Anyways for my first post heres some of the characters you can ask in this blog, there will be more and i may even make a masterlist, but for now there are just character tags.
(I am absolutely not writing these in order lol, I needed to fit them into the story. Also this one is mostly background I think)
Phoenix discovers that Brynn has gone missing.
2k
CWs: hero whump, panic, uncontrolled transformation, assumed kidnapping, past abuse and whump, nightmare, asshole managers
“Phoenix.”
Phoenix looks around in their dream, very confused. That voice, coming from the roof of the shed, there shouldn’t be anyone there.
“Phoenix!”
Phoenix jolts upright with a gasp. It takes them a moment, but then they see the string of coloured lightbulbs, the light-up sign, the glow-in-the dark stars on the ceiling, feel the weighted blanket wrapped snugly around them. They're not in the shed. They're not in the shed.
“Phoenix! Get down here, we need to speak to you!”
Phoenix flinches, and then– oh. It's Wildfire. They throw a hoodie on and hurry downstairs.
The cell block is cold tonight, but they hover around the entrance anyway, red lantern shining off the brickwork. Wildfire looks agitated in it, tracking Phoenix urgently.
“What’s wrong?”
“Sovereign has escaped.”
Phoenix staggers back a few steps. Sovereign. Escaped. No.
“When? How? Brynn– I–”
“Three days ago. The guards were discussing it. I thought you should know.”
“Right. I, um, thank you, I– I should–”
“Go!”
And Phoenix bolts. Straight back up to their flat, flying into their room and ignoring any commotion, dialling the number because if Sovereign's out that means he'll be coming for them, he'll be coming for Brynn because she double-crossed him and nobody lives to tell that tale.
Her voice is groggy and Phoenix immediately feels guilty.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to, um, wake you up, but do you, um, is Brynn there? And can I, um, can I speak to her?”
“Phoenix?”
“Yes, sir?”
“It is you then. She left yesterday, to surprise you by coming back early. Did she not arrive?”
Phoenix's heart skips a beat. No. No. This can't be happening. They can't lose her.
“No. No, um, no, she didn't. And Sovereign's escaped and–”
“Sovereign's escaped?” Gemma sounds alarmed, and far more awake now. “When?”
“Three, um, three days ago. And they didn't tell us and Brynn–”
“I understand. They didn't say anything to us either. I'll keep my eyes peeled for Brynn, but your contacts will probably be more useful.”
Phoenix nods, then remembers Gemma's on the phone. “Right. Thanks. You, um, thank you.”
“Call me if there's any updates.”
“I, um, I will.”
They say their goodbyes and Phoenix dashes out and up the fire escape, heading for the roof. Because Gemma's right, their contacts are more useful.
They're just not sure exactly how to reach him.
It's crossed their mind before that he might have the place bugged. They've never been sure how to feel about it, but right now, they cross their fingers and pray to everything they no longer believe in that he does.
“Electrocus!”
They scream their call to the cloudless sky, a desperate plea for the only person who might be able to help. Because Brynn is missing, and Sovereign's out, and the only person who might have a clue where they are is another villain.
They watch the skyline, fists clenched. Come on, come on, please let him be spying.
They watch.
And watch.
He’s not coming. He’s not coming.
They look down, blinking hard. He didn't hear. He doesn't care. He's not coming.
There's a soft thump behind them.
Phoenix spins around, heart leaping to their throat. “Electrocus?”
And there the supervillain stands, arms crossed, weight shifted to one side. Silhouetted against the streetlights.
“Firebird. Who do I need to kill?”
Phoenix flinches slightly at the strong voice. They still haven't quite worked out whether he'd do that for them.
“Sovereign's out. I think he, um, he's kidnapped Green Raptor. Have you, um, have you heard anything?”
“No. But there have been… rustlings. Among the villain community.”
Phoenix swallows hard. They don't know what these rustlings could be, but if Electrocus hasn't heard anything… how are they supposed to find her?
Electrocus steps forward and squeezes their shoulder. “I'll keep my eyes and ears open. We might hear something.”
“Thank you,” they choke out. Not the answer they were looking for but… maybe. Maybe there's still time. Maybe Sovereign will do something stupidly obvious.
Yeah, that last isn't likely.
He steps back, nods, and they turn their back for him to disappear. They don't know how he arrives on or departs from HAL’s rooftop and out of respect for them both it's a secret that's kept.
Phoenix wipes their eyes as they descend the metal stairs and enter back through the broken door (thankfully, it hasn't locked automatically for as long as they've known it). They just want to curl up and cry, but they can't. They can't. If Sovereign has Brynn, their team is probably next, and they need to tell someone. The door slams shut behind them and they stand there, uncertain, all their brain on Brynn, Brynn, Brynn.
“Phoenix? Come in, Phoenix, what's wrong?”
Phoenix blinks. Warm, steadying hands on their forearms. Santhiya's face in front of theirs, brow pinched in concern.
They try to shape the words, to convey, somehow, the depth of what's happened.
“Brynn. Sovereign.”
_
“...and you didn't think to tel us that the supervillain who we helped capture, who Brynn defected from, has escaped? You didn't even think to tell Brynn?”
Phoenix huddles under the blanket against the sofa and watches as Kai paces, phone to his ear, looking increasingly frustrated.
“You thought– why would she do that? How would she do that, she betrayed him! He'd kill her! Just because you can't conceive that someone might have a change of heart– yes. Yes, she's disappeared.” Huh. Phoenix didn't know Kai could grow claws when not in wolf form. “Fuck you. Fuck you, if that's your assumption! She's a member of my team, she's a good person and has made amends, she's been a hero for years now and your takeaway is that maybe she’s joined Sovereign again just because she was once his sidekick? That she can't have changed her mind despite how she helped arrest him? Fuck you.” He pants. “Yes, sir, I apologise, but– I– yes. No, we're not just going to leave them! And–” Kai listens, and then growls, wolf-like. “No. No, if we need to go after them, when we do it, it won't be for an arrest, or questioning, because we don't operate on assumptions of guilt. She helped us arrest Sovereign, what more do you need? For her to not have been adopted and abused by him in the first place, since she was a small child? God. We're not arresting her.” Another, longer pause, in which Kai twitches violently, his nose seeming to start lengthening. “We're rescuing her. I won't leave a member of my team to be arrested over bullshit. You can always order us not to go, or put us on probation, but we can resign, sir, and I know that Phoenix Costello and Santhiya Choudhary, for two, are willing to if you keep trying to stop us from doing our jobs. Everyone is worth rescuing, they're worth second and third chances, and I'm not going to let you stop us rescuing Brynn.” His ears, changing shape and colour, twitch. “Yes. Thank you, sir. You'll inform us of any developments? Thank you.”
Kai drops the phone and growls.
“Management didn't tell Brynn because they thought she might see how powerful Sovereign is and decide to join him.”
“What? But that's, um, that's not– she wouldn't! And, um, and any of us could do that. Just because she used to be a villain?”
Kai nods. Phoenix pulls the blanket tighter around themself, hiding what they're sure must be messed up patterns on their arms by now. If anyone knew how close they'd been to joining Electrocus that one time… and not even because he was a villain, just because he cared. They'd deserve their punishment but even so, they don't want management ever finding out.
“Gemma had lots of shouting matches with management over me,” says Morfydd, dumping cinnamon into the hot chocolate pan and stirring. “They didn't like that I came from Razor originally.”
“Assholes,” grumbles Lian, setting the mugs down with more force than necessary. “As if you'd have been more loyal to someone who did experiments on you and tried to shoot you.”
More and more, Phoenix wonders why they don't just leave. Just get up and walk out of here. But they can't – people are relying on them. There's no point in them if they're not going to be a hero.
They hum in agreement. They hate this. And Kai is– Kai is–
Santhiya kisses them on the forehead. “What's on your mind?”
They nod at Kai, whose claws have definitely lengthened. “Wolf.”
“Oh yeah. He did that when your secondment got increased too. Er, Kai? Claws?”
Kai looks down at his hands with visible surprise. Clearly his senses haven't started changing yet then. Are physical changes first?
“Oh.” With what looks like enormous effort, the claws shrink back into his hands, and his nose and ears go back to normal. He blushes. “Sorry.”
Santhiya glances at Phoenix, squeezing them tight. “It's fine. We need to talk about Brynn, and not losing anyone else.”
Kai nods, pacing. Lian and Morfydd bring over hot chocolate, sitting down together. Phoenix curls their hands around their mug, taking a gulp. It's scalding. Good.
But Morfydd’s hot chocolate is definitely not something to punish themself with, so they try to just nurse it for a while. It feels nice.
“We need to pair up,” says Kai decisively, “like we’ve done before. One pair and one three now, I guess. We each have a specific person to look out for. And if we have to leave the flat we don’t do it alone.”
“We should, um, call Aaron too,” adds Phoenix quietly. “They're, um, part of the team and Sovereign probably, um, probably knows.”
He's very dear to Brynn. Phoenix knows he was the first person she trusted here, and if Sovereign finds out just how important he is to her…
Kai nods. “Good idea. You'll do that?” Phoenix nods, already pulling out their phone. “One more thing. The trackers, from the time with The Chosen Ones. Do you still have yours, Phoenix?”
Phoenix shudders, blinking hard to banish the memories. “No, sir. It um, I was, um, it got lost.”
They worry Kai will want to know more but he just nods again. “Right. We’ll figure something out. Everyone else, put yours on. I know Sovereign is likely to remove them straight away but… just in case.”
Just in case. Just in case Sovereign infiltrates, or blows up a wall, and kidnaps one of them.
Of course, being in pairs won’t help if both of them are kidnapped. Would that be better or worse?
Lian stands abruptly. “I'm going to cook. If I sit here doing nothing I'll go mad. I can't help being angry at Brynn but she wouldn't betray us again. That's a stupid excuse management are using because they don't like that she used to be a villain. And I can't just sit here while they try to do what they would've done to Morfydd if it hadn't been for Gemma. They take ex-villains because it looks good but they can't deal with fucking nuance. So I'm going to cook.”
“They’d’ve liked me to disappear,” explains Morfydd quietly. “I wasn't a hero or a civilian, so.”
Phoenix shivers. They're close enough to villains that if anyone found out…
If Gemma helped Morfydd, maybe there’s something they could do to help people more. Before they get to medbay. Maybe Aaron will know. Or Gemma, but they… she’s still a bit of an unknown.
Not now, though. Later. After Brynn is back home safe.
They clutch Santhiya tightly, watching as Morfydd disappears into the kitchen and Kai sinks down to the ground, running his hands over his face. They don't want to lose anyone else.
Phoenix gets imprisoned overnight in the HAL prison cells. For Lian, it's one surprise after another.
Set soon after Alicia's torture.
1.6k
CWs: imprisonment, villain whump, mentioned institutional whump (kinda?), implication of microaggression against asexual person, past torture and death, mentions of interrogation, implied beating, mentioned drugging, past blackmail
Phoenix! You're early for your visit, don't you usually come on Fridays? And you've brought someone new to visit? asks one of the friendlier prisoners. Wildfire. Telepathic. Low-level criminal. Stronger powers than he's let on to anyone but Phoenix (they're honoured, really). He bats his eyes at the guard holding Phoenix's shoulder. It's quite dark in here, which is presumably why Wildfire hasn't noticed their wrists. Phoenix usually brings a lantern covered in red cellophane.
Wildfire must say something to the guard because he says gruffly, "Stop flirting. It won't work."
Phoenix bets he's turned bright red.
Wildfire stopped flirting with them when they told him they were asexual. It's nice to have someone listen.
The guard unlocks the cell. "In you go, Phoenix. I'll be back to let you out in the morning. I'll tell your team where you are."
Wait, what?
Phoenix holds up their wrists on the dim glow filtering in from the tiny window.
"Thanks," they murmur, as he unlocks their cuffs and places a nightlight in their cell. Then he pauses and rolls his eyes.
"Yes, I'll get you a damn nightlight too."
Oh yeah, the flirting's working.
The guard locks the cell door and begins to walk away.
"Wait!" calls Phoenix. The guard pauses and turns. "Why are you, um, being so nice?"
It's a dangerous question but it's true. They can easily break out of here, shouldn't they have been given a sedative or something to block their powers or something? For that matter, shouldn't they been given it as soon as they were arrested?
"Because if that woman had said to me what she did to you, I'd have done the exact same thing."
He leaves the room.
What did you do?
Phoenix takes their time positioning themself relatively comfortably on the mattress, legs pulled up to their chest and arms around them, tapping their feet nervously.
Phoenix.
I punched a member of upper management, thinks Phoenix loudly. Okay?
Wildfire pauses, taken aback they think.
Can I...
Go ahead.
Wildfire passes the news down the line, and Phoenix can hear when it reaches each person. Finally, when it gets to Vulture, at the end of the block, she says thoughtfully, "I shouldn't be surprised. You've always had hidden depths."
"You've only, um, you've only known me a few, um, months."
"Yes."
There's the sound of footsteps on the stairs and the whole block tenses. Phoenix scrambles to their feet. Everyone there knows what some of the nastier guards are capable of.
As the person reaches the bottom they pause, and in the light Phoenix catches a glimpse of pink hair.
"Elemental?"
He rushes over to their cell. "Firebird! You're uninjured?"
"I'm fine." Well, they are now. In the rush to cuff them before they did any more damage someone caught skin in it, but the guard was quick to rectify it once he noticed. There's a possibility they've got a lump on the head too. But there's nothing bad. "And you can, um, call me Phoenix in here."
"Are you sure it's a good idea, a bunch of powerful villains knowing your name?"
"I'm offended that you think I'd do anything to them," replies Vulture, and she actually does sound a little offended.
Lian sighs. "Phoenix, she's one of the greatest supervillains this country's ever seen."
"I'm flattered."
Phoenix shakes their head. "Never mind that now. How's Alicia? Has she, um, woken up yet? Is she going to be, um, to be okay?"
"Dr A thinks she'll be fine. Physically, that is, she was tortured so who knows what her mental state will be like. She's not awake yet, but they're weaning her off the medicines keeping her in the induced coma, so apparently she should be awake in about a day or so. So you might be there in time for her to wake up. And in the meantime the rest of us are taking it in turns to sit with her."
"You remember she, um, needs an AAC board until her device is fixed? And she's touch averse? And–"
"Hey, hey. You told us all this." He catches their hands through the bars. "It'll be okay. We know what we're doing. Besides, you might be there anyway."
"Sorry."
Lian waves off their apology. "I have some food for you, since the guard said you missed mealtime. It's from the vending machine, I would've got you something hot but I don't think a plate would fit through the bars of your cell and I don't have your lock picking skills."
Lian passes a pasty and a packet of crisps through. Phoenix almost smiles.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Now tell me. How did you befriend all these villains and why is Wildfire in my head giving me a shovel talk? And what are you in here for anyway?"
Wildfire, get out of his head. To Lian, they say, "You know I, um, I had to go to that stupid meeting? Well, I, um, punched one of senior management. She said I, um, I shouldn't have gotten Alicia out of there without prior approval, because, um, it might've let villains know who I am and obviously as one of their more valued assets I'm more important than, um, an unarmed civilian who happens to be my sister, and I shouldn't have, um, killed Villain because it'll bring unwanted attention, even though, um, again, an unarmed civilian and my sister's life was at stake! He would've killed her!"
"Who exactly did you punch?" asks Lian curiously.
Phoenix winces. "The, um, the director?"
"Damn. I'm impressed."
She deserves worse.
"You're impressed? I thought you might, um, say I shouldn't have, um, shouldn't have done it."
"Well that'd make me a hypocrite." Phoenix frowns. "I tried to attack the board of directors when I was 15. I found out they blackmailed my dad into infiltrating Razor's base. They killed him."
"I'm sorry." There's nothing else to say, really.
"Yeah, well." He coughs, voice thick. "So. How do you know all these villains? And how are you friends?"
I'm starting a conference call.
Phoenix nods. "Lian. Um, prepare yourself."
"For what?"
Hello. There should be Phoenix, Elemental and Vulture in here with me. Are you there?
Yep.
Wait, what? Since when were telepathic conference calls possible?
Why am I last? This is about me, I should be first.
Phoenix can sense Wildfire rolling his eyes. Vulture, shut it. Elemental, do you really think I revealed the full extent of my powers to HAL? I'm not that stupid.
I was the one who arrested Wildfire, starts Phoenix. A few months ago. I was feeling a bit guilty about it so I went to visit him. And I saw...
They trail off. How do they describe it? Vulture takes over, faux-nonchalance in their thoughts.
There's no cameras down here. No surveillance. And some of the guards... they're not too fond of us, to say the least. It was one of the worst ones on shift that night. There wasn't much light, but Phoenix apparently created an illusion of fog around them and when he was confused, knocked him out with his own baton.
Fucking hell, Phoenix, thinks Lian.
Phoenix shrugs. It was the right thing to do. Despite what anyone might've done, they're still people, fundamentally, with human rights who deserve to be treated humanely. I had a red torch, and I could barely distinguish the blood from its light. Took forever to do the makeshift bandages.
They're good to us, is what I'm saying, explains Wildfire. Brings us good food and extra water, treats our injuries from beatings or 'enhanced interrogation'. Helps when people have withdrawal symptoms from the sedatives or they're forced to have power blockers or sedatives of any kind or even if they're just scared. And they're good company too. Others help, but they're mostly more brusque, just doing what they need to and leaving. Plus, they can't pick locks.
Lian looks at Phoenix with such awe it makes them blush. I take it this isn't officially sanctioned?
Neither part. But if it's useful I'm not sure how much they'd object if they knew.
Lian switches to talking out loud again once they've stopped covering the sensitive topic.
"You're in here overnight, right?"
"Yep."
"Would you like me to stay?"
Phoenix glances at the dim nightlight and the darkening night sky outside the window. And the relatively small cell. They shiver.
"If it's not too much trouble."
"Of course not. They'll know where I am."
"You were the distraught teenager, right?" says Vulture suddenly. "About fifteen years ago."
"Yeah."
"Huh. I wondered what was up. This is why I became a villain."
"Sure," mutters Phoenix sceptically. It was nothing to do with power or rebellion at all.
Lian settles down outside of the cell and there's quiet for a while. Then Phoenix, mustering up all their courage, says, "I'm sorry. About Villain. I didn't... he tortured my sister because he thought it was me, and then he kept going after she was unconscious, and I was trying to save her but I got a bit too angry. I'm sorry."
We understand. Right?
"Yeah. Yeah, of course. It's not like I've never killed."
"Reassuring," mutters Lian.
You're not going to be able to make the visit this Friday, are you? asks Wildfire sadly. It's in two days time.
I– well, I mean. I'll try.
Your sister needs to come first. We'll survive for a week.
Phoenix nods. They feel a bit guilty but... Alicia does come first.
Where does each member live? By the assortment of mobs and the council being nether themed as well, I's assume their main residence would be the Nether. Which biome holds their base?
Ever traversed to the overworld? If yes or no, for what reasoning?
*Most of them have not been to the nether
The Withered Waste is a rare biome found in both the Overworld and Nether and contains soul sand and spoil, large and small wither roses and can only spawn wither skeletons.
