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When Boomie got back from building an escape route for some random jester crowned ‘The Deadliest Villain’ he wasn’t really expecting the scene that was unfolding in his shop. He hadn’t even reached the door to the backroom and could already hear the vigilante Xploit screaming something along the lines of ‘YOU CHEATED!’
Sighing he opened the door to absolute chaos. Cards all over the floor, a flipped over monopoly board, and a small group of teenagers in costume with way too much free time on their hands.
“Look bro, all I’m saying is that if you want a fair bank don’t play monopoly with Egg.” Wemmbu shrugged at Spoke
“Dude it’s not even unfair, it’s just realistic.” Egg said in his usual monotone voice. He was holding all the money in his hands, including obvious fake copies of it.
“How did you even make counterfeit Monopoly money?!” Spoke stood up yelling at the duo who were snickering at his reaction.
“Better question, how did you all get in my shop?” Boomie finally spoke up after witnessing the group squabble like chickens. Seriously, why was his shop suddenly the number one hang out spots for vigilantes and villains alike? He was meant to be an information broker not some kind of babysitter. You let one or two vigilantes in suddenly bring a whole swarm. They’re all like seagulls, feed one then suddenly you summon a hoard. Not like a hoard was bad, he runs an illegal shop with his main clientele being any villain or vigilante that he can convince to listen to him and pay yet this was not paying clientele. This was some sort of hang out group.
“Boomie for your information I was here for normal business reasons, however Spoke decided it would be fun to trash this area for what he called ‘the villie-lante-hangout-extrodinare’ or whatever he said.” Parrot defended himself as Theo nodded in agreement.
“Hey! I didn’t call it the villie-ante-hangout-extrodinare, I called it an extravaganza!”
“So you do admit it was your idea?” Wemmbu asked as a smug grin grew across his face.
“I never said it wasn’t! But at least I’m not the one raiding his fridge!” Spoke raised his hands up defensively.
Wait, who was raiding his fridge?
Boomie spent no time rushing over to the main living space of his shop. (Yes he lives in his shop, he’s paying for it, he can live in it all he wants!) Upon stepping close to the kitchen he already smelled burnt popcorn and regret in the wafting through the air. Seriously if they blew up his microwave they’re all paying for that.
“Flame, this is really bad man..!” Lomedy says, holding a bowl filled with burnt kernels with a worried look in his eyes. “I don’t even think most of this is edible bro.”
“The instructions said 2 minutes right?” Flame asked as he walked over and inspected the bowl.
Boomie could care less about their conversation, he was just glad that his microwave was intact. He spent like 500 dollars on that, he’d rather it be functioning than have to buy another one. That’s just bad for business and his funds.
“How did you think- like Lomedy bro..” Flame was struggling to breathe as he burst out laughing. Something must have happened while Boomie was contemplating his microwave dilemmas. “Like genuinely bro, I said 2 minutes and you put it in for 5?! Like bro..”
“Dude it’s not my fault! You were on about something about being the most auraful or something I zoned out.” Lomedy argued, despite that he was smiling just as much as Flame was during their banter.
Lomedy turned his head, finally noticing Boomie in the kitchen. “Oh uhm, hello! Sorry for almost ruining your microwave..” Lomedy apologized while handing the bowl to Flame before rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
“Bro it wouldn’t have even broken. Like let’s just get back to the others before they finish the game without us.” Flame waved Lomedy’s concerns off.
“They wouldn’t, if they did you would have slimed them out.” Lomedy jested, a small smirk was on his face.
“Nuh uh bro! I’m a changed man, you know this!” Flame snapped his head towards Lomedy in a joking manner feigning hurt.
“Yeah yeah Mr. ‘Immortal Demon’ let’s deliver the popcorn before it becomes cold and burnt.”
Walking with the duo, Boomie mostly drowned out their conversation by listing all the responsibilities he had in his mind of which now included making sure that none of these idiots set his entire shop on fire or any other crimes that would end with him either dead or on the streets without a shop.
“Yo yo! Look who’s back!” Spoke shouted, causing the rest of the group to stop arguing over whatever other game they were playing now. “How did your daring kitchen adventure go?”
“Yeah yeah bro me and Loms got the popcorn.” Flame rolled his eyes sitting down on the carpet with the rest with Lomedy following suit and sitting next to him.
“This is burnt bro, like badly.” Wemmbu said, picking up a piece of popcorn that looked as if it had been through the pits of hell and survived without becoming pure ash.
“Like bro, it’s not even that bad!” Flame lightly flicked Wemmbu’s shoulder, grabbing a piece of popcorn as if to disprove the theory. Popping the piece in his mouth, his expression soured as swallowed disgustingly burnt popcorn.
“HA! I told you it sucked bro.” Wemmbu laughed lightly, smacking Flame’s back in a joking manner.
“You’d need to perform a ritual to save that stuff man.” Theo commented looking at the popcorn as if it personally offended him.
“Okay enough yap about the popcorn! I’ve got a better and new super cool idea for tonight's extravaganza!” Spoke stood up climbing on top of the couch waving his arms around to gather the group's attention. Using his power performed some extremely extra hand movements of which were not needed for how lame the items he gave himself were.
“It’s movie night!” Spoke said posing with a couple movie cases in his hands as if he had an ace up his sleeve in some card game. “And now to decide who picks the movie,” Spoke begins what looks like eeny-meeny- miny-moe, as he points out each member of the group.
“Eenie..meeny..miny..moe! Looks like Mapicc is picking the movie!” Spoke cheers before handing the small movie selection over to his brother.
“Dude, that's not even fair! You were gonna choose Mapicc anyway bro.” Theo crossed his arms as he called Spoke out. Boomie could care less though, he honestly just wanted these idiots out of his shop before he gets a noise complaint.
“For once I actually agree with this bird brain over here there's obvious bias in that picking!” Wemmbu complained like a toddler. They all were starting to sound like toddlers to be honest which had Boomie questioning if Nap Time was still buyable. Seriously, they were giving him a migraine.
“Nuh uh, you guys are legit just mad that I get to choose the movie!” He stuck his tongue out towards the group before grabbing a movie case. ”Oh, by the way I’m picking the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender movie.” Mapicc smirked and held the movie out above his head, finally making his choice.
“Why is that even an option?” Egg asked, tilting his head. “That movie is like, notoriously trash bro.” Most of the group agreed with him as they nodded their heads in agreement.
“Exactly why it’s perfect!” Spoke interrupted, taking the movie and putting it into the movie player.”Think about it, we play a game or something! The first person to leave the room from cringe loses and the last person to leave wins!”
“So can we all agree he’s just trying to find a way to justify Mapicc’s choice out of pure favoritism?” Flame snorted.
“That or he genuinely thinks it's a good movie.” Wemmbu replied as he gestured with his arms, causing the duo to snicker like two teenage mean girls gossiping.
“Knowing Spoke?” Parrot said, looking over towards the voidling, who was struggling to figure out how the ‘movie machine’–as he called it–worked. “It’s probably both of those combined.”
“Okay okay shut up gossip circle it’s starting!” Spoke rushed over to his spot next to Mapicc, he of course took the liberty to try and snatch the popcorn before remembering it was more burnt than the last time he tried to make eggs. Boomie’s 100% sure that Spoke can’t be grimacing over burnt popcorn when he causes Minute to cost thousands with his cooking skills and skill for burning anything that he touches in the kitchen. Including water. Yes he’s had to hear Minute Lament about Spoke somehow burning the water. It was bad. No he’s not going into detail.
Safe to say, the movie was ass. Boomie, of course being the only responsible one other than Parrot and maybe this Lomedy guy, was forced to stay awake for all of it to prevent possible destruction of the earth. He already wanted to sob from hearing ‘I am oong’ from the TV. To make matters worse he made the dreaded mistake of sitting on the chair behind Spoke and Mapicc. Only to have the devious duo fall asleep–a few minutes into the movie might he add–and lean on his legs which were currently falling asleep as he himself was fighting off the clutches of slumber. In his and their defense it was almost 1AM.
Sooner than later the whole group–with the sole exception of Boomie of course because he’s the adult in the room and has to watch over basically glorified overpowered toddlers–fell asleep. Yes including Parrot who was being smothered by his best friend Theo. They kind of reminded Boomie of two cats unable to let go of each other. Looking around the room Boomie concluded it was safe to finally turn off this dogshit movie in favor of silence–with a mix of loud ‘immortal’ snoring.
Or well what would have been silence if there hadn’t been knocking on his shop's main entrance door.
Cautiously standing up to avoid waking the others, Boomie stretched as he took his time walking to answer whoever was at his door at this hour. Could be a client, could be a solicitor, or maybe even a murderer. Must be a crazy person for them to be up at this hour.
Opening the door he was met by Guardian in his normal hero costume of a suit, bowtie, and mask. Seriously, what do they pay heroes to be up at 1AM? Not to mention a single father of two chaos gremlins.
“Apologies for interrupting your sleep but I was wondering if you’ve seen Xploit and Hack anywhere?” The Guardian asked as Boomie let him inside towards where the group was sleeping. The guy was even kind enough to honor the ‘no masks inside the backrooms’ policy Boomie had in place. Spoke and Mapicc genuinely need to follow their father’s example.
Upon entering the room, Minute’s mouth moved into a small smile seeing his boys fast asleep. Boomie was betting it was probably because those two menaces have more energy than every can of Monster ever made.
“And for the record, please tell your kids to stop breaking into my shop and throwing whatever ‘extravaganza’ that Spoke was on about.” Boomie said, pinching his nose bridge in obvious annoyance. Of course he would never just kick the kids out, that’s just not well..practical maybe? He’s not sure.
Minute nodded, “I’ll speak to them about it. However, if this one,” Minute began speaking as he picked up Spoke, obviously gesturing towards him. “Can hide a vigilante-villain identity for a year from me, I doubt he’ll listen.” Minute sounded tired as he was talking. Boomie could only feel pity for the man. Having to deal with Spoke and Mapicc every day of his life, truly a soldier.
Minute left holding Mapicc and Spoke in his arms, he offered an apology and extended his thanks towards Boomie for watching his boys.
Looks like the rest will be staying the night.
Boomie went to the closet to grab some blankets and pillows for the rest of his guests. Laying blankets gently over each one. Being very careful to not wake them up and even holding his breath when Egg stirred talking about some sort of random topic in his sleep. Something about averages in public schools. Geez this kid is weird.
Once everyone had received their mandatory sleep set up Boomie flopped into his recliner. Closing his eyes he thought about today. He got a lot of money for building that escape route, and sure he did have to build some guy a replacement mask but nothing would compare to whatever this sleep over was. There was something nice in the chaos that these beings of pure chaos brought. That sounds like something to unpack later. Boomie just sighed letting sleep finally take over.