Chapter Text
It was a cold night in Mirchi Nagar. The residents of the town had settled down for the night, and all was peaceful and quiet. At least, those free to walk the streets the next morning were as such.
Currently trapped in the town jail were four of Mirchi Nagar's most wanted criminals: Shambala, a sorcerer; Junglee Joker, a explosives expert and creepy clown; Boga, a money-hungry gangster; and Khatarnak Khatri, a mad scientist. They'd all been captured after competing against who would be the top villain of the town, this of which had left them all exhausted after arguing with each other during it and making a ruckus all the while.
"A-again, why'd you have to bring in that blasted helicopter?!" Junglee Joker growled, still seeming the most bitter over the day's events.
"I thought it was a good idea to show off our teamwork somehow," Boga snapped back.
"You could've killed us!"
"I said I was... sorry, okay?" Boga shuddered, the word 'sorry' always left a bad taste in his mouth whenever he had to use it.
Shambala had been resting on the sidelines this whole argument, both lost in thought and getting tired of the group's persisting bickering.
Finally, he quietly stood up. "ENOUGH, both of you," Shambala snapped, the two bickering villains immediately falling silent. "Bickering like children isn't going to solve anything. What we need to do now is to combine our efforts in an attempt to get out of here. I understand how well it ended last time, but making another effort regarding escape is what's most important right now."
The cellmates were silent for a moment, everyone else seemingly taking a moment to let these words register.
"You do have a point." Boga spoke up, still sounding a little disgruntled.
"From now on, no more fighting amongst ourselves, understood?" Shambala stated, his voice firm.
"Understood." The clown and gangster muttered in unison, a small smile spreading across the sorcerer's face with this agreement.
"Now," Shambala continued, "what we need is to formulate a-"
Shambala was cut short by the sounds of growling and gibberish muttering. Turning to the source, he found it to be a sleeping Khatri, who somehow hadn't woken up throughout the prior conversation. He was tossing and turning, clawing into the one bed the prison cell had and the wall beside him. Much like a canine having a strange dream.
Boga marched up to Khatri and shouted a blunt "WAKE UP, FREAKSHOW!"
Khatri's eyes shot open, yelping as he scrambled and toppled to the floor in alarm. JJ couldn't help but snicker at this. The green man's brows furrowed as he got up, shouting "What was THAT for?!" at the gangster.
"No time to explain, puppy. We need to get outta this joint, and we need your help to do that," Boga explained.
Khatri gave an irritated growl, still annoyed at his rude awakening, but begrudgingly agreed with a nod. Even he knew that escape would require all of their might.
"Now then," Shambala began again, trying to keep his composure, "let's actually get out of here."
"How do you expect to do that, exactly?" JJ asked. "Don't you need your staff to use your portals?"
"You're right about that," the sorcerer began. "But that doesn't mean we still can't use the rest of our skills. JJ, Khatri, you have anything up your sleeves?"
"No, everything in there was confiscated as we were getting arrested, remember?" the scientist stated, bluntly.
"All I got are cards," the clown responded, what seemed to be an entire deck tumbling out as he tilted one of his arms, all of them were jokers. Without wasting time they attempted to fold them to try picking the lock. "At least it's better than what this wanna-be canine has," the gangster sneered again.
"I'm right here, you know," Khatri glared.
Eventually, the group had burned through half of the deck without making any meaningful progress, and Shambala seemed to catch onto this detail first. "This isn't working," was how he started to break this news to his cellmates. "We need a new strategy. Any ideas?"
"Try the hinges!" Boga began, seeming really confident in this strategy.
"No can do, I have a strong suspicion they've thought ahead there," the sorcerer tapped the door as if to emphasize. "Our best bet is the lock."
"Try dog boy's claws," JJ not-so-discretely pointed at Khatri over his shoulder.
"Hey!" the scientist began, but this jab had gotten Shambala to think.
"Wait, that might actually be our ticket out of here," the sorcerer stated as he approached the three. He grabbed Khatri and brought him over to the lock.
Shambala put his focus onto the scientist's hand contorting it in such a way to where a clawed finger could slip into the lock and pick it. This temporary transformation didn't hurt Khatri, but his claw being used to pick the lock very audibly made him uncomfortable, the scientist making pained noises that became muffled as the sorcerer placed a hand over Khatri's mouth to keep him quiet.
Soon enough, with some prodding, the lock clicked open, effectively freeing the four from their holding. "JJ, you genius." Shambala exclaimed in as reserved a way as he could, unhanding Khatri and allowing his hand to return to normal. Aside from the pain, of course.
With an inflating of the clown's ego, the four began to make their way away from their cell and towards the evidence room, which held the sorcerer's staff: their ticket out of here. But between there and their cell lay the office of Sergeant Hawaldar Karate, One of many reasons they were in here to begin with and who was effectively the jail's security system after hours.
Shambala had an idea for this, though: Khatri and Boga would stay on watch to make sure Mr. Karate stayed put while he and JJ went for his staff.
It felt like an eternity before the two heard Shambala "psst psst" for them to come over to him. Sure enough, his retrieval mission had been a success. The group gave fist pumps of victory before they slowly started to sneak past the sergeant and through the prison's door via Shambala unlocking it as quietly as possible. They began sneaking into the dark night streets of mirchi Nagar.. so far, so good.
They'd made it a few hundred yards when the clouds in the sky above began to part, the moon right behind them. Khatri noticed this and started to twitch a little, but managed to keep any feral urges in check until they were getting closer to the city perimeter.
Shambala began glancing around for a good place to summon any portals. the sorcerer soon found a spot, close to the end of the street and in the mouth of an alleyway. Maybe not the most hidden place, but distance between the portal summoning and the jail was vital. Now all Shambala had to do was use that staff to channel a ticket out of here.
What happened next was anyone's guess. Without as much as a noise of warning, a brick fell from atop a building, hitting Khatri square in the foot with a horrific CRUNCH. The suddenness got everyone else to stop, and the agonizing pain caused Khatri to lose it.
Khatri let out a long, pain-filled howl into the night air.
"SERIOUSLY?!" Boga, Junglee Joker and Shambala hollered in unison.
The alleyway was plunged into an eerie silence, the scientist realizing just what he'd done. All four stood still. hoping with every fiber of their beings that the worst didn't come to pass.
A light shone onto the four, the convicts' blood running cold upon seeing the silhouette of Sergeant Karate against the dark. The group didn't waste any time in immediately bolting, dashing down the street with Khatri limping after what happened. Shambala hastily summoned a portal before them. No sooner had Hawaldar gotten there, the four he was pursuing had vanished, much to his frustration. At the very least, he knew that they'd come back to Mirchi Nagar sooner than later, so he had ample time to start preparing for the inevitable.
The four convicts, meanwhile, all landed in the jungle far away from the town. Maybe not in the most ideal spot, but given how close they were to going back to jail, this was a far better outcome. Though Boga didn't see it as such, and vocalized that.
"We had to make do with what time we had," the sorcerer explained. "If I had better time to focus, we would be in a better spot."
"Yeah, thanks doggie," JJ snarked under his breath, this comment not going unheard by the scientist.
"Well excuse me for being in PAIN!" Khatri barked with a soft whimper; it still hurt.
"Speakin' of that 'better spot', where even are we? ..I can't see a thing!" Boga grumbled, squinting and attempting to adjust to the darkness that surrounded the group. Before one of them could get another word in, a noise from somewhere in the jungle caught their attention. A very... nonhuman noise. Shambala lit up the clearing with the green light of his staff and revealed the source.
They were already looming over them; multiple giant plant creatures that looked hungry.
The plant creatures lunged towards them with shrieking roars, now was the perfect time to get out of dodge. The ones that got the jump on them weren't alone. Where they had portaled to was crawling with these giant plants, and they all seemed as hungry as the first batch!
Shambala didn't have the energy for another portal, but he was the most capable of defending himself. Boga seemed to recognize this, and managed to stick close by after the initial scramble. Everyone else in the party, however, were left with only their wits.
"Guys, look!" JJ yelled, he had spotted river nearby; one that wasn't too deep, not too rapid, but it was enough to get enough distance between them and these beastly fauna. Boga and JJ hesitated, but Shambala threw them in before beginning to desperately paddle to the other side.
All four members just barely managed to escape from the thick of man-eating plants. They all scrambled to land, exhausted, cold and soaked to the bone.
"That was.. Way too close." Boga panted.
"All say.. Aw man, I think my makeup is runny!" Junglee Joker muttered.
"And I just had this labcoat cleaned!" Khatri growled before suddenly shaking the water out of his hair like a canine, splashing the others in the process. The group raised their arms in an attempt to shield themselves.
"..Augh, dammit, Khatri!" Shambala yelped, much to the scientist gaining an anxious look before they each got up. "Sorry.."
"NOW where we?" Boga grumbled. Shambala glanced around them, despite the forest being lit by moonlight, nothing about this area seemed familiar to him at all. The group was tired after that encounter, and Khatri's injury still ached.
The group picked up on Shambala's silence and began fearing the worst: They were lost.