Chapter Text
“Hey! Come on, hey,” Morgan yelled with a high-pitched voice that borderlined a squeak. He was screwed. “You know it’s a clerical error! I’m not supposed to be here. In all honesty, I thought this place was a myth. Come on now!”
Morgan would never admit that there was a hint of desperation in their voice. There wasn’t. They were a perfectly vicious and horrendous villain with an arch-nemesis and all. Terribly scary villain, that’s what he was. Made children cry and all that jazz. Well, maybe didn’t make kids cry. That sounded just plain cruel, not a drop of flair or anything that made being a villain worth it. He did steal candy from sticky corporate fingers, though, and stole electricity with a handy-dandy re-distributer from the nearby Megashop. Not to mention that he had totally done a tax fraud or two.
“Who’s gonna go change Steven’s light bulb if I’m locked up here? Do I even get to call my minions about this? Or actually anyone?” They tried bargaining but to no avail. The door stayed locked and only a Red Dot followed his way deeper into the ward.
It was a scary place with almost no room to walk comfortably lest one wanted to fall down to the pitch darkness of the linings on the ward. Morgan wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to know where the holes led to but with his luck, it was probable he would find out sooner or later. A scream echoed from somewhere deep underneath. Above them, there were cages. Morgan couldn’t see prisoners but they didn’t trust their eyesight here.
Goddamned Eternity Ward. Goddamned Frisbee Boy. Goddamned Friday the 13th and their sister from Hell. Actually, goddamn every single life choice that had brought them to this exact moment and space in time and universe. First the awful brunch and now this. He could sense the headache from one too many mimosas beginning to hit. God, he was getting cranky.
He wanted to kill the god. A bit difficult, taking into account that he was an atheist. They would figure it out. It couldn’t be damned difficult to find out for real if there was a higher power running things and making Morgan hit a speed bump after speed bump. That would make him an agnostic, though. The Eternity Ward was already changing their view of life.
Morgan was distracted enough by the whole being jailed in the goddamned Eternity Ward companied with a dash of existential crisis, so they didn’t even notice how hungry eyes followed his walk from the security doors covering the Fifth Dimension Vortex to the cramped cell where a tiny black hole was where a toilet was supposed to go. He didn’t notice the whispers traveling from cell to cell or the faraway eldritch incantations coming from the far end of the Ward.
The cell was like most cells are. There was a hard plank with a lumpy, smelly mattress as a bed, a chair, and a desk. The cell even had a small faucet above the black hole, which by the way was the most abnormal thing to see in jail. Morgan would need to figure it out. Adjust, adapt, overcome -or something like that.
Morgan looked down on his soiled plaid shirt and jeans that now had some extra tears. They had been good jeans, too. They figured that cleaning clothes or getting fresh ones would be too much to ask from the Red Dots. Not to mention, that he had no way of communicating with them. He rinsed his t-shirt under the faucet and wet his bandana using it as a rag. The jacket needed to stay good.
With clothes at least a bit more presentable, Morgan settled on the bed unable to sleep, and just stared at the door locked by dozen bolts and a completely new, A-class lock on the outside of the door. The gears in their head were slowly turning, beginning to work on a way out. It would be impossible, of course, but they had to try.
Only the assigned Red Dot had the key to the unique lock. Morgan didn’t know that. Before earlier today he had thought that Eternity Ward was a joke, a place the A class dicks could brag about to the lower class villains to gain a bit of clout. Before today, Morgan had fancied themself a bit more intelligent for not falling for it. Now he regretted not listening closer to those escape tales.
Morgan knew that they didn’t belong in Eternity Ward. In jail, sure -who didn’t nowadays- but not in the Eternity Ward. He was a meager D-tier villain with only enough superpower to make them a menace to the neighborhood police and the Super Gran, the patrolling grandmother with slightly higher-than-average strength and a wicked sense of humor. Not to mention that she tended to be the only one winning against him on chess during the neighborhood committee meetings.
Morgan thought about Super Gran with great fondness and allowed themself a moment of silent desperation. He would never get out of here. He didn’t have enough money for those fancy lawyers or enough power for a forceful blast-out, like the most famous of villains who seemed to fucking photosynthesize goddamned superpower with every fiber of their being. Unlike Morgan who had to work hard for any small fragments of power, and even then it often wasn’t enough. That’s why they planned. Unfortunately, the situation seemed unplannable. He had seriously been thrown straight from the kiddie pool to the deep end. They had gotten their D-tier certificate and license from Villains Unlimited only a couple of months ago for god's sake.
The desperation left Morgan rightfully angry and eager to trash talk basically anyone. He was in a dire need of some company and maybe a stiff drink. Or even a strong cup of coffee would do. They were feeling a bit exhausted by the bank robbery that had gone sideways and then upside down when Steven had cut the wrong wire. He knew that it had been a bad idea to let Steve do anything else but hold the flashlight but the man had been so damned depressed lately, what was he supposed to do; let the man cry in his Ben&Jerry’s?
Not to mention the whole fiasco with Morgan’s sister that had caused fucking Frisbee Boy to come on their ass when the gig had blown up. Thankfully, Steve had gotten away quick enough and could hopefully handle things for a second. Or for the rest of his life, as it began to look.
Thankfully, no one could say that Morgan was anything but a resourceful and creative villain. They had a bounce-back ratio over the roof and even some of the superheroes working on their case seemed to wonder how fast the dude could get over things and try again. Maybe that was their superpower, who knows.
It was bad to lose hope. They needed to stay sharp. But that was damned difficult when he couldn’t properly chat with people.
Two days in solitude made Morgan familiar with their surroundings. There were no windows to the outside world and just a tiny one towards the halls. Thankfully they had good hearing and a guilty pleasure of following the Super News, the channel dedicated to superhero and villain hunting. They could recognize a couple of the other inmates and slowly started to make himself known to their new neighbors.
The man in the cell two cells over was an exceptional conversationalist and knew way too many conspiracy theories for his good. He also seemed to be here on ‘a total accident, my good sir. A grievous mistake if you will’. Morgan wasn’t that sure about that, but then again they, too, were here because of a mistake. The neighbor called himself Sir Tophat or Tobias he had let slip that one time, and addressed Morgan only as His Good Sir, even after introductions. Morgan wasn’t sure how it made him feel. He had never been one for real villain names, rather handing his email address to those who wanted to make contact. There weren’t that many. Super Gran thankfully sent him emails a couple of times a month and alerted them of great discounts at the corner store where they did most of their grocery shopping.
Goddamn, they had been in jail for three days and they were already ready to weep because of Mr. and Mrs. Andersson and their great sales on chocolate milk. Jail didn’t suit them one bit.
Next to Tobias, Sir Tophat, there was a young girl called Goldfish. She was a menace. Morgan thought that her parents ought to take better care of her and come fetch her sooner than later. The Eternity Ward was no place for children, no matter how nefariously gifted. And Morgan could hear her crying some nights after she thought everyone was already asleep.
Morgan took upon themself to make sure Goldfish stayed busy enough during the days to not have the energy to cry during the nights. He also demanded she eats her veggies. He was only a bit scared when the enraged answer was both violent and hauntingly explicit. They didn’t budge, though. Jail or no jail, kids needed to grow, even those with nefarious gifts.
On the fifth day, came the end of seclusion. A loud peep echoed on the halls and the doors opened. Morgan didn’t first even notice it happening but when a ginger menace ran to him with a bear called Mrs. Grisly and a cunning smirk, they were forced to notice how the scenery was changing.
Most of the inmates left the newcomer to their own devices, not paying any attention to the dude whose aura had gotten lost in translation. Even Goldfish had faltered a bit with Morgan squinted menacingly, he had forgotten his glasses home. Morgan had the unfortunate gift of a Resting Murderer Face. They didn’t have many friends.
“You promised a round of hiding and seek, Morgan,” the little girl in a frilly dress screeched as she flung herself on Morgan after a moment of contemplation. He had no time to respond before a skeletal man approached them. On a closer inspection, he was a literal skeleton. With a frumpy top hat.
“My dear lady, are we not having a picnic at first?“the skeleton with Tobias’ voice questioned. Goldfish giggled at the silly name. It took Morgan a moment to realize it was Tobias. Suddenly his conspiracy theories had a lot more weight to them. Skeletons and lizardfolk weren’t that far apart.
Together the three of them traveled the now empty corridors of the Eternity Ward. Here and there there were traveling Red Dots supervising everything, floating calmly over their heads. They didn’t seem to intervene with anything, though.
The walls were full iron but even so, they were bent and patched up in places where probably fights had happened. A splattering of blood there, a tooth stuck in the ceiling there. On that account, it wasn’t so different from the regular jails. None of them had the air of rehabilitation. They were there to suffer. Morgan just wasn’t sure if isolation was the only thing this place had in store for them. For Goldfish’s sake, they truly wished it was.
There weren’t any windows and Morgan had already forgotten what the time was. Here, it didn’t matter. Food was teleported to their respective cells twice a day and disappeared shortly afterward if one hadn’t eaten it. It was the same bland stew-ish food for every meal and Morgan had understood that some of the more powerful ones had the means to bring in their snacks. Morgan had no such means and was exhilarated to finally eat something else.
The exercise day was once every five days, had Goldfish helpfully informed the day before. During those days they could wander freely, buy food from the canteen, and most often write letters that might even get mailed to the right address. She looked forward to writing to her parents and clutched a stack of gel pens in her tiny fingers as they made their way first to the canteen where she could get more paper.
First, Morgan had wondered why they were let to roam around unsupervised, but it came perfectly clear when they stepped out of the stuffy halls of the Ward and they finally saw where the Eternity Ward was precisely located.
His jaw dropped.
It was impossible.
“Isn’t it pretty?” Goldfish sighed and waved both of her hands rigorously, spilling gel pens everywhere. “I’m waving to ma and pa!”
It was beautiful. Scary but beautiful. Earth was but a ball maybe the size of a basketball from up here. The moon is but a dot on the blue surface of the planet.
Morgan had never been in space. Never even dreamed about it. Children of superheroes didn’t get to be astronauts so it would have been a waste of time to even think about it. And Morgan had always been more interested in... other things to pay any attention to astronomy. Now he was regretting it. The hopes of an escape slipped even further from their fingers.
And now, here he was, in goddamned Space! Breathing and walking in the literal space without a worry. Or without any additional space-related worries, at least. Tobias waved as well and Morgan couldn’t help but join in on them. Then he flipped a finger. Just a bit. For Frisbee Guy for being such a dick. And a little to his sister, as well.
Tobias and Goldfish introduced Morgan around to their ragtag circles of ‘associates’. No one had friends in the world of villainy, but they all had associates, enemies, and co-conspirators, not to forget the minions and goons. Being a proper supervillain was a rather social job and required constant and vast networking. That was a part of it that Morgan loved. There was nothing nearly as good as chatting people up.
Most of the villains in The Eternity Ward were A-Tier villains, a few B-Tiers have also made their ways there somehow and were probably expecting their upgraded licenses to wait for them In the mailbox. And then there were the whispers of a couple of S-Tier villains. Morgan had never seen one live but was addicted enough to the Super News to recognize a couple by their working names.
“Sometimes they come here for a vacation,” whispered a man called Sticky fingers who, true to his name, produced slime from the pores of his fingers, (and toes, but that’s a nasty thing to think about). He was a great gossip but also tried to steal Morgan’s buttons for no apparent reason. He chalked it up to sticky fingers. It made Morgan chuckle.
“There’s at least one at the moment. He’s apparently one of the strongest, ever!” Goldfish hissed, “They once blew a man up with a flick on the forehead. All that was left is dust.“
“I heard that they eat humans,” Tobias said, not at all scandalized. But then again, he didn’t have anything to worry about. His bones weren’t good even for a soup, they were too dusty and colored by age and wear.
“I saw them once make a Red Dot disappear! I’m sure they could go any moment they wanted to,” another villain joined in.
“Can anyone really be that powerful?” Morgan wondered and got heavy nodding as an answer. It was a villain they had never heard about and was skeptical about it.
Supervillains were a gossipy bunch when they were bored.
Not much happened during the day. A couple of explosions, manslaughter, and a prison escape ended the exercise day. A normal day, according to Goldfish and Tobias.
Laying in the hard, uncomfortable mattress Morgan was almost lulled to the sense of complacency but was violently shaken out of it when a cat appeared out of the toilet/black hole.
With a shriek, Morgan jumped from the bed and threw an astrophysics book Goldfish had generously loaned them at the cat. Thankfully the cat dodged and hissed in return bringing Morgan back to reality.
“Goddamn! Where the Hell did you come from?” They lowered their voice and turned to look around the room. He had no idea if cats apparating out of toilets was a common occurrence here and frankly, he didn’t want to ask. If it wasn’t, the Red Dot could come and take it away.
Morgan was an unrepentant cat lover and refused to cause any more psychic damage to the cat, who was still eerily staring at him. Brian was chanting and trying to summon a greater demon in the next cell. Morgan barely noticed.
The cat stared blankly at Morgan as they tried to coo the cat closer. It blinked. Circled the small cell as if judging it and sniffed loudly with a hint of disapproval.
“What?” Morgan couldn’t help themself, “It’s not like we’re allowed to decorate!” He didn’t know why he suddenly had a strong urge to explain the boorish cell to the space-traveling cat that most probably was a fragment of their imagination and would dissipate to the air in a couple of moments.
That cat stayed all night but by morning when Morgan opened their eyes, it was gone. It looked even more annoyed and frustrated than when it had arrived.