Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Welcome to PHWTDU!!

I don't have an uploading schedule, since this isn't really something I can focus all my time on, but I'll try to figure something out.

This has one of my characters that I created as a main character, but there will be pov changes and stuff. If that's not your thing, you can go, don't leave hate or super mean criticism please, it's just not cool and I don't want drama in the comments.

After this fic is over, I may or may not make prequels, showing character's backstories, and also sequels, like couple chapter type things of some sort of adventure or something idk it's just a thought, since most backstories aren't all that relevant. The main character’s backstory will probably only have snippets that are important to be shown/talked about, but the whole story will have to be its own book.

Also, I never see this, but I wanted to add it, this is a map of my world.

(I somehow didn't realize that I misspelled Logstedshire, like bruh. HOW. Anyways, I'm too lazy to fix it, but it won't be an issue in the actual story)

That's my world, it'll give myself and others an idea of where events take place. I might make it more complex as the series goes on, like where certain plot-relevant places are.

Other than the map, this is about certain things like dynamics, the way certain things work, and shit that'll be constant throughout the story- soo this is relatively important.
Whether you read it or not is up to you, but the story might be a bit confusing without knowing this stuff.

So, the first and least complicated thing, Potencies. Potencies are what people call powers. People can have up to 3 potencies total, having 1 potency is fairly normal, having 2 is significantly rarer, and 3, is incredibly rare, like 23 total people have been recorded with 3 potencies, there are more, but ehh.

When it comes to hybrids, they tend to have their hybrid traits and enhancements based on their species, so an enderman hybrid will typically have an allergy to water, but they'll also have the ability to unhinge their jaw, speak enderian, etc.

Hybrids can have 1-3 potencies as well, more likely than not having to do with what hybrid they are, so a nymph could control plants. However, there are outliers and hybrids who have potencies that have nothing to do with them. For example, a Blaze hybrid that can control water. It's rare and would cause complications with the hybrid's health or the drawbacks would be way worse than normal. There are rare instances where things like an Elytrian that can't fly will happen. That's due to birth defects, diseases, not enough hybrid DNA, etc.

Like, an elytrain can fly because they have wings. Flying itself isn't a potency (unless the user doesn't have wings), it is an enhancement based on traits. Now humans can really have any potency. From controlling plants to changing size to traveling through time.

There are multiple types of hybrids, descendants, mixed hybrids, singular purebloods, dual purebloods, and triple purebloods. Don't question me on the pure blood thing. I know that this isn't possible or realistic in any way, shape, or form, but it's my story, it doesn't have to make sense.

Anyways descendants are more human than hybrid, they have very little, if any hybrid traits, and have potencies more like humans, if they were to have hybrid traits, they most likely wouldn't work. They have a few hybrid ancestors, but it's mostly humans, they have very little hybrid DNA in them.

Mixed hybrids are hybrids that typically have 1-3 types of hybrid DNA and they have a human somewhere in their family tree, which no matter how far back, makes them a mixed hybrid. Having a human somewhere in your family tree is the difference between purebloods and mixed hybrids. Mixed hybrids aren't as strong as purebloods. The majority of mixed hybrids have 2 types of hybrid traits, for example, a fox and a cardinal, could have a fox tail and ears and cardinal wings, or they could have whiskers, wings, a cardinal tail, cardinal talons, and fox ears, etc. Mixed hybrids normally have their traits out, but they can hide them. However, they can't change between the hybrid types that they have. For example, our cardinal-fox hybrid can't hide just their fox traits or just their cardinal traits. They can only hide all of their traits or none of them, and hiding their traits makes the person sore in those areas. Mixed hybrids tend to have potencies connected to their traits and their species, but there are also some that are different, you never know.

Descendants and Mixed hybrids can be siblings, one sibling just doesn’t inherit as much of the hybrid DNA as the other.

Now finally, the purebloods. These are the strongest hybrids. There are 3 types of pure blood hybrids, singular pure blood hybrids, dual pure blood hybrids, and triple pure blood hybrids.

Singular purebloods are hybrids that only have one type of hybrid DNA in them. They don't have any human DNA anywhere in their bloodline. Their potencies are typically linked to their traits the most, for example, an enderman that can teleport. Sometimes they'll get things like a stronger healing factor, controlling plants, etc. They're stronger than the descendants and the mixed hybrids. Singular purebloods are rare and hard to find.

Also, something that will come up later and I want to explain now are “aliens”. These are people who were experimented on and basically got stuffed with hybrid DNA, they don’t really have a classification and are considered their own species. They have different properties than purebloods, but they’re stronger than descendants and mixed hybrids. Thus they don’t have a classification, but just to prevent confusion, it’s just a person who has a lot of active hybrid traits. There are descendants of aliens, but the offspring are still considered alien due to how much different hybrid DNA they have.

Dual pureblooded hybrids are like two singular purebloods combined. They also don't have humans anywhere in their bloodlines. They're potencies are also always linked to their hybrid traits, but they have two types of hybrid DNA. So like a raccoon and a spider, they can have all of their traits out and have all of the instincts and weaker versions of their hybrid abilities, but they can hide their raccoon traits or their spider traits or all of them. In their singular hybrid trait forms, their potencies and senses for that hybrid are enhanced and better than if they were in their combined form. All of their forms have pros and cons. Dual pureblood hybrids are even rarer than normal pure-bloods and the strongest.

If a hybrid has enough blood they'll have the traits and enhancements that come with that at a MINIMUM. Take our raccoon and spider hybrid, they could have potencies like really good night vision, the ability to climb on walls, and/or be able to shoot webs or something. That's different from their senses and abilities. Hybrid abilities are like having better hearing or smell, retractable claws, slightly better eyesight, a little night vision, flight, etc. Things that come with being a certain hybrid. Creepers, for example, can explode when angry, some don't have this, but most do. That's just part of their abilities, not their potency. Any bird hybrid can fly unless it's a flightless bird or there's a DNA defect. Flying itself isn't a potency (unless the user doesn't have wings), it is an ability based on traits.

Of course, humans can have potencies that give them better eyesight, hearing, etc. But that's enhanced senses type potencies.

Triple hybrids are just dual purebloods and add one more hybrid. They can switch between hybrids or hybrid combinations, etc. They're incredibly strong, but most don't even realize they exist. I'll let people try to figure it out. :)

That's all for explanations! Enjoy!

Chapter Text

It was a typical night in Essempee. The sky was polluted as always, cars in the street, most lights were off, just typical city stuff, especially for 2 in the morning. 

The key phrasing there is was a typical night.

Alarms blare and scream, breaking through the nighttime peace as Shadow runs away from Essempee National Bank. Lights start turning on, and curious and concerned citizens look through their windows. 

These are the ENB alarms, ENB is the most secure and high-tech bank ever created. Over the years many have tried and failed to steal even a single dollar, the alarm has never gone off before. 

Well until now she muses. 

She robbed ENB for around $50,000 dollars and some technology before the backup alarms sounded. She had turned off the first set of alarms, the lasers, the silent alarms, pretty much anything that could have sent a signal that she was there. Yet somehow she didn’t account for backup alarms that she could trip. As soon as the alarms started, she ran, not the original escape route she had planned, but she got out through the fire escape. She got up to the roof where she is now. 

It leaves a bitter taste in her mouth, losing like this, not getting the full amount she wanted, not being good enough. The fact that she had underestimated Seeker, the hero who built ENB, makes her angry. The whole thing should've gone so much smoother and no one should've known until the next day.

This was Shadow's biggest and riskiest heist, yet she screwed it up. Her debut in the real hero/villain/vigilante world wouldn’t be perfect. She used to stick with small stores or blowing things up, maybe some light arson. The heroes would always be late, too absorbed with their own districts, which are perfectly safe. This is why she was never seen or caught, plus she was also just very quiet and careful.

Oh right, running away from my crime She remembers, then realizes she zoned out. Allowing time for helicopters of police and news stations to try and track her. So she focuses back on her task, she just needs to get a bit further to her hiding point. 

Distractions will get you killed.

She runs across the rooftops, jumping gaps and dodging helicopter lights, all while keeping the duffle bag that holds all the stolen money and tech close. She’s going to knock the heroes off their gold-plated pedestals, and the public’s trust in them will probably crack a bit, which is perfect. Plus, she'd be able to help Logstedshire for a month! Maybe even help rebuild some destroyed buildings. Though, she will be on the top of the wanted list. Not exactly her ideal situation, but the reward is worth the risk.

She continues getting further away from the bank and once she feels a bit more safe, the helicopters far in the distance, she starts to slow down. Only to hear 4 pairs of footsteps and the beating of wings rushing toward her. Suddenly a break doesn't seem too necessary and she immediately starts running again. 

She decides to take a risk and takes a quick glance behind her and her jaw drops from behind her mask. She thought it was suspicious that there were 4 pairs of footsteps, but thought it might be lower-level heroes, nothing too hard to take out. But nope, the universe doesn't want that for her. 

Why the hell is the top 5 behind me?!

Shani is in the air and Enyo leads the rest of the heroes in chasing her on foot, gaining fast. They all look unhappy to say the least. Her shock wears off quickly and she replaces it with a neutral, slightly strained face.

Aren’t I special? She thinks, the voice in her head dripping with sarcasm.

She continues running, making sharp turns, trying to lose the heroes that are growing ever closer. It continues like this for what feels like hours, Shadow not noticing the sudden lack of wing beats, too busy focusing on trying to not get thrown in a jail cell to pay attention to the already quiet wing beats. That is until Shani swoops up from an alley in front of her and she stumbles back the other way. She manages to catch herself from falling on her ass and looking like a dumbass by putting her hand on the ground and pivoting to the side. 

How did he get in front of me? She grimaces a bit.

And now she’s surrounded. Great. There are heroes on every side of her, and no clear way to escape without fighting or her ace. God, she despises heroes, though, despite everything, she can't help but love the rush that comes with being chased by them. Despite the circumstances, she’s not all that upset at the fact that now the heroes will know who to look for. It should prove interesting in the future.

"You gave quite the chase, but it's over mate," Shani says.

"Thanks, but I don't think it'll end anytime soon." Shadow looks at her gloved hand like she's looking at her nails. Her voice changer making her voice a bit deeper and more robotic and glitchy.

"Stop being so arrogant. It's 5 v. 1. And we're all trained heroes, you're just a lowly villain who's trying to make it big. There's no winning for you." Conductor rolls his eyes, clearly agitated about chasing the mysterious criminal with explosives in hand.

She spins slowly, taking in all the heroes, Pan detaching her wool hair to throw at a moment's notice, Zelen holding a netherite sword in his hand, Enyo holding a huge netherite axe, Conductor still holding his explosives, and Shani's wings are flared out and a loaded crossbow in hand. 

She tilts her head slightly, not showing an ounce of fear or concern.

She'll have to look at their potencies and weapons more closely later. She wasn't expecting all of this, so she didn't research too hard on these heroes. 

Enyo snaps out "Put your hands up. Get on your knees. Don't move." She drops the duffle bag of money and tech, raises her hands up to her head slowly, and gets on her knees. The heroes glance at each other, concerned about the sudden compliance.  

Shani takes out a pair of handcuffs and walks towards Shadow, staying wary of any possible attacks. Her eyes dart around, finally taking everything in. 

She's aware Shani is approaching quickly, the other heroes on guard and she catches Enyo grumbling "This is too easy.." He's right. She's not panicking. That’s not normal for someone in this situation. They all know that something is off. They just don’t know what she has up her sleeve.

She waits a few seconds, Shani dangerously close, getting more and more careful with every step. 

3 steps.

2.

1

He's grabbing her arms.

She snaps her fingers. 

The sound echoes off the rooftops and every hero tenses.

End it.

Everything moves too fast. Black snake-like ropes shoot out of the dark alleyways and wrap around the heroes until it's hard for them to breathe.

The heroes seem unfazed at first. But Shadow looked closer and can see them tense and have annoyance in their eyes as if this is nothing but a hindrance. She knows that'll change soon. 

Enyo tries to snap the ropes, but they don't budge, they just move with him and then tighten again.

At the same time, Conductor is cussing. Pan is trying to unravel the rope. Zelen is trying to get his sword that he dropped in the initial chaos. Shani is trying to stretch his wings out to either get them out to be able to fly or to get his bindings off.  However, it won't work.

The heroes realize this fact. That they’ve been caught in her trap. That they’re stuck.

The heroes try to escape their bindings, trying and failing to use their potencies and brute force. She watches in amusement for about a minute before letting the heroes know some information that’ll probably save their pathetic lives.

"I wouldn't recommend doing that." Shadow says.

The heroes whip their heads toward her.

"Not so high and mighty now are you?" She taunts. "I could've escaped and none of you would know where I went, I could've taken one of you, I could've just killed you. And you would’ve been powerless to stop it! Man, I really overestimated you heroes.”

"Shut the fuck up." Zelen grits out.

She, of course, doesn’t. "If you haven't realized yet, those robotic ropes cancel out potencies. However, they're in the prototyping phase. You never know, they could blow up, they could suffocate you, release poisonous gas, they're not 100% reliable yet." Shadow replies, clearly not caring that lives are on the line.

Shani, Pan, and Conductor physically pale under their masks. Not that she gets a better look at them, she notices the details of their costumes.

Shani is the #1 hero. He has wings as black as the night, with iridescent parts when the light hits just right. His legs are like a bird's, huge talons, scaly, with 3 toes in front and 1 in the back, and a force that could probably break a human in half. He's wearing a white with green accent beak mask over his mouth and nose, and a green and white bucket hat. He has various shades of green armor over a bodysuit and a red heart with 2 lines that make the heart look like it's angry on his chest. To top it off he has a dark gray with white and green accented flowy jacket that goes down to about the knee.

Enyo is the #2 hero. He's tall and muscular with broad shoulders and looks pretty tanky. He has a boar skull mask over his eyes and nose. He has floppy piglin ears on top of his head, and long pink hair that's been put into a braid. He has a black and blood-red armored bodysuit and fingerless gloves. He has combat boots with what looks like dried blood on them. He has a belt with a sheath for his sword. To top it all off, he has a flowy red cape that goes down to about midway down his calf, it has a clasp holding it together which has an emerald on it, and gold chains to keep it together.

Dream is the #3 hero. His costume consists of a black with neon green accent skintight, armored sleeveless turtleneck, black armored leggings, a belt, and black combat boots with neon green accents and laces. He has a mask that covers his face that's white with a black smiley face, it looks odd against all the black, but it could just be a design choice. He had a brown leather strap across his chest which she assumes leads to a holster for his sword. Finally, he has a neon green hoodie which is tied around his waist. She assumes he normally wears the hoodie since it's not practical to keep it around his waist.

Pan is the #4 hero. She's a sheep hybrid with puffy, white, wool-like hair that has a rainbow streak in it. She has horns that look like a tight spiral on the sides of her head, but they don't cover her ears or anything. She has a black, blue, and red pirate captain's hat on, with a red bandana under it. She's wearing an off-white shirt that has loose puffed sleeves, but it's tight just above her wrist. There's a blue armored underbust corset-esq thing. She has legging-like pants, but they're armored and boots that come up just below the knee. She has a belt with pockets and loops that hold various items. To complete the look, she has a mask that covers the bottom half of her face, it's a dark navy blue with circular ventilators on them and white heart accents.

Conductor is the #5 hero. He has a fairly simple costume. It's a black bodysuit with pockets and blueish-purple iridescent armor. He has combat boots with a steel toe and gloves that she assumes help him with his potency. His hair is put back into a short ponytail and to top it all off, he has a face purple-blue mask over his mouth and nose with ventilators. He's also pretty skinny and lanky.

She'll definitely have to research these people later. Shadow chuckles, watching the heroes still significantly. 

Then, she hears it.

The unmistakable sound of gears clogging and grinding, belts snapping, and electricity sizzling and crackling. 

It's impossible to hear for normal people, but she knows it means trouble.

"Well ladies and gentlemen, I should get going!" She doesn't want to fight right now. Patching up wounds doesn't sound like a fun night. Plus, she has shit to do.

"Don't you dare leave you fucker!!" Conductor all but screeches. 

However, it's too late, Shadow runs towards the upper districts and jumps into an alleyway. Leaving the heroes questioning a lot. The main one is, who the fuck is this new villain?

Chapter Text

After Shadow is a safe distance away from the heroes, she drops into an alleyway and makes her way to the Logstedshire cluster by walking through alleyways and eventually rooftops.

She continues walking through the Logstedshire, going deeper in. She makes it to the 17th district and looks around until she finds the building she's looking for. 

It's an old building, crumbling under its own weight. Vines are growing up the walls and there are holes and rubble everywhere. It's a 4 story building that used to be an office, but after a terrorist bomb attack, people evacuated and left it to rot. It's dusty and old, the upper levels are completely unstable or just gone. She's explored the upper levels (almost falling through the floors multiple times, but we don't talk about that), and the only things there are overturned furniture and small animals/rodents.

The heroes didn't care enough to try to save everyone, just the easy targets, the government doesn't give a damn about the Logstedshire cluster, so they don't fund rebuilding, and the people just forgot about the tragedy that killed 27 people and hurt more. 

She goes around the side of the building and finds a hole that was blasted open and grips the top part of the wall to help herself in. 

"Hello? You guys there?!" She calls into the building and listens as her voice echoes a bit.

A small group of people walk into her view. Punz, Henry, Clementine, and Purpled. There are more people at this camp, evident by the tents and boxes of supplies haphazardly strewn about. She sees MInx, another person she likes, talking to some other people she doesn’t recognize. That’s common, people come and go through here, as most know this place is protected. 

She sees the familiar hallway that leads to the room where her brothers sleep while they’re here due to either school being out, but she’s busy or her having to do stuff during the weekend. She can’t afford an actual babysitter and it’s risky to have anyone in her apartment when she’s not there. So she pays the few people she trusts to look after her baby brothers. 

"Hey guys! How are you all doing?" She tilts her head slightly. 

Henry sighs. "We're doing about as well as you can be when you're a group of homeless people." 

Shadow nods slightly and throws the duffle bag in front of them. "Please take what you need to get food, water, blankets, and any other necessities for the next month."

Punz walks forward and opens the duffle bag. Huge wads of cash are stacked in it and spill out. The group looked from the bag to Shadow with wide eyes and hung open mouths.

"Where did you get all of this?!" Purpled hisses.  

"Don’t worry about it, just take what you need, but leave some for other people." Shadow leans against a wall, watching the group. “Oh, also take payment for babysitting the kids, I’ll get them back to their sister.”

This time it’s Clemetine who speaks, “Thank you honey, we can always rely on you.”

Clementine is a 37-year-old Moth hybrid and one the sweetest people Shadow has ever met. Henry is a 42-year-old cow hybrid, though he acts like the dad of the group, Punz is a 24-year-old alien hybrid, though he is more human than anything, Purpled, on the other hand, is 17 and looks more alien than human. 

Out of this group, Shadow is closest to Purpled. In fact, there were a few things that Shadow had asked Purpled once he stopped being so closed off. She learned alien hybrids actually aren’t aliens at all, Purpled explained this to Shadow a few months ago. 

“We’re not actually aliens and Punz and I aren’t related. We’re actually a culmination of various other hybrids, it started with a few hybrids, they got taken by the government and tested on. The government wanted to see how many hybrids they could forcefully stuff into one body.” Purpled’s fists clench and shake slightly. “Eventually the hybrids escaped. They created families and eventually after many generations, ‘aliens’ were born. We’re all made up of so many hybrids that we all look similar. We’re basically our own species. Though some have fewer features than others. We’re still considered freaks, everyone knows our origins, and it’s impossible to get a job or school or anything while being an alien.”

Shadow grits her teeth, anger welling up inside her. It’s too similar.

From that moment forward, she knew they’d be friends for a long time. Granted, they still have their problems. Both have trust issues, he doesn't know her civilian identity, among other things. He’s still skeptical of her intentions and where she stands. However, she was one of the few people to accept Purpled and Punz immediately, much to their surprise. 

Purpled looks pretty cool, he has purple antennae with faint yellow at the ends, purple gills on the sides of his neck, and his fingernails grow to look like talons. He also has a purple reptilian-like tail that goes a bit past his feet when put down, it’s relatively smooth with ridges along the top, and the end looks like a fuzzy poof. His eyes are a brilliant, unnatural purple with specks of white, teal, and pink, but his sclera is black instead of white. To top everything off, he has a dusting of purple freckles across his cheeks and over his nose. 

Punz looks pretty human, the few indicators that he’s not are his unnaturally golden eyes, his pointed ears, and his claw-like fingernails. Otherwise, he has blonde hair that’s almost silver and slightly tan skin.

Clementine, on the other hand, has paper-thin wings, antennae that look like combs, and fur-like hair around her neck. She can switch her arms and legs to be moth-like. Overall, she looks very nice and soft. Though don’t anger her, she’s terrifying when angry. 

Last but not least, there’s Henry. Henry has vitiligo, parts of his skin are brown while others are white, it affects his whole body, even his hair. Henry’s face looks like a cow’s, long snout, large eyes, horns, and floppy ears. He has a cow tail with a tuft at the end, and his legs are muscular and have hooves instead of feet.

She watches the group taking a few stacks of money before zipping the duffle back back up, blatantly ignoring the technology in the duffle. They know not to ask about anything possibly illegal they see which is why they also don’t. She watches their eyes, seeing the gratefulness, the worry about finding their next meal or staying warm in the upcoming winter fading, she sees the relief. It makes her smile softly. She enjoys this feeling, helping others who need it the most. Logstedchire is her home, speaking of which, she needed to get her and her brothers home.

“Can I take the kids to their sister now?” Shadow questions, watching as Henry glances at Punz. Punz walks off, presumably to grab the kids and bring them back. She knows her way to their room, but sometimes she’s not able to go for safety reasons. She remembers the door to their room, it has pictures drawn by the two of them. Her favorite is one signed by Micheal, his handwriting is blocky and the c is backward. It depicts stick figure versions of Micheal, Shroud, Shadow, and her civilian form. Not even Micheal and Shroud know their sister and Shadow are the same person. It’s a guarded secret, she loves her brothers dearly, but she can’t have them blab to their teachers, other kids, etc. 

Attachments are dangerous. They’re weaknesses. It’ll get you killed. Dispose of them...  

Shadow waits for Punz to come back with her brothers and makes small talk with Purpled. A few minutes later Punz comes back and holds the two sleeping kids on either side of his body. So Shadow grabs her duffle bag and takes the two sleeping forms from Punz’s arms

“They wouldn’t wake up.” Punz states Shadow nods, “Ok, I’ll get them back to their sister, then I’ll continue patrol.”

With that, they split ways, Shadow taking the kids back to her apartment and putting them to bed. She finishes her night by handing out money to homeless kids and adults, paying people’s rent, and stopping some petty crime. By the time she was ready to go home, she had about $1000 left in cash. She pockets it to be able to pay for necessities and maybe a little treat for Micheal and Shroud. 

Shadow finally gets home, making sure no one saw or followed her. She slipped in through her bedroom window and went to her bathroom. She taps a ring she always keeps on twice and her entire suit goes into the ring. Her suit is fairly complex. It has to be since she fights without a potency despite having one. 

Her suit is made of some stolen materials from a military camp. The suit is heatproof and waterproof. It’s made of a super flexible, black, skin-tight, but not uncomfortable material. She has steel-toed black combat boots that allow her to jump higher than normal, run faster, and even fall off 3 story buildings without breaking anything. She has a black cloak over her suit, her hair stays pinned under her hood. The hood itself goes down to a point at the bridge of her nose, between her eyes. The cloak has a silvery clasp to keep it together, and long sleeves that are flowy. The cloak goes down to her hip, it keeps her warm and helps hide her identity. She has a mask at the bottom of her face, it has ventilators, where a special shadow smoke for smokescreens comes from, and it also ventilates out almost all smoke and gas. The mask has a voice changer in it, making her voice more robotic and glitchy. She has gloves that allow her to access any door that requires a finger or handprint, due to the special technology she got. She has red contacts so that she can hide her eye colors. These contacts are linked to government servers so she can identify people, their criminal records, pretty much everything about them, but only when she wants to identify someone. She can’t use them on most heroes though since those are classified and require more hacking and work to find. The contacts also have night vision. She has a potency suppressant armband and the ring which stays on when the suit is put on, but they change to black and stay on top of her suit. The final piece to complete her ensemble is her utility belt. It has various pockets and holding loops. She has pouches full of smoke grenades, small explosives, zip ties, first aid supplies, spray paint, etc. She has a couple of holding loops with sheathed daggers, throwing knives, her retractable bat, and her sheathed katana.

She made the most of it, it was a lot of work, but the outcome was worth it. One of her favorite things she’s made is the ring, it stores 1 outfit at a time, and she keeps her vigilante outfit there to switch at a moment’s notice. When she switches, the outfit she’s wearing at that moment gets stored in the ring. It’s actually a lot more complex than that, but that’s the simple explanation. 

Speaking of switching outfits, now she has an oversized white t-shirt with a faded cat design on it, gray sweatpants, mismatched socks, and slippers. Her hair is black and a bit past shoulder length, it’s up in a messy bun. She’s fairly pale and she has very prominent eye bags. 

She finally releases the painful pressure that’s been building up at the base of her back and on top of her head since she went out as Shadow. Black cat ears and a black cat tail appear on her body. She hides her hybridness when she’s out for safety's sake, but it’s a huge relief to let it go. Not to mention it is very painful to keep them hidden.  

Today is definitely going to be a sleep and rest day, she can feel the tiredness pulling at her eyes. She’s not going to worry about remaking the ropes, or working on new weapons, or trying to go out and stop crime, she should lay low anyways. She’s just going to sleep all day except for when she has to pick up or drop off Micheal and Shroud at school. She sighs and prepares for bed, brushing her teeth, taking a shower, and all that. She wraps herself in a towel after finishing her shower and looks at herself in the mirror.

She looks at herself in the mirror and her eyes drift to the insignia with numbers and letters on her collarbone. It depicts 2 horns that curl down and with H4-35 in between the horns. A constant reminder of her past and her tormentors. She looks down slightly and sees the edges of scars peeking up through the top of the towel, more reminders. 

She holds back a few tears threatening to spill from her eyes and puts on some pajamas. Once dressed, she turns out the light and quietly walks to her bedroom. She looks around, trying to get her mind off the men with evil eyes and evil smiles. 

Her room is small, really it’s about the size of a walk-in closet. She has a small wardrobe she made that stores her clothes and a thin mattress on the floor in the corner. She has a few pillows, thin blankets, and a stuffed animal of a bear on her mattress, but that’s about it. She doesn’t need anything else, she doesn’t want to waste money on things that she doesn’t need when it could be going to Micheal, Shroud, and food. 

She gets under her bed and cuddles the plush, letting a few tears roll down her cheeks as she drifts off into sleep plagued by nightmares of the evil men with the evil smiles, of guts and gore, of murder and betrayal, of death, so, so much death.

Chapter Text

It’s barely 7 am and Phil is exhausted. He’s working on a mission report with his sons, which is already a mistake. The villain they had encountered a few nights ago was unlike any villain they’d faced previously. They didn’t fight, instead opting for the use of technology that not even the heroes could create. 

It…It was scary. It was the first time in a long time Phil had actually felt fear. Him, his sons, and his friends were all immobilized in a matter of seconds. They could have hurt his sons or his friends. The people he cares about could have died… 

The only reason they all escaped was because a few seconds after the villain went out of sight, the ropes all broke, well, except for Zelen’s. He was incredibly annoyed when Enyo had picked him up and carried him back to the hero tower like a baby. They had managed to get Zelen with the rope around him to Seeker, the 6th hero. Seeker loves technology and makes a lot of the technology and suits that heroes use. So he was concerned when Enyo barged in with a tied-up Zelen. It took Seeker a few hours to figure out how to get the ropes off then promptly shooed Enyo and Zelen out to be able to study the rope. He was very clearly interested in the technology and wanted to take it apart and study it. 

He knew he had to locate and catch this villain. His sons had been uneasy for the past few days, but-

“Philll” Wilbur groans. Ah, there it is, Wilbur is back to his normal self. 

Phil hums in acknowledgment but doesn’t look up from the mission report.

“Why do we have to do this??” Wilbur looks down at the small stack of papers in front of him. The three heroes are in their living room, sitting on the floor doing paperwork on the coffee table. 

It's Techno who answers, “We’ll get in trouble with POPIC if we don’t and you refuse to get an assistant to help us out. We only listen to you because you’ll sulk in your room and be rude to the person if we hire them.”

Wilbur groans and flops back against the bottom of the couch. “Y’know what, ignore my previous statements, let’s get a damn assistant. Anything to not do this stupid shit.”

Techno chuckles slightly. “That can be arranged, let’s talk to the others in the next meeting.”

Phill chuckles. Hero life isn’t what most expect. A lot of it is paperwork, they have a PR team to take care of the PR stuff, but having an assistant would take a lot of the work they have to do off their chest. It would mean more sleep, more patrol, and just anything except paperwork. 

It’ll be nice to have someone helping us out, but we should be careful. People will take this opportunity to try and infiltrate. Phil looks down at his paperwork and grimaces. “Let’s just get this done, the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can get out in the field.”

Wilbur and Techno hum in agreement and they all go back to focusing on the work that’s in front of them.

After around an hour of working, with the occasional thrown paper at each other, the elevator dings. Though none of them hear it, too enveloped in their work. They don’t even hear the light footsteps approaching until:

“Hey guys.”

The three heroes whip their heads to the person who chose to sneak up on them. Wilbur and Phil had jumped slightly, but Techno had just looked up.

“Don’t scare us like that mate!” Phil says, looking at Sigyn, the 9th hero. Sigyn has the mind to look guilty and rubs the back of his neck.

“Sorry, just came to let you guys know there’s a meeting in a few minutes. Seeker called it, apparently it’s urgent.” Sigyn explains. 

The three sigh simultaneously and Techno is the first one who stands up. “Let us get in our hero costumes, then we’ll be right down.” He replies.

Sigyn nods before getting in the elevator and letting it slide close.

With that, the heroes go to their respective rooms and get changed into their costumes. Wilbur finished changing first, then Phil, the two of them decide to wait for Techno in the living room. Techno’s costume always takes the longest to put on. In the meantime, Wilbur and Phil discuss the specifics of the assistant and theorize why Seeker called a meeting. 

Techno comes out of his room 7 minutes after Phil and Wilbur, seeing them in a heated debate over…Bagels? Techno’s lips quirk up slightly and he clears his throat.

"Techno! Tell Phil that bagels with raisins in them are an atrocity!" Wilbur pleads. Techno's nose scrunches and Phil glares at both of them.

"Raisins are for old people and noobs. They're gross." Techno agrees with a solemn nod.

Phil rolls his eyes "I think they're good, but now that Techno is done changing, let's get to this meeting."

The brothers agree and they make their way to the elevator. Techno insists on pressing the button to the floor they need to go to. It's tradition at this point, anytime they use the elevator, Techno presses the button. Wilbur used to fight him on it but eventually resigned to letting Techno do it. So, Techno clicks the button with a 14 on it.

Floor 14, it's the floor that holds all of the meeting rooms. The rooms range in size and formality. Anytime a meeting is called, everyone called to said meeting goes to floor 14. The heroes have a specific room to meet when they're all called. All being the top 15 heroes. Phil himself was the #1 hero, Techno being the 2nd, followed by Zelen, then Pan, Wilbur, Seeker, Monarch, Seer, Sigyn, Tyche, Anthusae, Gemma, Echidna, Lens, and Bastet. 

The heroes don't actually know each other's identities unless they show each other. There are a few heroes who don't care about their identity getting out like Seeker, so everyone knows his name and face, at least in the Tower. Sigyn knows Phil, Techno, and Wilbur's identities since he was basically raised by them. Seeker also knows their identities, along with Monarch, and Seer. Other than that, all other heroes don't know their identities.

Phil gets bored partway through the ride, so he pulls his phone out of his pocket and checks it, all he sees is Twitter blowing up, constant notifications, and more constantly pouring in. He almost clicks on one of the notifications, but the elevator comes to a stop and opens its doors, so he tucks his phone back safely into his pocket. He'll check it another time.

"Let's figure out what this all-important meeting is about," Wilbur says. Phil hums in agreement and Techno nods. So the three make their way to the normal meeting room, room 1436. 

The brothers take to flanking Phil's sides a bit behind him. It's a routine they're all used to, the #1 in front, #2 and #5 to his sides. 

Shani makes sure his mask is on securely and pushes open the doors, revealing a pretty typical meeting room. A large table with 15 seats, a large whiteboard on one wall, and large windows that span the entirety of a wall. There are a few buttons at the head of the table to control the blinds, a tv that comes down from the ceiling, and a few other things. The room is soundproof as well, there also aren't any cameras, just as security measures.

There are already a few heroes in the room, Sigyn, Monarch, Seer, Tyche, and Lens. Shani goes to his seat at the head of the table, his back facing the window, Enyo sits on the side next to him and Conductor is a few seats down on the opposite side of Enyo. 

The other heroes talk amongst themselves as more file in, and soon the room is filled with quiet chatter and speculation, everyone is here. Everyone except the caller of the meeting, Seeker. Shani sighs and decides it's probably best to give him time to prepare, after all, Seeker rarely calls meetings. 

In the meantime, Shani figures they should talk about the new villain and the plan for an assistant. 

Shani clears his throat, getting everyone in the room's attention and they all fall silent. 

“We have a few things to discuss before Seeker gets here. He’ll be filled in after the meeting. Once he gets here, we’ll let him explain why he called the meeting and go from there.”

The room gives quiet murmurs of agreement. Shani continues, “As you all know by now, the top 5 have lost to a brand new villain. We know virtually nothing about them other than the fact that they have incredibly advanced technology and that they probably have their hands on Powerite somehow.”

Most of the people in the room grimace or at the very least furrow their eyebrows, showing their discontent. Powerite is a gemstone that has dangerous properties. It can cancel out potencies or amplify them, depending on how they're used. How it does this is relatively unknown, there are theories, but those theories are kept close to the government’s chest. How to activate the Powerite used to be a guarded secret, but a villain found out and leaked it to the masses. That leak made the selling and buying of Powerite heavily monitored by the government. 

There are people in the underground who can get their hands on Powerite, it’s inevitable. However, those are typically ones with money, power, or influence. Powerite sells for a pretty penny, anyone who is in the world of villainy wants their hands on the stuff since there’s no known counter to the effects of the gem. But the question is-

“How did this villain that doesn’t have a lot of power, probably not a lot of money, and definitely no influence in the villain world, get their hands on Powerite?” Gemma asks, the golem hybrid picking at one of the blue gems growing from his forearm.

“I wish I could tell you mate,” Shani responds, it just doesn’t make sense. This… Nobody has access to one of the most valuable resources known to man.

“If they have access to Powerite, maybe they do have power or influence, but they stay very secretive.” Anthusae pipes up.

“But why attack now? Why attempt something so big if they don’t expect us to know them?” Conductor retorts, running his hand through his mop of brown curls.

The conversation continues, everyone pitching in their ideas and speculations. Shani lets them talk, trying to think of a way to handle this newfound problem. Eventually, he lets out a heavy sigh, getting the room’s attention again.

“We can figure all of that out later, we need a plan before we leave this meeting, but we should wait for Seeker, he called this meeting for a reason, so it might have something to do with this villain. In the meantime, Conductor, Enyo, and I came up with an agreement. I know we’ve all been stressed with paperwork, and this new villain isn’t helping any.” Shani looks around the room, everyone has dark eyebags due to paperwork and/or night patrol, the only exceptions being Monarch, Pan, and Anthusae. Those 3 covered up their eyebags with some light makeup, but Shani knows the dark circles are there. 

“Please tell me this is the proposition I think it is.” Lens says hopefully. Lens would always fight Conductor on getting an assistant, both of them wanting completely opposite things. Lens would obviously always lose since Conductor is higher ranked and a lot pettier than Lens. So it makes sense for him to get excited about the prospect of the thing he’s been wanting for upwards of 2 years.

Conductor grumbles out something about changing his mind since he doesn’t want to lose to the “bald fucker” which Shani brushes off.

“Yeah, we finally got Conductor to agree to getting assistants.” Shani rests his hand on his palm and watches all of his fellow hero’s faces light up. 

“New human friends!” Echidna says excitedly, his face breaks out into a large smile. Echidna has always been a bit odd. He’s a pureblood slime hybrid, which makes him not technically human, but it’s never really been an issue. He’s proved to be a very good rescue and infiltration hero, so he’s earned his spot.

“How many?” Bastet points out. His cat ears twitch a bit while he raises an eyebrow. 

“One.” Conductor says flatly, not wanting an argument. Shani shoots Conductor a glare.

“Isn’t a single assistant too little for oh I don’t know, 15 OR MORE HEROES??” Bastet bites out. 

“I was thinking about getting 5 that rotate between 3 heroes. One hero gets them for one day and they switch daily. We don’t want too many people, but one assistant is definitely too little. It’d be cruel to that assistant to have to switch between 15 people. But too many new people is a security risk. We can think about more depending on how it goes.” Shani explains, making some of the heroes relax at the idea. Others are still more defensive. 

Tyche starts opening his mouth to say something, but Seeker slams the doors open, his heavy breaths heard across the now deadly silent room. 

Shani looks over at Seeker. He’s wearing his lab coat, not a good sign. He never leaves his lab with his lab coat on unless it’s an emergency. So this is serious. Other heroes seem to pick up on this, as Tyche’s, Pan’s, Enyo’s, Zelen’s, and Monarch’s faces all darken. Others put on a more serious face, ready for the worst. Seeker closes the doors and walks over to the head of the table as Shani moves out of the way. This is his meeting now, so Shani moves to the opposite end of the table that he was sitting at.

Seeker presses the button to close the blinds and another button to bring down the tv from the ceiling. Then he connects his laptop to the tv. Seeker finally sighs, getting everyone’s attention. 

“As you all should know and I’m sure Shani has debriefed, ENB was robbed by an unknown villain. Not only that but our top 5 were restrained and unable to escape until a very fortunate accident. I’m sure that the 5 thought that this was going to be an easy arrest, probably a petty villain trying to get their 15 minutes of fame and got a bit of a lucky break. ” Seeker starts. 

The 5 heroes nod solemnly, the bitter taste of defeat still prominent in their mouths. This was the first time all 5 had been beaten at once. The rest are all tense, not having to relive that one-sided fight, but weary since all 5 had been restrained. Seeker himself is also tense, knowing personally how hard it is to beat just one of them, let alone all of them. Shani notes that Seeker has a grimace, indicating that he’s either angry or just plain sad. Either way, Shani tunes out the rest of the details of the briefing of the chase and humiliating defeat.

“Moving onto the crime scene.” That get’s Shani’s attention, none of the top 5 had been to the crime scene or seen the extent of the damage.

Seeker pulls up some pictures depicting the aftermath of the crime scene. There’s spray paint in some sort of insignia on the right wall, all of the security cameras, trip wires, and other visible security measures are down, and there is money strewn about along with smoke bomb residue. But the thing that immediately caught Shani’s attention is the now open vault door. 

“They used a 10-minute window that they created. They downed all of the security and even the backup security. They were prepared, making that opening and getting as much as they could. But I guess they didn’t think to check for the backup security alarms. Their plan was to get in, get what they wanted and no one would’ve known until the next day. It almost worked. If they had gotten the 2nd backup alarms, their plan would’ve been flawless.”

“They got into the vault,” Enyo observes. The vault was supposed to be the most secure in the country, holding contraband technology, the government’s money, among other things. Now it’s wide open, not entirely empty, but there are certainly things missing.

“Yes, they did, I don’t know how they got in since they got to the audio and security. Hacked their way through. Which means that either them or someone they know is on level or better than me when it comes to coding.” Seeker doesn’t bother to hide the bitter tone in his voice. Everyone seems to pick up on this and stay quiet to prevent the wall from being blown up like the last time Seeker got like this. 

“Which means nothing that I have coded is safe. We need to be extra careful in keeping tech close to our chests.” Some smoke trails start coming out of Seeker’s mask, emphasizing his true feelings. “It doesn’t help that the insignia left and the description given were the only information we had on them. If they hadn’t let us see the insignia or let the 5 that went after them see their mask and eyes, we would never know who did this.”

“So you know who did this then?” Seer asks, picking up on the wording that Seeker used. 

“I have a suspicion about who did it, the only problem is that there is so little information on them that I can't be certain.” Seeker explains, tapping his index finger against the table. 

"Mind going over your suspicions?" Pan asks, trying to calm him down from all the anxiety Seeker is no doubt feeling. 

"I'll do that in a bit. But the main reason I called this meeting was because of the robotic rope that was wrapped around Zelen. It has no Powerite." Seeker reveals. The room became so silent that you could hear a pin drop.

"What?! How is that possible?! There's no way to suppress potencies without Powerite!" Zelen blurts out.

“I know.” Seeker responds bluntly. “It shouldn’t be possible. There’s no record of something like this anywhere. I dissected the ropes to try to figure it out, but I got nothing. I only found a link to a video call encoded in the software. But I’m not planning on joining the call since it could open up all sorts of weaknesses in my code on my computer. Then they could access virtually anything in the hero tower and database. Even confidential files.”

“I understand not clicking the link, but would it be possible to re-enforce your software to prevent anything? That link could give us more information about this villain and their possible associates. Also, why did the ropes not loosen on Zelen?” Shani asks.

“Yeah, why was I the only one trapped in those stupid ropes?” Zelen bitterly asks.

“I could try to open the link on a laptop that has no risks if it’s hacked. And as for why Zelen was the only one whose potency wasn’t suppressed, I don’t have a completely solid answer. My current theory is that since potencies have a form of energy that powers them, it’s likely that the ropes somehow draw in a certain amount of that energy which prevents the use of potencies. The heroes who have potencies probably had this energy drawn out, but the ropes couldn’t hold the potency energy. However, since Zelen is powerless, he didn’t have his energy drawn out. So the rope didn’t malfunction.” Seeker explains.

The heroes look at Seeker, some with shock, others with fear. I mean, this is unprecedented, a villain who has figured out how to draw out the energy behind potencies without powerite. If this gets out to the public it’ll cause mass panic. If other villains, especially that one, get their hands on this, it’ll be devastating. They have to catch this villain. Fast. 

“Coming back to their presumed identity.” Seeker starts again, trying to ease the heroes a bit. It seems to work as the curiosity and anger caused by this villain come out again. 

“I believe it’s the villain known as Shadow. Since I believe only a couple of you have had to deal with the aftermath of their crimes, let me explain a bit about them.” 

“Ugh.That slippery bastard? How can they be behind this? They’ve only ever committed smaller, albeit annoying crimes. They constantly terrorize the upper districts.” Lens interrupts, annoyance in his voice. He’s been the only one to try to go after Shadow since they first appeared, though he’s never actually captured them, Shadow is always gone by the time anyone got to the scene of their crimes.

“It’s the only person who makes sense. Their insignia matches the one Shadow leaves on their victims. Shadow is a bit infamous amongst the smaller heroes. They have a very long list of crimes, from murders to arson to trespassing to property damage to robbery and more. Hundreds of counts of each. All with their insignia left behind in one way or another. I cannot tell you how hard it was to track down all this information. They clearly tried incredibly hard to not be tracked or seen. Shockingly, they've only been active a year.” Seeker pulls up pictures on the tv, showing buildings that were destroyed one way or another with their insignia somewhere in the crime and even pictures of gruesome murders and their insignia carved into the victim’s flesh. 

All of the heroes in the room grimace at the pictures. Who would be sick enough to brutally murder people and then carve their insignia into them? What the hell is wrong with this person?!

“Why didn’t this come to our attention sooner? They’ve clearly shown they’re incredibly dangerous.” Pan’s face is dark, anger welling up inside of her.

“Because they target other small villains and people who POPIC already wants to take out. POPIC let Shadow take out whoever and do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t affect business. They’re basically using Shadow like a dog without Shadow knowing. However now, now they’ve crossed the line and POPIC will probably hold no bars back now that Shadow has crossed them.” Lens replies callously. 

“So POPIC has basically been protecting Shadow?” Anthusae quirks an eyebrow. 

“Yup.” Lens bites out. “But they still send me and other small-time heroes to keep up appearances.” 

“How annoying.” Conductor groans.

Pretty much all the heroes in the room give various agreements. 

“Well, now we need a course of action. A battle plan. We don’t know if they have a potency or not, the full extent of their technology, nothing. Any ideas?” Shani asks, taking back control of the meeting.

Seeker sighs. “I think the best course of action would be to have the SBI and Zelen go undercover in Logstedshire.”

“What?! Why that dump?!” Conductor almost screeches.

“Calm down. It’s just for a few hours during the day and a few hours at night. The reason why I’m saying Logstedshire specifically is because Shadow has committed crimes in L’manburg and Manburg and as we all know, Baphomet still rules the villains in Snowchester after being chased out of Manburg. Shadow doesn’t seem like the type to target her own home cluster, but they’re also not dumb enough to attack his territory. So they probably reside in Logstedshire, it’s worth checking out. They might be active in some way there, but since no heroes patrol Logstedshire due to it being home to the poor and homeless, it’s the perfect place for them to hide out. The people of Logstedshire aren’t fans of heroes, so you have to act like a normal civilian.” Seeker explains. 

“That… Actually makes a lot of sense. Since Shadow is now considered the second most wanted criminal after him , it makes sense for us to focus resources on catching them no matter where they are.” Shani replies. 

The meeting continues on for another hour or so, different plans, theories, and ideas being swirled around. Seeker is caught up on the assistant plan and agrees with it. Once the meeting concludes, everyone leaves with some form of bitterness, determination, or anger.

————— 

Little did any of the heroes know the person watching them through the cameras. A figure in front of a wall of monitors. Her face was illuminated in the screen’s light, a sinister grin on her fa ce. She just found the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the hero tower and find more information.

Chapter Text

It’s been a full week since Shadow has been out. A week since Shadow ran into the heroes. Thankfully Logstedshire has been calm in her absence, criminals choosing not to cross her after the news of her heist and subsequent restraint of the heroes broke. Though she’ll have to patrol again soon, there’s only so long she can leave Logstedshire unprotected.

In the time that she’s been laying low, she’s decided to keep herself busy. She finally got herself around to enrolling Micheal and Shroud into an actual daycare for after school so that she doesn’t have to burden her… friends? Does she consider them friends? Do they consider her friends? She decides they’re acquaintances that do favors for each other and that she trusts them enough to let them care for her brothers.

Anyways, she’s also been watching the heroes through the security cameras to see if there’s anything else about her or him . She did some research on the top 15 heroes, though only looked at what was available to the public despite having access to their government profiles. Since what fun would it be if she just knew everything about them? She likes some form of a challenge. 

Aside from anything to do with the heroes, she built gadgets while her brothers were in school and spent more time with them when they got out of school. It’s been nice. She gets to do little arts and crafts with them, watch some shows that they like on her monitors, and watch them play superheroes. 

As much as it pains her to see her brothers dress up and pretend to be heroes, as long as they're happy, she’ll support them. One day she’ll tell them her true identity, but not right now, not while they’re so innocent to believe the world is black and white. They look up to her enemies, but they also look up to Shadow. 

They don’t know about her exploits in the upper district, most civilians in Logstedshire don’t, but the ones that do are fine with it. She uses what she takes to help them while putting rich assholes in their place. Kind of like a modern-day robin hood, though the heroes definitely don’t see it that way, they only see her as a villain who’s doing what she wants for her own selfish gain. The heroes don’t know about her reputation in Logstedshire and she intends to keep it that way, she wants to keep her villain and vigilante sides separate to a degree.

Micheal and Shroud have both said that they want to be a hero just like Shadow, while they’re aware that she’s not an actual hero, they still aspire to be like her. She’s Logstedshire’s hero, whether she’s a criminal or not.

“I’m here to save you!” Micheal announces as he bursts into the room. Ash is on the couch pretending to be a hostage, playing along with them after much of their incessant pleading. 

“You’ll never defeat me!” Shroud laughs, putting 2 of his arms on his hips. 

Shroud is a 6-year-old pureblooded spider hybrid, the youngest of the two brothers. They’re not brothers by blood, but they’re close enough to be called brothers. Micheal and Ash love him despite him not looking like a normal kid. He has messy black hair and the rest of his body is black and slightly fuzzy. He has 8 red eyes, 2 where eyes normally are, and 4 other eyes, 2 near the upper corners of each eye. He also has normal arms and legs, then 4 extra spider-like limbs coming from his back. He has little fangs that he can secrete poison from, though he doesn’t not since the first time.

 It wasn’t a fun time when they figured out he could, the poison was potent and Shroud had playfully bit Ash. Ash fell sick soon after, she ended up having to go to the hospital as she didn’t know the antidote and needed immediate medical attention. Her brothers were really scared when she had to have Clementine, Henry, and the others look after them for a few days. Shroud had nightmares for months after, he was terrified to even open his mouth. It was a rough time, but everything is better now. 

Micheal is his brother in everything, but blood, an 8-year-old piglin hybrid. Micheal had a really bad incident when he was younger, which ended in him missing a large patch of skin and muscle around a now missing eye. Now it’s just bone and an eye socket. He’s pink and fuzzy everywhere else and his legs have hoofs on the end, while he has human hands, though they’re still pink and fuzzy. He has a little pig snout with tusks coming from his mouth a little underneath it. His ear is like a pig’s and he’s unfortunately missing his other ear. He also has a little tuft of hair on the top of his head. 

The two of them are Ash’s pride and joy. She took them in after her alter-ego saved them from their bad situations. It took them a bit to warm up to her and each other, but now they’re their own little rag-tag family. All 3 are outcasts from society, so she should keep them close to prevent any further tragedy. It took a while before she decided to adopt them 100% legally. Yup, definitely not technically kidnapping.

Despite all of the laws that were instated to protect hybrids and all of the acceptance movements, some hybrids still aren’t liked. For example, spiders, cats, and piglins. 

Spiders aren’t liked because of the already pre-existing fear of spiders. They also tend to have a reputation for using their born abilities (poison depending on the species and webs which all pureblood spider hybrids can have) for crimes. Spiders get associated with gangs and misfortune. It doesn’t help that there are no spider heroes, so there’s no effort going to help them.

Cats, more specifically black cats, are presumed to bring misfortune. They can also be associated with more petty crimes such as pick-pocketing, small robberies, etc. They’re presumed to use their natural instincts to hurt others as well. There’s also a lot of superstition around black cats, as it’s thought that they bring destruction and bad luck wherever they are. Of course, it’s just rumors and a horrible case of wrong place wrong time, but that doesn’t stop the discrimination. However, it’s getting a bit better with the hero Bastet, the number #15 hero, who is a pureblood cat hybrid and showing Essempee that cats aren’t so bad. 

Piglins tend to be avoided due to their brutish nature. Piglins get really big and gain a lot of muscle when they become teens. Their sheer strength alone can crush metal. It doesn’t help that some have bad tempers and can go on rampages if angered too much. Enyo, the 2nd rank hero (and Micheal’s favorite hero) is a mixed piglin hybrid. Enyo has helped the public’s viewpoint on piglins. He’s the 2nd rank hero who has taken out a lot of villains, he’s shown compassion to little kids that he’s saved or that come up to him to ask for something. He’s completely smashed the initial perception of piglins in every sense of the word. Still, people can’t help but be cautious around a species that’s so dangerous. 

She watches her little brothers fight with foam swords. She cheers them both on and gives them both little pointers on their form and footwork, nothing super complicated, but just little comments to help them out. 

Eventually, they both tire out and Micheal wins the play fight, successfully saving Ash. It’s nice, seeing them both laughing and playing, they’ve both come a long way since she first took them in. She smiles softly as Micheal and Shroud laugh about their sword fight and how much they want to be like their favorite heroes. 

Maybe she should take them somewhere, a little day out. They rarely go out altogether, but since she has time off and some money to spare, maybe she’ll take them to a mall. 

“Micheal, Shroud?” The two children look over at Ash in curiosity. “Sis?” Micheal responds.

“How would you two like to go to the mall in District 13 and get a treat and a toy for each of you?” Ash asks, already knowing their reaction.

The two of them look up at her, Micheal’s ear moves up and down quickly, the biggest indicator of his excitement, while Shroud has a big smile and his 4 spider legs vibrate. Both of them vigorously nod. Micheal chuffs and snorts involuntarily while Shroud makes a hissing spider sound, those are their verbal indicators of their excitement.

Their excitement is completely warranted, as they rarely go out for a treat. It’s always a big deal for them when they get to go to other districts for reasons other than school. The three of them live in District 17, which is just south of District 13, meaning that they can walk there in less than 30 minutes.

“Then go get dressed and we’ll head out!” Ash smiles as her tail sways side to side idly. 

Ash is a mixed black cat hybrid, meaning she has a pair of black cat ears on the top of her head and a slender long black tail that comes out of the base of her back. She has heterochromia, with one of her eyes being yellow and the other green and her pupils are slits, just like a cat’s. She has black hair that goes a bit past her shoulders and her teeth are sharper than normal. 

FAKE

Micheal and Shroud immediately run to their shared room to find the clothes they want to wear out. Meanwhile, Ash goes to her room and changes out of her pajamas into an oversized pastel yellow, green, and yellow tie-dye t-shirt and black ripped jeans, both of which she got from a thrift store. She double-checks that the ring holding her suit and the power-suppressing armband she always has on her upper right arm is secure. She also puts on a black baseball cap and a pair of socks before going to her brother’s room and knocking. 

“You two ready?” 

“Mhm!” Shroud's response.

“Yup!” Micheal replies.

“Ok, let’s get going then.” Ash opens the door and lets them walk out of the room and ruffles their hair on their way out. 

Micheal is wearing a yellow and brown sweater-like shirt, denim overalls that are shorts instead of long pants and it has a bee embroidered on the big front pocket along with red sneakers.

Shroud is wearing a pinkish-orange t-shirt with 4 holes in the back for his extra limbs, black shorts, and matching red sneakers to Micheal. 

Ash goes to the door and puts on her own sneakers and grabs a wallet she stole from some random rich asshole in the upper district and puts $100 in the wallet along with her I.D. and stuffs it in her pocket. Then she grabs her keys and opens the door and holds her hand out for Micheal to grab, which he does then Shroud grabs Micheal’s hand. Ash then leads them out the door and locks it behind them.

“Remember to hold onto my hand or each other’s hands. Don’t let go without letting me know and stay close.” Ash reminds them.

“We know sis, you tell us anytime we go out!” Micheal pouts.

“Yeah!” Shroud pouts as well, following Micheal’s example. 

“I know, I know, I just don’t want anything to happen to my family.” Ash sighs and looks down at them with a fond smile. 

She starts walking with them, making sure that they watch their step on the rotting stairs. The apartment that the three reside in is a very run-down apartment, it’s practically falling apart, but it’s livable enough that Ash deemed it safe enough for her siblings. While the place is basically a drug den, with the smell of weed and other various drugs lurking around the place, they’ve never come in contact with anyone high or stoned, so it’s not her biggest concern, plus as long as she doesn’t say anything to the cops, rent is only $100. Honestly, the most dangerous part of their journey to the 13th district is the stairs down to outside which are missing steps, some are barely hanging on and others are crooked. 

Unfortunately, she can’t get a nicer place right now since there are no openings for any tenants in any other apartments, but as soon as one opens up, she’ll get it. Hopefully, it’ll be in the 13th district since it’s fairly close to the higher districts. 

Anyways, the way to the mall is uneventful, which Ash is so thankful for. She’ll have to go out tonight to show that she’s still alive and to keep the streets safe.

When they do get to the mall, Micheal and Shroud were practically vibrating from excitement since they’re never been to a place that's so big. Technically there are much bigger places in the other clusters, but it’s the biggest place in Logstedshire. There are about 15 stores and 5 food stalls in the food court area. Honestly, the only reason the place hasn’t been robbed blind is because people in Logstedshire go to this mall as opposed to any other smaller mall in Logstedshire and it has protection and funding from Shadow.

As the three walk in, the cool air conditioning hits their faces. Air conditioning is a huge luxury in Logstedshire, so it’s really nice compared to their apartment. Ash looks around for the toy store that’s located in the middle of the left side and starts going to it with her brothers in tow. 

Micheal and Shroud are looking around with stars in their eyes, never having seen so many stores in their lives. Though when they see the toy store, their visible excitement is enough to make Ash laugh a bit as she takes them in and lets them go to pick out toys. 

In the end, Micheal chose a stuffed animal chicken. It’s white and round with black embroidered eyes, a little yellow beak, a comb (the red flap of skin on the top of chicken’s heads), and little yellow feet. On the other hand, Shroud chose a fake wooden sword. 

She walks the boys to the counter so that she can pay for the toys and puts them on the counter to pay. The cashier scans them and puts them in a bag.

“That’ll be 20 bucks.” The cashier looks at Ash, Micheal, and Shroud then scrunches their nose. “Actually that’ll be 30.” The cashier glares.

“Fine.” Ash sighs. She’s learned it’s better to not fight against discrimination or make a scene. It only ever ends badly. 

She hands over the money and gets the bag with the toys and looks down at her brothers, only to see them missing. 

Wait…

MISSING?!

Ash runs out of the store frantically looking for her baby brothers. Her only family is missing… She has to find them… She doesn’t know what she’d do without her little brothers… Completely ignoring the cloaked figure in the back of the mall in her stupor of trying to find her brothers. 

When she gets to the food court, she spots her brothers and runs over to them. She immediately runs over to them and pulls them into a hug and is about to start scolding them when the unmistakable sounds of bombs go off in the back of the mall. Chunks of the wall fly across the mall and people start screaming and running. Fleeing the scene as a man who set off the bomb activates his potency with a cackle as he grows exponentially in size, going to be taller than the mall itself.

Well. Fuck. Guess it’s time for her reappearance.

Chapter Text

“Tch.” Wilbur clicks his tongue as he, his brother, and his dad walk through the streets of the 13th district. The streets and sidewalks of Logstedshire are cracked and run down, with very few cars driving or parked along the street. A lot of the buildings are fairly old, but they seem fairly structurally stable. There are some functional shops, then there are abandoned ones with boarded-up windows. Streetlights are few and far between, which makes Wilbur assume that at night it’s incredibly dark. Not to mention he feels like he’s being stared at while walking down the street. 

Techno lets out a low whistle while looking around, “This place is really run down ain’t it?”

“No kidding. Why would a villain that stole a bunch of expensive technology and money be in a place like this?” Wilbur grumbles, not loud enough for anyone just walking down the street to hear, but it’s enough for Phil and Techno to hear. 

“You have to admit, this is the last place we’d look. Seems pretty smart to me mate.” Phil responds quietly.

“I guess, but this place is a dump, why would they willingly live here?” He asks.

“Dunno. Maybe to keep low.” Techno grunts out. “Either way, I heard there was a mall around here that we could go check out. Might get a lead or something there.”

Wilbur nods and lets Techno lead the way to the mall while he gets lost in his thoughts. 

“What heroes patrol here? It seems like they need a raise, I half-expected to get mugged by now in a place like this.” Wilbur says, staying wary of alleyways and generally dark places. 

There should be more crime, but whatever heroes patrol here are doing a damn good job. Though there aren’t any large-scale villain attacks that happen here since there’s no reason. Logstedshire is dirty and doesn’t have any value. The only nice thing is that they haven’t been disturbed by locals. Seeker had warned them about people being weary or rude to them because of how they looked. They’re clearly not from the lower districts, but they did try to find things that wouldn’t be all that rich looking. 

“We’ll figure it out when we get back to the tower,” Phil says quietly.

Wilbur nods and continues following Techno. It’s another few minutes of walking through the eerily empty streets and avoiding alleyways before they get to a medium-sized building. 

Said building is one story and has double glass doors and windows at the entrance. It's fairly skinny, but if Wilbur had to guess, it’s longer than it looks. Walking into the mall, it’s really not that big, with about 15 stores and 5 small food stalls, none of which are fast food or junk, which Wilbur can appreciate. 

The place is busier than Wilbur expected, at least 100 people are here which is a lot considering the size of the mall. 

“Let's just walk around a bit, I’m curious about what they sell here and the food that’s sold. It all looks like handmade stuff, so we might find something cool here.” Phil says casually, looking around at the various stores and up at the ceiling which is glass. This place is considerably nicer than anywhere else in the district. It makes Wilbur wonder how it’s in such nice condition when this place is supposed to be crime-ridden. 

“Ok, but we’re checking out that jewelry store at some point. I think I see gold in there.” Techno says, his piglin ears flicking up and down a few times. It’s something most piglins do to show when they’re excited or intrigued about something and it’s adorable every time. 

“Don’t,” Techno says immediately after, not even having to look back at Wilbur to know what he’s about to say.

“Too late!” Wilbur grins, putting on a very exaggerated baby voice. “Awwwww, is the big, bad Techno excited? Look at your ears flicking! You’re so excited!”

“Shut the fuck up. We’re in public.” Techno grumbles which results in Wilbur gasping dramatically. “You wound me dear brother, though you’re not saying I can’t tease you in private.” Wilbur chuckles a bit at the defeated glare that Techno throws over at him. 

“Whatever nerd.” Techno sighs. “I’m going to that jewelry store. You guys go wherever you want. We meet at the food area in 30 minutes.”

“Sounds good mate, make sure to keep our mission in the forefront of your minds,” Phil says before starting to walk away to a clothes store with a small wave.

Techno leaves to go to the jewelry store without another word. Which leaves Wilbur alone. Guess he should probably just start wandering around, maybe ask around for some information. Wilbur puts his hands in the pockets of his trenchcoat and looks around at the people here. A lot of people are wearing worn-out t-shirts, cheap-looking pants, worn sneakers, and things like that. It makes Wilbur feel overdressed since he’s wearing a relatively nice pair of jeans, a yellow sweater, a black trenchcoat, a red beanie, and golden-bronze wire-frame glasses. His shoes are a pair of black sneakers that he recently bought. Overall, he just stands out compared to everyone here.

Not that it really bothers him. He likes being in the spotlight, the center of attention. Though he doesn’t actively try to cause scenes to get the attention he craves. He’s fine with the attention he gets as a hero, his civilian self is more calm and chill compared to how he actually is as a hero. The difference in attitude actually helps him hide himself a lot better. Sometimes he acts a bit like his hero self, but it’s not like he can help it! He’s excitable and a bit eccentric by nature, which he tries to hide as a civilian, but there are times he just can’t help it. 

Speaking of excitability, he sees 2 kids running out of a toy store and over to the food court. Where are their parents? Jeez, some people are so irresponsible. Wilbur is about to go over to the kids to make sure they’re ok when he notices their appearances. One seems to be a piglin, like Techno, but they look more like a pureblood. What really catches his attention about the kid is the fact that you can see the bone on half of their head which means they’re missing an ear and an eye. A child has half of their face missing. It looks fairly old, at least a year or two, but it makes Wilbur shudder slightly, what happened to that kid? Are they being abused? He should go check on the kids since the other one is a spider and has substantial scarring on all of his arms, legs, and even neck. Something is wrong, he should tell his brother and dad about this and arrest whoever is hurting these kids. 

What’s more concerning is that no one else seems concerned about them or their scarring. No one really pays any mind to the kids, almost like they don’t care about the obviously serious abuse happening to these kids. It’s worse than anything he’s ever seen. His blood boils at the thought of children and even one of his own species being so gravely injured. See, Wilbur is a descendant of piglins, but he looks more human and his potency is that of a human, the only giveaway of his heritage is when he uses his potency, his eyes go from a chocolate brown to a low, glowing red. His brother, on the other hand, is a mixed piglin hybrid, he got the potency and features of a piglin. 

The one thing that stayed constant between the two was the feeling that he needed to protect his drove. Anyone that is a piglin or has enough piglin blood will get these instincts, they want to protect their kind, especially the piglets, the children of their species, though anyone of any species can be part of the drove or can be seen as a piglet if they’re under a certain age. Seeing piglets as injured as they are makes him angry, it makes him want to take them to his home and give them the world. It makes him want to protect the kids, no matter how violent he has to be.

After watching the kids for a few minutes and not seeing an adult with them, he decides to start walking over to the kids to see if they need help or if they’re alone. He just wants to help them and keep them safe, he doesn’t want them to get hurt anymore. As he gets closer, his instincts scream at him to take them away, to keep them safe, to get Phil to let him adopt them and fawn over them. 

They’re hurt! Help them! Give them gold! Keep them safe! Protect. Protect. PROTECT. His instincts scream. He’s about 20 feet away when a figure runs and embraces them in a hug. That’s probably their guardian. His instincts scream louder, getting more violent as well, TAKE THEM AWAY!! THEY’RE GOING TO HURT THE PIGLETS!!!! HELP THEM! HELP THEM! GET THE PIGLETS TO SAFETY! ATTACK THE ONE WHO HURT THE PIGLETS!! Even without evidence, he just feels the urge to protect them.

He’s about to go right up to them when the back wall suddenly explodes. Wilbur has to dodge a chunk of the wall that got flung at him. Fuck!! He has to go find his dad and brother and stop the villain! He doesn’t care that he’s not supposed to go into hero mode, this is an emergency! He looks over to where the piglets are and sees the guardian of the kids looking straight at him. 

The guardian runs over to him, carrying the piglets. 

“I know you don’t know me, but please take care of my brothers, I need to go try to help evacuate until our vigilante can get here. Please take them and get out of the mall, get a few buildings away and I’ll come find you. Don’t even try to take my baby brothers, I will track you down and no one will find your body if you do.” They say, their voice filled with danger, something tells Wilbur that they’re not joking about the body thing. While they had said their threat suddenly he was holding the two kids who looked up at him with distrust, but didn’t fight him and just seemed scared.

But who the hell tells a stranger to take care of their kids?! And since when did Logstedshire have a vigilante?! Were the heroes here not doing their job or something?? And why is a civilian going to help in a villain attack?!

“GO!” They yell, shoving Wilbur with the kids in the direction of the exit as more debris gets flown towards them. “Sis!! Come back!!” The spider hybrid cries, reaching out over Wilbur’s shoulder as he books it out the exit. As much as he wants to fight the villain, he’s been given a new responsibility, he can’t just leave the piglets alone. As much as he doesn’t really like vigilantes, this might be the best opportunity to gather information, besides, they can arrest them another time. Right now, he has to focus on the safety of his family and the kids and let the vigilante do their illegal activities. Just this once. 

Now he has to find his brother and dad who have hopefully also evacuated. He moves through the crowd that’s forming near the entrance since some people are running away from the chaos, while others are going to try to see what’s going on, though they don’t get too close that they’re in danger. He manages to get through while comforting the now crying children, trying to get a safe distance away so that he’ll be visible to his family and the kid's sister. 

“Shhh, your sister will come to get you soon, I won’t hurt you, it’s just dangerous right now,” Wilbur says in a calming voice. 

“But sissy is in danger!!” The piglin cries. “What if Shadow doesn’t get here soon?!”

Wilbur freezes. Shadow?! As in the Shadow?! The villain?! No, no. This is probably a different Shadow, it’s not unheard of for villains, heroes, and vigilantes to have the same or similar names. Maybe this vigilante just got unlucky and got named the same name, Wilbur reasons. He’ll worry about that later.

“I’m sure Shadow will get here in no time. Your sister will be safe.” Wilbur bounces them slightly.

“P-Promise?” The spider hybrid asks, their voice breaking and lower lip quivering. 

“I promise, she’s strong,” Wilbur assures them. The last thing he wants is for the two of them to start crying again. So Wilbur decides to distract them.

“My name is Wilbur, what’s yours?” 

“Sis told us to not give away our names to strangers…” The piglin says quietly.

“That’s fair, but your sister trusted me with your safety, so do you think it’d be ok to tell me your names in case something happens? If your sister gets mad, I’ll take the blame, ok?” Wilbur assures them. 

The two of them seem to contemplate it for all of 5 seconds. 

“Ok mister Wilbur! My name is Micheal!” The piglin makes little chuffs while looking up at him. Wilbur has to physically stop himself from awwing and fawning over him.

“....Shroud…” The spider hybrid says quietly, almost like he’s afraid to say or do something wrong. It’s a considerable difference from when he was crying and screaming for his sister. 

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Micheal and Shroud. Do you mind telling me your sister’s name?” Wilbur smiles gently down at them, getting more attached by the second.

“Sissy’s name is Ash!” Micheal says, clearly excited about talking about his sister again.

“Why’re you holding two random kids? And how did you acquire them?” The slightly confused voice from none other than Techno comes from in front of Wilbur. 

“Ah! Tech! This is Micheal and Shroud! Their sister basically forced them into my arms before going to help evacuate other civilians.” Wilbur explains.

“Why would she trust you ?” Phil’s exasperated voice comes. 

“Well Philza , I happened to be the closest person to them. They also threatened to hunt me down and kill me if I tried anything. Who was I to refuse to help save two innocent kids?” Wilbur says, a small sense of importance wells up in his chest. “It’s not like we can… Y’know . Plus they have a vigilante here, so I think it’ll be fine just this once to not interfere.” Wilbur explains.

“I never thought I’d hear you of all people say that,” Techno says with a quirked eyebrow.

Wilbur sighs and sets the boys down on the ground which draws Phil and Techno’s eyes to them. When Techno sees Micheal is a piglin, he immediately starts chuffing and snorting. However, when the boys turn around and they get a good look at the kids and see all their injuries, Techno immediately goes on the defensive and picks Micheal up and cradles him and takes off his gold bracelets, and gives them to Micheal. Giving gold is incredibly rare for Techno especially, only giving gold to those he deems needs it or those he considers family. Something in Micheal lights up, his own snorts and chuffs coming from his lips as his eyes sparkle at the gold in his hands.

Phil on the other hand looks down at Shroud with kind eyes and sits down in front of him. 

“My name is Philza, though you can just call me Phil. I’m Wilbur’s dad.” He says gently. 

“Cool…” Shroud mumbles. 

“Not much of a talker? Do you know sign language?” Phil asks, trying to find a way to communicate with the surprisingly quiet kid. Shroud nods in response.

Sis teaches us ASL and Piglin. Shroud signs, Wilbur raising his eyebrows in shock, the kid is really good at signing. Learning a second and even 3rd language, especially when they all have no roots in common, is incredibly hard. All heroes are required to learn ASL as they need to be able to communicate with the mute and deaf, and Wilbur knows firsthand how difficult it is. However, what’s more shocking is that a non-piglin can teach their native language to other non-piglins. It’s literally unheard of, no one other than mixed and pure-blood piglins should be able to speak and understand the innate language that comes with having that blood. 

Is your sister a piglin too? Phil signs, figuring it’ll make Shroud more comfortable than talking verbally to him. 

Shroud shakes his head and signs She’s a cat.

Oh? Then how can she speak piglin?

Shroud shrugs, She just can, sissy is amazing! He signs with more enthusiasm than he’s spoken with previously. Clearly, both of them admire their sister a lot. It makes Wilbur feel guilty about assuming she’s the one who hurt them, though he won’t rule her out. The nicest people can always turn out to be the worst, it’s one of the harshest truths that most heroes realize.

Wilbur looks back over to the mall and sees the villain that exploded the wall is probably around 30 or 40 feet tall now. How long is this damn vigilante going to take?! Civilians are in danger!! The three heroes start looking for ways to help civilians while being civilians themselves. However, just before they’re about to start trying to help, a shadowy figure catches Wilbur’s eye. 

The figure runs up the arm of the villain, the villain tries to grab the figure, but the vigilante is way too fast. Already at the villain’s shoulder in a matter of seconds. The vigilante throws something near the eyes of the villain and fucking Blinding Lights plays, which only Wilbur can hear since it’s part of his quirk. So it’s a flashbang, Wilbur groans a bit, already sick of the song playing. He was proven right when a flash of bright white and a loud bang, followed by the agonizing scream of the giant villain. The villain starts falling to their knees when the vigilante jumps up and does a flip, probably for fun, onto the villain’s head. As the villain grabs at their eyes, the vigilante punches the villain’s head hard enough to make the villain pass out, their eyes rolling back to almost be white as they start falling forward. Wilbur winces, that’s got to hurt, how did that vigilante even produce enough force to knock the villain out? Maybe a strength potency? 

The vigilante does a series of flips off of the villain’s head as the villain falls, clearly for dramatic flair, and Wilbur has to admit, he’s fairly impressed. After that, it looks like the villain disappears, their potency is most likely deactivated. What’s more surprising is that less than 5 minutes later the vigilante walks out, carrying the villain over their shoulder. Though they quickly get swarmed by civilians before Wilbur could get a good look at them. 

The three heroes look at each other. “Want to go check it out?” Techno says, still holding Micheal in his arms like a baby and letting him hold onto the gold.

“Nah, I said I’d stay where the sister would be able to see me. I don’t want to break that trust.” Wilbur shrugs. It’s not his true intention though and he knows his family knows that, though they won’t comment on it till they’re home. He’s not one to do things for a stranger’s trust without an ulterior motive. He would’ve kept the kids safe, but once the danger was over, he would have gone to go check out the vigilante. What he really wants is information, about the kids, about this vigilante, Ash’s motives, he just wants to know more. 

“How much longer will we have to stay? We still have other things to do today.” Phil stands up, brushing off his cardigan. Something he clearly bought here since he was definitely not wearing it when they had split up.

“Hopefully not too much longer, it looks like the crowd is thinning a bit, maybe we’ll be able to meet this infamous vigilante.” Wilbur chuckles. Not actually expecting anything to really happen. 

Now imagine his shock when the vigilante emerges from the crowd. Imagine his horror when he realizes who’s walking straight toward them .

Shadow. 

THE shadow. Not some person unfortunate enough to have the same name. The one with the red eyes that he had nightmares about for the past week. What the hell are they doing here?! He glances at Phil who’s struggling to keep a neutral face and Techno who’s holding onto Micheal just a little tighter than he was before. 

“Shadow!!” Both of the kids say excitedly at the same time. Shroud ran to them and Micheal climbed off of Techno to run over as well. 

“Hey you two! It’s been a while, how have you two and Ash been?” Shadow asks, ruffling Micheal’s head with their free hand. 

“Good!” Micheal says happily, his ears flapping up and down. Wilbur would have died on the spot from how adorable it was if not for the unsettling presence that he’s been dreading to face again. 

“Who are these people?” Shadow looks at the three heroes with a seemingly kind gaze. 

“Mr. Wilbur! Mr. Philza! And Mr. Techno! He’s a piglin like me! And he gave me this!!” Micheal holds out the gold bracelet to Shadow, who looks at it for a few seconds, making no move to take it before looking back at them. “Well, that was kind of them. Though that looks like a very nice bracelet, maybe Mr. Techno would like it back?” Shadow says, their voice staying kind and calm.

“It’s fine, the squirt can keep it. He’ll appreciate it more than I will.” Techno grunts out.

“That’s really kind. Though I’m sure it’d be of more use to you. That’s a very expensive bracelet. Since I’ve never seen you three around here and you have a lot of expensive clothing on, I assume you’ve fallen on hard times and had to move to Logstedshire. No one comes to visit here since they assume it’s infested with crime. That bracelet alone would pay for a decent apartment for over a year.” Shadow says, a sort of protective edge coming to their voice.

“It’s a gift from my personal hoard, just let him keep it. It seems like his first piece of gold, so it’s fine.” Techno argues back, getting a bit defensive about the idea of a gift from his hoard being sold.

“Fine fine, though you’ll probably have to explain that to their sister. Anyways, welcome to Logstedshire. I’m Shadow, the protector of the lower districts. However you got here, I’m sorry about the hard times. You’ll probably adjust fairly quickly. Everyone here helps each other out, the crime rate is almost zero, though this was a rare case. If you fall into any financial troubles, I hand out some money once a month for each individual homeless person or any person who’s generally struggling. I’m also the only vigilante here, so if you ever see me around, feel free to have a quick chat or ask questions about getting settled in and stuff. Though I’m sure most people are willing to help out new community members. Anyways, I have to go handle this villain before he wakes up. Take care of these two, their sister will pick them up soon, she was a massive help in making sure no one got hurt, I’m just going to look over her once more, then direct her here.” Shadow explains before running off. 

No evil intentions, no fighting, just a quick welcome and explanation about how things work. It shocked all of them, to say the least. Considering how...Unpleasant their last encounter was. In all honesty, they seem like a very different person. He’ll have to seriously discuss this with the other heroes. This villain has manipulated an entire cluster into loving and praising them while they actively commit crimes.  

Wilbur gets angry thinking about it. Brainwashing the civilians, kids, and even trying to lie and manipulate them. 

Speaking of the kids, they decide to go over and look at a flower growing from a crack in the sidewalk right next to them. Which is honestly adorable. Maybe he’ll come here more just to watch over the kids a bit more. 

About 30 minutes pass, all three of them thinking about what fuck just happened. Contemplating questions and theories as the two children continue to talk about the flower and laugh about stuff Wilbur won’t bother to try to hear. 

The thing that snaps Wilbur from his thoughts is the rapid footsteps, indicating that someone is booking it for them. When he looks at where the footsteps come from. They come from none other than their big sister. The crazy guardian that trusted a total stranger with her little brothers. His brother and father seem to pick up on it as well and look up at the frantic cat hybrid.

“Michael!! Shroud!!”

Chapter Text

Ash looks towards the villain, who’s steadily growing bigger and bigger, more rubble being flung about. Her brothers will be in a lot of danger and she can’t become Shadow here, there are too many eyes. Speaking of eyes, there’s been a guy staring at them this entire time.

Bingo. That’s her way out.

If he tries anything, she’ll just kill him. Right now, she has to trust a stranger with her brothers, she has to protect Logstedshire. She took up a duty when she chased off all the other vigilantes of Logstedshire, so she intends to fulfill it. 

She runs over to the man and puts her brothers in the man’s arms. “I know you don’t know me, but please take care of my brothers, I need to go try to help evacuate until our vigilante can get here. Please take them and get out of the mall, get a few buildings away and I’ll come find you. Don’t even try to take my baby brothers, I will track you down and no one will find your body if you do.” Making her threat very well known in her tone alone. 

The man stands there dumbly, seemingly in shock. Seriously, she doesn’t have time for this . “GO!” She shoves him, making him snap out of his stupor and run out of the mall. It takes a lot of her willpower to not immediately run after them and take her baby brothers back after hearing Shroud scream out for her to not go. 

Stealing her nerves, she runs into an area where no one can see her, it’s not like there are cameras here, so she just has to worry about civilians seeing her. So when she gets to a spot where no one will be able to know that she’s Shadow, she pulls her ears and tail in, making them sink and mesh into her skin. It’s always a weird feeling, the uncomfortableness of her appendages merging into the rest of her body, her skin feeling like it’s expanding then pinching together until everything is hidden. Even afterwards there’s an uncomfortable pressure, like her extra appendages want to burst through her skin, though she’s gotten good at ignoring the feeling. 

After that process, she double taps her ring, bringing her Shadow suit on. In an instant, she’s no longer Ash, a normal civilian, she’s Shadow, a ruthless and just vigilante. Now to take care of the bastard who ruined her time out with her brothers.

Running out to where the villain attacked, she starts looking for anyone injured or trapped, though she thankfully sees none, meaning everyone escaped, that’s good. She won’t have to worry about injuries or complications when she fights the bastards. 

Shadow turns her attention to the villain, who’s now at least 30 feet tall and activley destroying the mall. She needs a plan, a way to take the villain down quickly without more property damage. The villain’s eyes are slightly red, meaning that’s probably their weakness. Potancies that affect the physical form typically have at least 2 physical weaknesses that go along with it. In this case, it should be the villain’s eyes and maybe the top of their head. Meaning a flashbang should do the trick. Now how is she going to get close enough to get the flashbang near his eyes? She might have a solid throw, but not enough to throw a flashbang 30+ feet in the air, especially not before it goes off. 

She watches as the villain reaches down to pick up a large piece of rubble. “The world’s filth will be gotten rid of! All of you are useless in this world! You’re nothing but pebbles for me to step on!” The villain’s voice booms out.

Oh. It’s one of these guys. The type that thinks they’re all big and mighty and think everyone weaker than them is useless. These villains are always the most annoying, their rambling always puts Shadow half to sleep, so she’s just stopped listening to them in favor of hitting them over the head. 

The villain is fairly slow, so she takes the opportunity and runs up onto the villain’s arm as they lift it up with the rubble. She runs up the villains' arm effortlessly, getting to their shoulder as the villain makes a move to grab her. 

“What the? Who are you?!” The villain questions, reaching for her again.

“Name’s Shadow, the local vigilante. Though I don’t expect you to know that since you’re dumb enough to try to attack Logstedshire.” Shadow responds before throwing her makeshift flashbang near the villain’s eyes, then quickly diverting her own gaze.

There’s a bang followed by the villain’s scream of pain. The villain goes to grab at their eyes as they fall down onto their knees, she needs to get up to the villain’s head, where she has an inkling that another physical weak spot would be. So she does a flip to get up into the air and to show the civilians that are watching that this isn’t a huge issue, which gets her up onto the villain’s head. She crouches down, feeling for an area that's a bit tender, which she finds quickly. Knowing that, she stands up then jumps and brings her fist down onto the weak point, making the villain scream again before passing out. 

As the villain falls down to the ground, face first, she does a series of acrobatics off the villain’s head and lands safely on the ground. The villain shrinks as he falls, completely limp, making it easy for Shadow to catch him, tie him up, and toss him over her shoulder. 

She makes her way to the entrance of the destroyed mall where all the civilians gathered. As soon as she steps out, she gets swarmed by civilians, though she saw her brothers with the stranger right before she got swarmed, so that’s a weight off her shoulder. 

 The civilians who swarm her shout questions and praises as she waves and smiles, though the crinkles at the corners of her eyes are the only indication of her smile.

“You came back!!” A civilian exclaims excitement and relief in their voice. 

“Ah, yes I did, sorry about the sudden break and worrying everyone! I just needed a bit to rest and relax, I’m just human after all! But I assure you, if any crime had been committed, I would’ve come back sooner!” Shadow replies, trying to ease everyone’s worries and questions. 

“Thank you for protecting us, Shadow!! What would we do without you?” Another civilian Says gratefully. 

“I’m glad to be of service! Now if you all don’t mind, I have to go check in with some people then take this scumbag to where he belongs!” Shadow excuses herself from the crowd, which is soon to dissipate after saying their goodbyes and thanks. She goes over to the guy who had her brothers, only for there to be 2 other men, one of which is holding one of her baby brothers . It takes everything in her to not lose her cool, to stay in her Shadow persona. 

She observes the men. The one she gave her brothers to when the villain attacked has brown curly hair, hazel eyes, and a lean muscular frame. He’s wearing a nice pair of jeans, a yellow sweater, a black trenchcoat, a red beanie, and golden-bronze wire-frame glasses. It looks like he comes from money, at least compared to here, he’s clean shaven, not a spec of dirt on his skin or clothes. 

The one who’s holding Micheal has broad shoulders and is built, like really muscular.He has long pink hair that's in a loose bun and is definitely a piglin hybrid based on his ears, tusks, and brownish-red eyes. He's wearing gray sweatpants, a shirt with a worn graphic of a sword on it, and casual sneakers. He looks a lot more casual and fits in a bit more, but he’s still too clean, he’s also clean shaven and doesn’t have a spec of dirt on him. 

The last man that’s bent down next to Shroud seems to be older than the other two, with golden blonde hair, and kind sky blue eyes. He's wearing a lavender shirt with a light green cardigan that has flowers and crows on it, and gray sweatpants with sandals and socks. He’s more stubbly than the other two, and his pants and shoes seem a bit more worn, but he’s still lacking the dirtiness that comes with being from Logstedshire. 

Overall, they’re definitely not from here and she shouldn’t trust them. Though no one ever visits Logstedshire because of the stigma around Logstedshire. People assume it’s crime ridden and filthy. Because of that stigma, it puts Logstedshire in its own world, isolated from the rest of Essempee. So the three of them could have lost their money and had to move here, so they still look like they're from the upper districts. She’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

“Shadow!!” Her brothers say excitedly, Micheal getting out of the pink-haired man’s grip and running to her with Shroud. 

“Hey you two! It’s been a while, how have you two and Ash been?” Shadow asks, ruffling Micheal’s head with their free hand. Completely ignoring the men for now, right now she wants to make sure they’re ok. 

“Good!” Micheal says happily, his ears flapping up and down, making Shadow smile. Michael and Shroud have a hard time lying, though Micheal wears his heart on his sleeve while Shroud is a bit quieter and more reserved. Sometimes Shroud goes non-verbal in which case they communicate through sign language, which seems like what’s happening right now. Shadow hopes to god that the men didn’t try to get him to speak if he didn’t want to, she’ll ask Shroud later.  

“Who are these people?” Shadow looks at the three heroes, making sure her gaze comes off calm and kind. She doesn’t want to give them a bad impression, not before learning more about them. 

“Mr. Wilbur! Mr. Philza! And Mr. Techno! He’s a piglin like me! And he gave me this!!” Micheal holds out the gold bracelet to her. She looks at it, but doesn't try to take the bracelet, knowing how important gold is to piglins. But holy shit! That’s the most expensive bracelet she’s seen in her life! There’s no way in hell that that man, Tehno , her brain supplies, would just give something that expensive to Micheal. They’re strangers for crying out loud. She looks back at the men.

“Well, that was kind of them. Though that looks like a very nice bracelet, maybe Mr. Techno would like it back?” Shadow says, their voice staying kind and calm. Maybe he let Micheal see it and Micheal just assumed it was a gift, that’s the most likely option.

“It’s fine, the squirt can keep it. He’ll appreciate it more than I will.” Techno grunts out.

What?!

“That’s really kind. Though I’m sure it’d be of more use to you. That’s a very expensive bracelet. Since I’ve never seen you three around here and you have a lot of expensive clothing on, I assume you’ve fallen on hard times and had to move to Logstedshire. No one comes to visit here since they assume it’s infested with crime. That bracelet alone would pay for a decent apartment for over a year.” Shadow says, trying to reason with them. There’s no way he’d just give something like that away! 

“It’s a gift from my personal hoard, just let him keep it. It seems like his first piece of gold, so it’s fine.” Techno argues back, his voice becoming a bit defensive.She wants to refuse it so hard, but the look Micheal has in his eyes, the excitement about the gold, it makes her relent. 

“Fine, fine, though you’ll probably have to explain that to their sister. Anyways, welcome to Logstedshire. I’m Shadow, the protector of the lower districts. However you got here, I’m sorry about the hard times. You’ll probably adjust fairly quickly. Everyone here helps each other out, the crime rate is almost zero, though this was a rare case. If you fall into any financial troubles, I hand out some money once a month for each individual homeless person or any person who’s generally struggling. I’m also the only vigilante here, so if you ever see me around, feel free to have a quick chat or ask questions about getting settled in and stuff. Though I’m sure most people are willing to help out new community members. Anyways, I have to go handle this villain before he wakes up. Take care of these two, their sister will pick them up soon, she was a massive help in making sure no one got hurt, I’m just going to look over her once more, then direct her here.” She explains, making sure they know how Logstedshire and her work before running off.  

She heads over to one of her disposal rooms, making sure she wasn't followed. She has a few disposal rooms in every district of Logstedshire, this one only being about 2 blocks away from the mall. It’s where she goes to take care of the villains she captures. They’re inconspicuous areas that have bases underneath. Really they’re just soundproof, concrete rooms where she can carry out her job without distractions. She used stolen money to have them installed underneath random buildings then bought the silence of the construction companies. 

She goes to a relatively worn down, abandoned building. Going to one of the many doors and opening it to reveal a stairwell down to the basement, going down, there’s another door. This door requires a hand scan. The scanner is invisible to the naked eye, but her contacts allow her to see it, so she puts her hand on it. The scanner scans and makes a small beep before unlocking the door. 

Going in, it’s a basic concrete room, with another door to her left that’s also locked, containing weapons and tools to get information from villains as well as a bathroom since things can get a bit… messy. 

There are a number of mutilated bodies piled in the corner of the room, some rotting and starting to smell. Blood soaked into the concrete beneath the pile. Some of the corpses are missing limbs, missing eyes, some are skimmed in certain areas, their muscle and bone exposed. 

Her nose scrunches, she’ll need to burn those soon and deep clean the room. There’s dried blood all over the room, making the room look like it was painted red with splotches of gray. The blood is so soaked into the concrete that she doesn’t think that she’ll be able to actually clean the room fully. 

Today she doesn’t have time to get any information or make the villain suffer, so she’ll just kill this one and clean everything up tonight. She tosses the villain down to the ground who seems to be waking up. She might as well just wait for him to see the fate that  awaits him, fear in the eyes of ones who have caused so much fear in others is always so sweet. The best look for assholes like this. It’s beautiful karma, a taste of their own medicine, a perfect justice. 

The villain comes to only minutes later, taking another thirty seconds to register what’s around him. When he does realize, he screams, the sound is music to her ears. Shadow is leaning against the wall in front of the villain.

“What the hell?! Where am I?! Why is there so much blood?!” The villain screeches, frantically trying to figure out what’s happening.

“You’re in my disposal room. Unfortunately, I don’t have any time to get information from you, so I’m just going to end your pathetic life.” Shadow smirks, her gaze sharp and threatening. 

“Damnit damnit damnit!! He said there'd be no one to stop me here.” The villain curses and mumbles to himself.

“Oh? Who told you that no one would be here to stop your rampage?” Shadow raises an eyebrow, her curiosity getting the best of her. The villain freezes, realizing his slip up. 

“I’m not saying. He’ll kill me if I do.” 

“I’m going to kill you either way.” Shadow deadpans.

“Aren’t you a vigilante?! Vigilantes are just supposed to turn villains into the police! Not kill them!” The villain starts, probably trying to lecture her on how to do her job. Shadow puts a knife to his throat, making him shut up.

“Don’t tell me how to do my job. Besides, it’s not like we have police here, there’s no one to turn you into. I’m sure as hell not going to the upper districts. I’m heavily wanted up there and you’d probably only serve a few years before being released and rampaging again. Death is the only way to keep villains out of business permanently.” Shadow says, keeping her voice low, makinging it come off a lot more scary due to her voice changer. The villain’s eyes widen, practically becoming the size of plates. Realizing how screwed he is.

“Now if that’s all, I have brothers to get back to.” Shadow says coldly, slitting the throat of the villain. Blood trickles down his throat and onto the concrete. Some of the blood sprays onto her face and clothes from the artery that she had partially cut. The thick blood coats the man’s tied hands as he grabs at his throat and chokes on his own blood. The agony in his eyes as he gurgles, the blood filling up his lungs, making him drown. It’s beautiful to her, the whole sight, the blood on the concrete, the blood soaking his clothes, the life draining from his eyes. This is what he deserves. The scum of the earth don’t deserve quick deaths.

She’s left wondering who gave that villain false information, she’ll probably have to fight more villains who got told no one is protecting Logstedshire. The thought makes her want to roll her eyes, she’ll get more information eventually. If her hunch is correct, she’ll be pretty busy in the coming months.

She picks the body up and takes it over to the pile of bodies and puts it in the pile. She goes to the locked room and uses another hand scanner, unlocking the door. Going it reveals all kinds of weapons and ropes, as well as another door that doesn't require identification. Shadow goes into that room which is just the bathroom, where she takes her mask off and cleans off her face, making sure no blood is left on her. After that she puts her mask back on and double taps her ring, making her bloody costume go into the ring and get replaced by her previous outfit. 

She lets her ears and tail back out and exits the bathroom, weapons room, then the base itself. Ash goes up the stairs, into the warehouse. Then makes her way back a couple blocks to the mall and merges into the thinned crowd. She spots the three men and her brothers still there and runs over. She needs to get information from the men now. 

“Michael!! Shroud!!”

Chapter Text

Ash runs over to the group, bending down while she opens her arms wide, her brothers bolt into them. Giggling as she holds them protectively, “Oh thank god. I’m so sorry for leaving you my little starfires.” Honestly, she’s just glad she didn’t have to track them down since it would just be a huge pain in the ass. Plus these men don’t seem the type to hurt children just based on how they were interacting with them before she came. Now though, now, they look weary. They’re dangerous. Fighters. Their posture, their calloused hands, the look in their eyes. She needs to get out of this, stop any conversation.

“We’re ok! Mr. Wilbur is really nice! Mr. Techno and Mr. Phil are also really nice!” Michael grins, jumping up and down. “Look! Look! Mr. Techno gave me this!” Micheal holds out the bracelet that Techno gave to him. She’ll admit, it’s a very nice bracelet, too nice. She’ll brush it off as piglins being piglins for now, but it’s still suspicious. 

“Wow, that’s very pretty. Make sure to keep it super safe, we’ll have to find a place to keep it once we get home.” She says, already setting a clear difference between her and a notorious vigilante. She doesn’t ask questions, Shadow does. She doesn’t pose any kind of threat, at least not on the same level as Shadow. 

“Thank you for keeping them safe, I’m sorry for suddenly just springing this on you, I didn’t want my brothers to get hurt,” Ash says, fake warmth flooding her voice.

“It’s fine mate, they’re very sweet kids. Now the real question is are you ok?” Phil asks, concern in his voice. That’s… not what she was expecting. She was expecting them to ask for some kind of compensation, maybe scoff and walk away. Something that wasn’t warm or genuine.

“Yeah I’m fine, I’ll probably be bruised in the morning, but nothing major.” She doesn’t want them nosing into her business. Even if it’s out of genuine concern, which she doubts, she wants to take her brothers home and let them watch some random cartoon.

“Wait, how old are you? You look 12.” Techno quirks an eyebrow, his voice holding some curiosity in it. Ash internally groans, so much for not prying into her business. “I’m 19.” It’s a lie, she's 16, but telling them that would raise all kinds of alarm bells for them. That seems to be their type, she just wants them to leave her alone.

“And you’re taking care of 2 children who can’t be more than 9?” Wilbur says, his eyebrows furrowed, he doesn’t even try to mask his concern. Oh. My. God. They’re insufferable, just please let her leave with her brothers.

“It’s none of your business. All you need to know is that they’re legally under my custody and that we’re fine.” Ash glares, she wants this conversation to end. Seriously, just leave them alone .

“How about we get you something to eat, you’re definitely way too thin,” Techno says. “We’ll pay, we know a really good bakery and I’m sure the kiddos would enjoy it.” Like hell they’d go with strangers, either they’re completely oblivious to the cues of someone trying to end a conversation, or they’re ignoring them. Either way, she’ll have to spell it out for them.

“We’re good. Than-” Her brothers do puppy eyes, “Please sissy! We’ve never been to a bakery!” Micheal says, putting on his best pout. Pleaseeee Shroud signs, also putting on his best pout. Ash drags her hands down her face, she can never say no to those eyes. “Fine. But I’m not paying for anything nor am I going to let you dig into my personal life. Also, we’re walking, no cars.” 

“We already said we’re paying, and that’s fine.” Wilbur smiles as Micheal and Shroud cheer. Ash bites the inside of her cheek, hoping she doesn’t regret her decision.

“Then lead the way.” Ash sighs, letting them take the lead while picking Shroud up and holding Micheal’s hand.

They all walk in relative silence, the trio of men talking amongst themselves, not trying to include her in conversation, which she’s fine with, she doesn’t want to talk, they seem to understand that. At least they can pick up on these cues, though she doubts that they won’t have questions. Maybe she’ll answer a few in return for them buying food for her brothers. A little trade, food for information, but maybe not. It depends on the quality, which seems to be getting higher as they walk closer to the upper districts, 

“We’re here!” Wilbur exclaims, stopping in front of a cafe that says B&N Cafe , with the B being red, the & being white the N being pink, and the cafe being white with spots of pink and red, like splatter paint. There are huge windows in the front and an overhanging, striped awning that alternates between pink and white. It has mini trees in the shape of circles that bloom beautiful pinks and reds. There are vines crawling up parts of the walls, but not in a way that's unattractive or invasive, in fact, it adds to the charm. It doesn’t look sketchy, she was prepared to run in case they tried anything or took her somewhere sketchy, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Walking into the store, there are plants hanging from the ceiling, with a lot of natural light, the pattern from the outside is constant on the inside. There are bean bags, fuzzy rugs, clear tables and chairs with wood legs, mini couches, fuzzy chairs, and fuzzy pillows all in one corner with some people sitting around in that area. Probably for those who want to study or work in peace. The rest of the store is fairly normal, white, pink, and black booths and tables around the edges and smaller 2-4 seating tables with chairs around the rest of the area. All of the tables have succulents on them with salt, pepper, artificial sweeteners, sugar, etc.

“This place is nice.” Ash comments, holding her siblings back from trying to run and jump onto the beanbags. It really is, it’s quaint and homey while still keeping a professional air about it..“Yeah, it’s one of my favorite places, it’s affordable and a nice place to do paperwork while getting amazing food.” Wilbur says, a fond smile on his face. 

I’m not here to make friends, just getting food for my brothers and myself. Ash reminds herself, not wanting to get lost in the calming nature of the place, and lower her guard. She notices some people already staring at her, making her face contort into a displeased snarl behind the 3 guy’s backs. All the people immediately look away from her and she turns her head back to face the odd men

“Plus we’re friends with the owners, so we get discounts and stuff, so feel free to get whatever you want,” Techno says, going over to a booth and sitting in it. Wilbur and Phil slide into the same side, while Ash puts Micheal and Shroud in the booth first, then sits down herself. 

“Hey, Will, Techno, Phil! I see you brought a few adorable friends! Let me go get Bad, he’s been dying to see you guys!” A young woman with pink hair with hazel eyes says. She looks about 5 foot 4. She's wearing a white shirt, black pants, white, pink, and black sneakers, a white and pink apron with B&N Cafe on it, and a name tag reading "Niki :)". 

Micheal and Shroud stare at the succulent on the table and Michael starts reaching for it. “Micheal, those are for looking, not touching, how about you and Shroud play chopsticks?” Ash says gently, guiding Micheal’s hand away from the plant. Shroud perks up at the suggestion, immediately putting his pointer fingers out to Micheal. It’s one of Shroud's favorite hand games since it doesn’t involve talking or anything complex. 

“You must really care about them. They seem really happy.” Phil smiles warmly. Ash sighs in response, “You have no idea. It took them over an hour to finish playing heroes. Before we could go to the mall.”

“Which heroes do you guys like?” Wilbur says, a hint of… something in his eyes. She can’t really pinpoint it, but she also doesn’t care enough to try to figure it out. All she knows is that they’re prying and she has an idea where this might go, but responds anyway. 

“Micheal loves Technoblade. He likes that there’s a hero like him, makes him feel less alone. Shroud likes Seeker even though he doesn’t appear a lot, he likes the gadgets Seeker uses and that Seeker’s considered hostile, like him. Though ultimately they both like Shadow a lot more, which I can’t blame them for, they’re our protector.” Ash says, keeping her voice on the quieter side, she knows her reputation in the upper districts, a villain. A piece of shit in their eyes. It’s best not to draw attention to them.

“Why do they like Shadow? Aren’t they just a vigilante? What about the heroes that patrol down there?” Phil asks. Tilting his head in a bird-like way, eyes narrowing ever so slightly his gaze is almost predatory. Something’s definitely up.

It takes a few seconds, but when it clicks, all Ash can do is chuckle, “You guys really are from the upper districts. In fact, I doubt you’re even moving to Lodgeshire with your fancy clothes, expensive jewelry, the ability to go to nice cafes, even your accent. So what were you doing there?” Ash questions incredulously, the fur on her ears and tail raising as her voice lowers, 

“Woah, woah, woah. We were just curious about what was going on there, sometimes it’s fun to explore places we’ve never been.” Techno says, his hands raised slightly in a mock surrender. He’s trying to dig into her, they’re trying to figure her out . They’re trying to get information and she’s been handing it over willingly. How could she not have put it together sooner?! 

“Yeah right.” She growls, a warning for them to lay off, but no. They double down. “He’s telling the truth mate, we were curious about the situation because of circulating rumors!” Phil tries to explain.

“I think we’re done here. We don’t associate with rich pricks or liars.” Ash snarls, her eyes narrowed, standing up from her seat and reaching for her brothers to take them home. God, she was so blind. The offer of food was too alluring, especially if it meant getting her brother decent food. She won’t be making the same mistake twice, that’s for sure.

“Wait! Please let us at least get you some food!” Wilbur says hastily, trying to calm her down. Ash’s head whips to them, an almost animalistic yowl coming deep from her throat. Others were looking now, staring at the crazy cat girl who’s preparing to start a fight.

“We don’t take pity handouts.” Ash snaps back, getting more agitated as they try to calm her down. They can all go suck dick, she's done here, she grabs her brothers and picks them up. The two of them look confused, but stay quiet, they know she’s trying to protect them. Whatever big sister says, goes. And she’s saying they’re done.

“These aren’t pity handouts mate, we just want to  help you and your brothers, you really need to eat, please just stay a bit longer.” Phil pleads, trying to keep his voice steady and warm, but clearly a bit frazzled at the sudden aggression. He’s trying so desperately to calm her down, but they’re liars, all of them. Why the hell did she trust them?

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Ash growls, they’ll need a damn good trade to keep her here. One involving cash or a fuck-ton of food.

“We swear, if you find out we’re lying, you can take our wallets. Plus you can order as much here as you want.” Wilbur says quickly. Fuck. They got her there. Food and money? That makes her reluctantly sit back down and set her brothers back in the booth, tuning out the adults as they start having an argument in sign that Ash can’t be bothered to figure out... “Fine. I don’t like heroes. To any degree, I along with all of Logstedshire hate them.” Ash grumbles.

“May I ask why?” Wilbur tilts his head a bit, asking in a way that the option to say no is clear. It makes Ash a bit uneasy, there’s never a ‘no’ option. 

“This info is gonna cost ya big time, you’re not going to get this from anyone else there. The heroes haven’t patrolled Logstedshire in over 50 years. Why would we like them when they’re actively avoiding our home? The only reason it’s safe is because of Shadow, they chased all the fake vigilante protectors out and took it over themself. Since then, the crime rate has basically been 0, better than POPICE can do. Not to mention funding, god the government doesn’t even pay repair damages for Logstedshire. Shadow has to do it out of their pocket, not to mention giving money to those who can’t get jobs. Literally, the economy and community depend solely on them.” Ash quietly grumbles, telling them this would most certainly get her ass beaten if anyone in Logstedshire found out. Something about pride and unity or some bullshit.

She doesn't see how their faces slowly twist into confusion then into a combination of confusion and frustration.

"That-" Phil starts. "Hey guys!" A male voice says, Ash looks over to see Niki next to a demon hybrid. 

He has pitch-black skin with glowing white eyes and a glowing white mouth with little black fangs, turned upwards into a warm, happy smile. He has big, black horns poking out of his equally black hair, small, leathery black wings, a white halo floating, but not touching around his horns, and a long black tail with an upside-down spade at the end. Ash looked at him up and down, he was wearing a light gray and white checkered scarf, a white shirt, maroon pants, black boots with red accents, a black and red apron that says B&H Cafe, and a nametag reading "Bad :D".

Bad smiles and puts menus down in front of Ash and her brothers while she watches him carefully. ”I haven’t seen you guys in a while! How’ve you been? And who are your friends?”

“We’re not friends per se, more like helping them out a bit. But that’s Ash and her brothers Micheal and Shroud.” Wilbur gestures to each of them with their names. “Otherwise we’ve been good!”

“We’re definitely not friends.” Ash scrunches her face a bit. The very thought makes her sick. She’d never be friends with the likes of them. Rich pricks who have nothing better to do than meddle in the lives of others.

“Oh, my apologies,” Bad says with a small smile. He glances over at her brothers who are staring at him warily and scooting closer to Ash. “Hey little ones, it must be weird seeing a demon walking around.”

“They’re not wary of your species. They’re wary of you being a stranger. It’s actually pretty cool that someone who isn’t really an accepted hybrid working in a public place in the upper districts. I didn’t teach my little brothers to be discriminatory based on species, if I did, I’ve completely failed as a sister.”

“You’re not scared of me?” Bad tilts his head. Ash shakes her head. “Nah we don’t know you or your story, so we don’t judge. Plus it'd be really hypocritical for me to hate or be scared of you.”

“That’s a really nice and unique point of view! Now please take your time to look over the menu, it’ll be on the house!” Bad smiles and starts walking away. Eh, whatever, more food for them now. 

“I’ll be back in a few minutes!” Niki says, ending her conversation with Wilbur and leaving to go get other orders. Ash looks at the menu, seeing all kinds of sweets, drinks, and other cafe items. It makes her mouth water a bit, but she’ll worry about her brothers first. They’re in desperate need of fresh vegetables and meat. She shows them the kid's menu and tells them what each thing is, patiently waiting for them to come to a decision when they finally do, then she looks over at her own menu, deciding what to get, she doesn’t want to be an ass to people who are showing her kindness, but at the same time, free food. She quietly sighs before deciding on what to get. 

“Y’know I did hear a rumor that the heroes, not POPICE, but the heroes themselves are looking for an assistant. Heard it pays real well too.” All eyes whipped to him, Ash about to go off on him, her nostrils flaring. Did he not hear what she just said?!

Before she can open her mouth he stops her by putting a hand up. “Look, I know you despise heroes with a passion, but I think that it might be a good learning experience for you. POPICE has no right to just leave a part of the city unprotected, it’s an absurdly shitty thing to do, but you shouldn’t blame the heroes for the shortcomings of the government. Plus, I think that the money from the job would really help you out. Just…just think about applying ok?” Wilbur reasons, she wants to punch him in his stupid face right now. But in a sense, he’s probably right, she could use the legal way to make money a lot better than her illegal techniques, she’d be able to get a better place, better food, more toys, etc. Maybe even find out more information about the ones who she ran from a while ago. That’d be fun, sure she could just access their files, but something about being closer to the action, hearing their plans, being right in the face of danger, it’s just so enticing. 

…

Ok, so she might be more masochistic than she originally assumed. But still, it’s more fun up close, more fun to know stuff that they don’t and use it against them.

“...I’ll think about it.” Was her response before Niki came back for their orders. Techno got a hot chocolate and a cookie, Wilbur got a caramel macchiato and a sandwich, and Phil got a coffee with some sugar and milk with a muffin. Ash ordered 2 small hot chocolates, 2 chocolate muffins, and 2 sandwiches for her brothers. Micheal got a chicken sandwich with some veggies and Shroud got one with veggies and ground-up insects specifically meant for spiders and other insectivore hybrids. Ash herself got a salmon sandwich and a black coffee. 

“I’ll bring it out in a bit!” Niki smiles softly and goes to the back. 

“Not getting yourself a dessert? Bad’s muffins are really good.” Techo rests his head on his palm, a strand of his pink hair falling into his face. 

“I’ll eat whatever is left from Micheal and Shroud. They won’t be able to eat it all.” Ash leans forward, interlacing her fingers and resting her chin on them, narrowing her eyes at them. “So, you’ve asked me questions, I’ve given answers. It’s my turn. Who exactly are you ?” 

The 3 men suddenly tense, glancing at each other for a second before Phil responds, “Well, I own a business, Wilbur writes music, and Techno works for me.” He looks at Ash, she can hear him tapping his finger on his thigh, a nervous fidget. It’s definitely not more code since there’s no pattern to it, it’s just rapid tapping. They’re lying. 

“If you’re essentially nobodies, why the hell were you snooping around Logstedshire? To pity us? Rub it in our faces that you have more money than us? People like you aren’t welcome in Logstedshire.” Ash tilts her head a bit, her eyes narrowing as they seem to get more nervous. 

“We’re not like that mate, we just heard some rumors about your uhm, vigilante. We got curious since vigilantes are few and far between where we live. In hindsight, it was pretty stupid, but what’s done is done, we probably won’t be back.” Phil explains, a slight strain in his voice. 

“You’re not going to go tattle to the heroes, are you? Cause it’d be a shame if word got out about who snitched, resulting in a burning house, maybe some riots..” A sadistic smirk creeps onto her face, watching as their expressions harden. 

“Are-are you threatening us?” Wilbur’s accusatory tone making her smile grow. She leans back and shrugs, her arms going up before crossing them. “I’m not threatening anything. I’m giving you a warning about the natural consequences for snitches, especially with Logstedshire.” 

“Really? Cause this sounds awfully reminiscent of a threat.” A deep voice rumbles, it’s from techno, by far the calmest, he doesn’t give many tells, but it’s not hard to tell that he’s getting riled up. She sighs and turns her head as footsteps approach, it’s Niki, carrying all the orders on the tray, she places everyone’s respective orders in front of them, then leaves to take other orders. Ash looks over to her brothers who are eyeing the desserts first. 

“Ah ah, you have to eat the sandwiches first, then you can have the dessert.” Ash takes the muffins, putting them closer to her, effectively making the children unable to reach them. Micheal huffs and grabs his sandwich, taking a big bite. His eyes light up and he starts shoving it down his throat. “Woah woah, calm down, take small bites and chew Micheal, you don’t want a tummy ache.” Shroud also eats his but is definitely pacing himself better, so she’s not worried about him. 

When she finally gets Micheal to pace himself, she takes a bite out of hers. She perks up, her ears moving from their slightly lowered state to more forward, her tail lazily waves behind her as she eats relatively quickly. She hasn’t had food this good in… Well forever! Any good food she gets, she gives to Shroud and Micheal, they need it more than she does. But this is nice, for once letting herself eat good food, her body thanking her for the sudden good food. 

“So… What do you do for work?” Wilbur attempts small talk, making Ash freeze slightly. “I do freelance web development, sometimes help with videogames, and I act as the emergency doctor in Logstedshire.” These are true, in her free time she’ll help develop websites, make video games, and help out with grievous injuries, but she also steals from the rich and makes gadgets for villains in upper districts, provided they're not super weapons, part of her sale contract being that they’ll stay the hell away from Logstedshire. 

“You’re a doctor?” Techno raises an eyebrow “I don’t see it.” He just gets an eye roll in response

“Well, I do. It’s never full-time cause I’d probably go insane. Plus I just don’t have the time, nor money to go to medical school. I’m the last resort in Logstedshire, if literally nothing else works, then I get a call from the doctors. Which yes, we do have a hospital, but only one, it’s pretty rundown, but it works, there’s clean supplies and even a fully licensed doctor. He can’t get a job in the upper districts due to… reasons.” Ash says between bites of her food. Upon seeing her brothers finish their food and are just sipping on their hot chocolates, she hands them the muffins, watching them squeal and dig in. 

“Why would you be the last resort? Surely there are better options, you’re not even licensed.” Wilbur says, brows furrowed in thought. Phil immediately elbows him in the ribs, making him hiss.

“Gee thanks.” Ash replies dryly, “What is this anyways an interrogation into my entire goddamn life?” 

“Sorry, sorry.” Wilbur rubs the back of his neck. “I have a tendency to pry too much.” 

“Clearly.”

Ash sips her coffee, letting the conversation drop, why are they asking about her? Surely they're here for information on Shadow, not her. This entire thing is giving her a massive headache and she still needs to clean out her bunkers tonight. She sets her coffee down and rubs her temples, already dreading the wretched smell and hours of scrubbing ahead. 

“Look, I have stuff I still have to do today, thanks for getting us food I guess, but it’s about time we get going,” Ash says, sliding out of the booth and letting her brothers come out after her, picking up on the fact that they should get going. 

She doesn’t let any of the three men get a word in before she leads her brothers out of the shop and walks down the street, back to their home.

-----------

“What the fuck Will?! Why would you tell her about the job?! ” Phill hisses out, keeping his voice low. What was he thinking?! They’re not supposed to tell anyone about that job, not even friends or family that aren’t heroes. 

“I just felt bad! It kinda just slipped once I saw how she treated Bad and the fondness of her brothers. I didn’t know she would fucking threaten us.” He whispers back harshly.

“That girl won’t get the job anyways. She’s rude, abrasive, and hates heroes. She’s not what we need.” Techno sighs, trying to end the argument. “But think about it, if you had been abandoned by the heroes, the government, and even society for your whole life, then suddenly people from the upper districts come into your home, how would you react?” Will reasons. 

“...I’d be defensive, unwilling to answer questions.” Techno replies, things suddenly clicking into place. The realization dawned on Phil as well. No, he wouldn’t want people he’s grown up hating suddenly in his business, asking questions, hell he wouldn’t even want to come with them. The only reason she did was for her brothers.

“We should give her a chance, she probably wouldn’t have heard about it if we didn’t do anything. She gave us invaluable information that we probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. I don’t know, I think that she’d be a good fit, ignoring all the hating of heroes, but maybe she’ll see that we’re not so bad.” Wilbur grins, a mischievous look in his eyes. 

“Well…What now?” Techno sighs, taking a sip of his hot chocolate, the three fall in silence as they mull over the whole interaction with the girl they never even got the name of. 

-----------

As night falls, lights go out, people go to sleep. Micheal and Shroud are no different, Ash had them change, brush their teeth, and go to bed. Ash however, still has shit to do, she has a very very very long night ahead of her. One that she’s been dreading, but it’s inevitable. 

She hides her ears and tail and gets her suit back on via her ring and double checks everything is secure. She grabs a backpack and stuffs it with bleach, a lighter, Everclear, and a bunch of other stuff. She sighs and opens her room’s window and closes it behind her. Making her way up to her roof so that she can travel easier, she makes sure no one sees her exiting or going up to the roof. It’s about 12 am, meaning that it’s not a good time to be out, even with her protection, it’s still risky. 

Looking out to the city she snarls at the sight of all the bright lights, polluting the air and the environment. You can barely even see the stars anymore, that’s how bad it’s gotten. It makes her angry, Logstedshire is one of the few places where the light pollution isn’t nearly as bad, but it’s still not great. 

Shadow shakes her head, refocusing back on the task at hand, she starts making her way to the bunker, avoiding people by going through the maze of alleyways and avoiding streets at any cost. It’s only about a 5 minute walk to the first of many, they’re scattered around, some in worse condition than others, but they’re all useful. It’s a place that no villains escape from. Ever .

It takes a minute to go through all her security measures for this bunker, but once she does, she’s hit with the unmistakable scent of rotting meat and the metallic scent of blood. Her nose scrunches at the smell, this is her least favorite part of her job. 

Going deeper into the bunker, the reason for the smell becomes clear. A pile of bodies in one corner of the room. Some of the faces are unrecognizable due to the rot, flesh falling off in chunks into the slurry of red blood. Towards the top of the pile are newer bodies, ones still oozing blood and viscera falling out to the ground. Heads bashed in, brain matter slowly trailing down other bodies like morbid spaghetti, joining into the chunky, bloody sauce. There are faces stuck in permanent fear, others accepting death, some with no faces at all. Some with bullet holes, the blood dried up on their skin. Others are more personal, being gutted by a knife, some have their skin peeled, left to succumb to hypothermia, said skin already being devoured by the maggots swarming the pile. Others were choked, any previous bruising having faded away since no blood could go to the area. There’s a sort of sadistic glee that Shadow gets from watching the life drain from the villains. They’re all bad people, so why should they continue to live? They’re just wastes of space, insects meant to be crushed. 

Shadow snaps out of her thoughts and sets her bag down and pulls out the Everclear and lighter. With that she drenches the bodies in the flammable liquid and lights it up. Watching it combust with a smirk, the hot air blowing to her face, but the smoke ultimately not affecting her due to her mask. She watches as some of the bigger bodies burst into flame, the fat making the fire bigger, like a grease fire. It melts and oozes before completely burning up. The visible organs shriveling up and charring, the skin darkening and splitting, allowing blood to bubble and boil to the surface. She lets the bodies burn for about 30 minutes before getting a fire extinguisher and using the whole thing to put out the fire. 

In the end, all that’s left are unrecognizable, charred bodies, barely any bodily fluids are left. She pulls out garbage bags and puts on heavy-duty gloves. The bodies are still hot, but it doesn’t really matter to Shadow as she stuffs the bodies and bones into the bags, with no care for the sickening crunch the skin makes as it’s folded in on itself. 

She tosses the 4 bags full of bodies next to the door and starts pouring hydrogen peroxide and bleach all over every blood stain, letting it sit. It takes about 15 minutes before she wipes it away with towels from her other room, the blood coming out of the floor and walls. She takes the towels back to the other room and puts them in the sink to also soak in hydrogen peroxide. 

The final step in her cleaning is dousing the place with febreze. Despite the fact that she can’t stand the strong perfumey smell with her sensitive nose. But it’s better than smelling like an abandoned slaughterhouse. 

With the cleaning done, she grabs the garbage bags along with her backpack full of cleaning supplies and leaves the bunker. She heads over to the abandoned docks, the salty smell of the ocean a nice change of pace. She opens each garbage bag and dumps the bodies out of it, into the ocean, then folds the bags up and stuffs them in her backpack. That way the bodies won’t be found, the docks haven’t been in use for at least a decade, being abandoned in favor of air travel and cars. It works in her favor though because no one looks here for bodies or any missing people. 

By the time the sun started to break the horizon, Shadow’s repeated this process at least 6 other times, some bunkers having more, others less. Either way, now that it’s all clean, she feels a lot better, clutter really doesn’t make her happy. Cleaning all of it out was a relief, it was a quiet night anyway, so that's good. 

Now her last question is who told the villain yesterday that no one was here to protect Logstedshire. Who sent that villain to their death and why ? An uneasy feeling settles in her stomach, something isn’t right. Her head whips around, no one’s watching her. She would've known immediately, so why is a chill running down her spine? 

Some thing is coming, something big. 

P̸̧̭͙͕̑͛̊̈͗̈́̚r̴͓̪̊͐̐̂̍̾̌ę̸̘̹̮̣̠̦̑́̓͘͘͜͝͝p̵͔̣̘̼̬̏̑͜a̶̢͍͛͜r̸̢̭͔̥̟͋̈́̀̒̽̍̕e̷̬̗̤̹̥̜͇̦̜͂̊ͅ ̸̢̝͖̟̟̲̜̖͎̗̈́͋́͐̍̀̍̚̚͝ỳ̸̳̌̾̊ö̸̤̦̭́͑̌̏͑͂̔̌͘̕ű̵̧̡̘̭͓͖͙̹̊̂́̆̀̄r̷̜̔͒̀̌̐̿̃̽͠s̴͙̲͖͗̔̋͛͊͆̅͐͜e̶̯̯̺̤̐ͅl̵͓͒̔̊͌̓́̀̌̈f̵̧̡͉̺͈̩̲̺͕͉̈̒̈́̚H̸͍̐̇̂́̓̌4̸̬̦̫͂͛͒̍͘̕͘͠-̷̤̙̂3̸̧̜̬̞̜̯͆̓̿̽̀̋̃5̸̛͔̗̳̦̼̯͉͙̻̒͑̑̂͗̑́

Chapter Text

Hello everyone! So uhhh I feel pretty bad about this, but for now I am discontinuing this fic. I had planned for this to be a 6 book series, but I have a few reasons for this. 

1. For those who haven’t heard or seen anything, Wilbur Soot has had abuse allegations be made against him. His apology was actual shit, like absolute dog shit. He basically admitted to abusing his ex-girlfriend, and “apologized”, but then glazed over it to talk about himself. Not to mention countless other creators like Tubbo, Ranboo, Punz, Aimsey, Bilzo (who hasn’t been on twitter for a year), and other creators coming out and saying it was a shit apology and to not defend him. I don’t feel comfortable writing his character now. I think that writing his character would be a way of supporting him, and I don’t, I absolutely fucking don’t. I may or may not write his character out should I decide to pick this back up. SUPPORT VICTIMS ISTG, IF ANYONE COMES HERE DEFENDING THIS PIECE OF SHIT, I WILL DELETE YOUR COMMENT.
2. I’m unreliable in updating and if I want to pick this back up at some point, minus Wilbur, I’ll do that, but I would like to have some insurance and write way far ahead. I actually did have the next chapter written and I have the general outline if anyone is curious as to how the story should have gone, but that would be the last of what I post here. 

The main fucking reason is because of that abusive asshole, but both are my reasons. I stand by Shelby and all those who are supporting her. Please for the love of god don’t support abusers, “there’s no concrete evidence”, if anyone says that I will scream. There’s no fucking way so many massive creators would all be coming out WITH PERMISSION against Wilbur as some massive ploy to deplatform him. So anyone who does support him, actually go fuck yourself. You’re absolute scum who clearly haven’t gone through anything like abuse victims and have no empathy for those who have.

And regarding Dream as well, it’s been shown he’s done nothing wrong, so if I do pick this back up, he will still be a key character. 

Also for anyone going through any kind of abuse, no matter how small, please know you’re not alone, there’s plenty of resources which I’ll link here. 

National Domestic Violence Hotline (America)

800-799-7233

800.799.SAFE (If your internet usage is monitored, this won’t show it)

https://www.thehotline.org/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=domestic_violence

International Domestic Violence Resources

https://safeandtogetherinstitute.com/international-domestic-violence-resources/

Thanks for understanding and please show Shelby love, she deserves it. Thanks to everyone who’s read, looked forward to this fic being updated, and gave kudos. I’m sorry it’s had to end like this, but again, I can post what I have written and the general outline for how this series was planned to go, Wilbur excluded, he’ll be completely changed out for Techno.