your powers, but looking at you now you are in no state to heal yourself or Maverick without passing out.”
As much as Spoke hated it, Guardian was right.
“Fine.” Spoke took off his goggles and his gas mask, setting them down on the table. Much to Mapicc’s shock, who was staring at him like he just said the most outlandish thing ever.
Across his face were many bruises from the poor landings he took during the fight, and his legs were better as scuffs and scratches littered his void-like skin.
Taking off his mask showed that Mapicc was no better. His face was littered with cuts for varying sizes, and the cut on his jacket showed a gash in his side.
“Maverick, do you mind lifting your jacket up a bit so I can reach the injury?” Guardian kneeled down, gauze and antiseptic wipes in hand.
Mapicc rolled his eyes before complying.
Spoke watched as Mapicc struggled to sit still through the treatment process, the antiseptic wipes leaving a sharp sting upon lightly grazing his injury.
Guardian worked efficiently, wiping down the wound before beginning to wrap gauze around the wound and then securing it with some form of medical tape.
“Thanks..” Mapicc muttered, avoiding Guardians gaze.
Guardian nodded before moving to work on the cuts on Mapicc’s face, cleaning them off and then putting small bandaids on them.
Spoke swung his legs out of boredom, a question coming to his mind. Why was Guardian even helping them? If anything, this guy could have locked them up right after saving Spoke’s life. In fact, should’ve, by all logic.
Soon it was Spokes turn to be patched up.
He felt the burn of the antiseptic wipes on his cuts, yet he couldn’t help but notice the firm gentleness Guardian was exercising. He wasn’t just trying to get patching them up over with, it was as if he didn’t even want them hurt in the first place, which was weird seeing as they were total enemies.
Maybe he was wrong about Guardian. Wait—what was he saying? Nope; wrong, wrong, Ash told him that Guardian was bottom of the barrel hero scum. Then again, Ash also said—for once, he’d rather not dwell on what Ash said. He shook his head, which led to some confusion from Guardian, who chose to ignore it.
As he continued to question Guardian in his head, he could feel his eyes begin to droop. As Guardian finished bandaging him up he laid his head down onto Mapicc’s shoulder. Maybe it was the adrenaline from earlier finally running its course.
Spoke’s eyes fluttered shut and his last few thoughts he had before sleep dragged him under were questions of Guardian’s motive.