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Mumbo had always been the one to take the hits.
It’s what he did. Grian was the weapon, Skizz the healer, and Mumbo the shield. He threw himself at their enemy over and over until they tired out, until Grian could swoop in with the upper hand.
Its all his powers were useful for. There wasn’t much else he could do with regeneration - it didn’t hurt anyone, didn’t help anyone but himself. So he made it helpful.
This fight was no different. The heroes seemed so done with him, their attacks growing lazier, slowly getting closer to what they’re looking for. Mumbo doesn’t stop, running at them again.
A bullet shoots through his arm, but he barely feels it, more focused on trying to sink his knife into the hero’s side. Thre injury heal the minute the fire ends, and he uses that arm to attack, missing the hero just slightly. They stumble away from him, but he follows without a second thought, chasing them with his weapon.
Another hero tries to help, stepping between them. They force him back, and his heart quickens as they spar, his knife against their blade. Behind him, he can hear his teammates fighting, Grian seemingly having mimicked the shapeshifting ability of one of the heroes. Any sort of disguised based power was Grian’s favourite, turning teams against themselves and making it easier to pick them off while they’re attacking each other.
Skizz is in his ear, chatting away. He tended to stay at home unless absolutely necessary, waiting to heal any wounds Grian obtains when they return. Through their eyepieces, he keeps an eye on the battle, providing all sorts of unhelpful commentary that makes it easier
to ignore the threats of the heroes they fight.
The talking unfortunately does more than just drown out the words of the heroes this time, too much of a distraction for Mumbo. He swings too soon, and is quickly pushed back, stumbling over his feet. The hero lunges, tackling him to the ground. They get him pinned to the ground, and a cold metal cuff wraps around one of his wrists, feeling almost sharp against his skin. Mumbo manages to get them off before they can wrestle his other hand into the cuffs, spinning the situation around and slamming their head into the concrete street.
They go limp, and he grimaces at the sound the attack had made, but he knows the heroes have some of the best healers in the city so he isn’t that concerned. He stands to his feet shakily, looking down at the cuff on his wrist. It’s locked there, and its looking like he doesn’t have enough time to figure out how to unlock it right now. Once they’re back at base they can figure out how to remove it, but for now he has a fight to focus on.
His attention is drawn away from the cuff and back to the battle when a hero attacks him from behind. They know they can play rough with him, can injure him more than a normal villain without it being considered ‘too far’, and they definitely take advantage of it. The knife plunges into his shoulder before he can whirl around and dodge it, and pain spikes through his arm as they remove the blade. His other arm comes in handy to deliver a swift punch to their throat, and he stumbles away while they recover.
His shoulder aches, blood spilling down his costume. He winces, but pays it no mind - it’ll heal quick enough. He turns to look over at where
Grian is fighting, pleased to see its only two left over there. They fight valiantly, but Grian has stolen the flying power of one, creating a mostly air battle in which one of the heroes can’t even participate.
Mumbo decides to deal with that one while Grian flies around and fights, and retrieves his knife from where it had been thrown aside earlier. He quickly approaches the hero, and attacks from behind. He doesn’t stab the hero, but the knife works well as a threat of what could happen while he throws them to the ground. His foot makes a few sharp hits to their legs, aiming for the points Skizz claims are weakest; stopping them from running is great for both the battle and the escape part afterwards.
Just because their legs are injured doesn’t stop the rest of them, however. Flames suddenly lick at Mumbo’s skin, burning at it. It hurts more than normal, like pain was a foreign sensation instead of a familiar one. He doesn’t let that stop him, aiming his next kick at their head instead.
They slump back, flames gone, and Mumbo takes a second to pant as Grian finally lands beside him, laughing. “I lost him a few streets down, he thinks I’m still heading off! Lets go!” Grian grabs his hand, trying to drag him along, and pain slams through Mumbo like an explosion as his shoulder feels the tug.
He gasps as the pain hits him, and he doubles over, arms wrapping around him as the pain from his shoulder mixes with that of the burns, it brings tears to his eyes, and he struggles to remember another time when pain hurt this much.
Grian’s brow furrows, and he looks his teammate over, eyes narrowing in on the bloody shoulder. Even seeing the blood, he doesn’t seem to understand. Mumbo had never been in this much pain before, no matter how he had gotten injured, what happened this time. “We need to get going!”
“I know,” Mumbo can barely get the words out. His throat feels tight, and he tries his best to walk in the direction Grian is trying to go, but its like weights have been strapped to his boots. Grian catches him when he falls, and another look at his shoulder makes things more concerning- there was not that much blood there a few seconds ago.
“Mumbo, when did you get stabbed?” There’s no panic in his tone, no reason to panic in his mind. Maybe this was the same amount of blood as two minutes ago, surely theres no way it grew, not when Mumbo heals as fast as he does.
Grian peeks through the tear in the shirt left behind by the knife,and his face immediately pales seeing the bloody wound that stretches across Mumbo’s shoulder. It isn’t doing what its meant to do, staying open instead of knitting itself back up like it should.
The last words Mumbo hears before he blacks out is ‘uh oh’.