Chapter Text
Lizzie’s hair, pulled into a bun, sat messily on her head. Quite normal in contrast to the rest of her. Bags hung under her eyes as she stared at maps and piles of papers in front of her. Her coffee left abandoned next to her, it had gone cold hours ago, similar to the three half finished cups next to it.
“Liz go to bed, it’s three in the morning.”
Her head snaps up in the direction of the familiar voice.
“You know I can't! He’s stuck in there! This is the first time ever that he’s been in prison for longer than… a day.” She explains to the man as if he didn’t know it already.
“Liz, do I need to call Joel to get you to go to bed?” The blonde raises an eyebrow and places his hands on his hips.
Jimmy stood tall and confident, not bending for once at the pleading look on her face. Though he also showed signs of distress, stubble on his face from days with Lizzie looking over the maps, bags under his eyes and oily hair.
“Don’t. You. Dare. I will set Meri on you.” Lizzie threatens, her eyes narrowing.
“Then go. To. Bed.” Jimmy smiles as he pours himself a glass of water.
“I’m almost done! We can tell Martyn the plan in the morning and then we can get them both out tomorrow afternoon!” Lizzie grins, though she looks rather psychotic instead of her intended sane look.
Jimmy calmly takes one of her shoulders and guides the begrudging woman away from the table.
“You have work tomorrow, first of all. Second of all, Martyn is also busy tomorrow, he told us this earlier, do you remember?” He explains slowly.
“Yes I know I know! But- but… But maybe he’ll take off and I can get someone else to open for me then we can-” Lizzie attempts to explain as he guides her up the stairs, though he interrupts her.
“Liz, it’s literally your cafe. Also your plan isn’t even concrete. How can you expect to do this if you haven’t slept. You won’t be able to control anyone and you’ll be so cranky.” Jimmy smiles politely as he opens the door to her bedroom.
“Jim Jim Jim wait-“ Lizzie pleads as he starts to push her into her room.
“You. Need. Sleep. Lizzie.” He says sternly.
She glares at him, attempting to fight him silently on this. After a few moments however, she finally notices that he won't budge. She allows him to push her to her bed before watching him shut the door on his way out.
“Good night Liz.” He says as he walks down the hall to his room.
Jimmy flopped back into his bed, allowing his wings to cradle him as he fell back asleep.
Meri joins Lizzie on her bed, the racket of the two having woken up the dog. Lizzie takes her hair down, laying down in her comfortable bed. She wouldn’t admit that he was right… but her eyelids immediately started to close as soon as her head hit the pillow. She was definitely tired.
The two could feel the lack of chaos in the base. It pulled at their hearts, the craving to have their third member back left a sour taste in their lives. Slowly poisoning their days the longer he was gone.
“Oh come on, dear, just let me out already!” Hermes huffs, leaning against the bars of his cell, making puppy dog eyes at his captor. Though the blonde doesn’t budge. Hermes reaches up to grab at the curls, though the cuffs stop him just before he could grab them. Though the feeling is cause for the guard to turn.
“Keep your hands off me or I’ll shackle you again, Hermes.” The blonde man, despite being shorter than him, is quite scary. Though he’s nothing in comparison to Hermes. Obviously.
“Oooo~ I’m terrified, dear.” Hermes retorts.
The guard rolls his eyes, takes a step away from the cell to be completely out of reach, before returning to his mind.
Hermes snarls and steps back, struggling against his restraints.
“Hermes, you know we’ll get out soon, just give the others some time.” Red Winter chimes in from the cell next to his.
Hermes knows it's true, but he doesn’t care. Jim and Liz would definitely get him out, but he could also get himself out… normally.
In any normal situation, he could coerce a guard to let him out in less than a day. He is just so handsome and charming and perfect that he just could convince them to let him out! However something wasn’t working here.
Hermes had been talking to this guard for four whole days and he hadn’t budged, and once he left Hermes didn’t have time to convince the other guard before this blonde boy came back!
It truly was devastating.
“I know but- it’s not working!” Hermes whines, collapsing to the ground dramatically.
“Hermes, I know you’re frustrated, but we always escape! Just give them till tonight.” Red reasons, attempting to calm the villain.
To Herme’s luck, the door to the room opens and he immediately bolts upright. He quickly stands and leans against the bars of his cell.
The switch of guards was being made and maybe if this time, for once, this guard stayed long enough, Hermes could get him to let the two of the villains out.
Grian’s day did not start out well. He had woken up late to his alarm, which meant he had a whole ten minutes before he had to be out the door. Which also meant he couldn’t pick up his coffee on his way to work.
He rushed to his locker, throwing his backpack into the metal box. He quickly grabs his hat, name tag, taser and his keys.
“You’re late.”
Grian rolls his eyes as he opens the door, a guard glaring at him from his post, two cells sat behind him holding two sleeping criminals.
“I know, I’m sorry, at least they’re asleep for most of your shift though.” He huffs as he pops one of his earbuds in his ear. The other guard huffs and quickly leaves the room as Grian puts in the other earbud.
Grian rolls his eyes and mutters to himself something along the lines of “…prick can go screw off…”
He takes a deep breath and leans back against the wall behind him.
The first few hours of his shift were quiet but perfect. He was safely able to just zone out, listen to his music and relax. The hours were shit but at least he didn't have to move or speak to anyone… at least not on a good day.
He could hear complaining and conversing behind him, but he was never explicitly told that the two couldn’t talk, so it was yet another thing he could tune out.
Around nine food was brought for the two men, the first time Grian had to interact with them. He takes out an earbud and takes the trays from the person at the door, giving them a quick nod before it shuts and locks again.
He walks over to the first cell, a tall, somewhat buff man with brown hair and a weird looking mask sat glaring at him from the corner, visibly annoyed with him despite the fact he hadn't (knowingly) done anything to him.
“So you finally want to look at me, sir?” The man’s voice was rough and cold yet at the same exact time the opposite, it was also smooth and warm.
Whatever.
Grian rolls his eyes, sliding the tray to the man before walking over to the other cell and doing the same. The second man had curly brown hair and sunglasses on. The fact these guys got to keep their ‘costumes and accessories’ on in prison truly confused Grian. But who knows maybe they’re superglued to their faces or something.
The second man was much quieter and much calmer. Now that's Grian’s type of prisoner. He slides the tray to him before putting his earbud back in and returning to his previous spot against the wall.
The second time Grian actually had to do something during his shift was an unordinary moment. Once again the prisoners were talking, however halfway through this conversation, Grian felt a hand graze near his hair. He quickly turned and glared at the man.
“Keep your hands off me or I’ll shackle you again, Hermes.” He threatens, reaching for his taser instinctively.
The prisoner says something, to which Grian simply rolls his eyes, checks the clock and takes a step forwards, away from the cell so the man can’t reach him again.
Thank the gods his shift was almost over.
A click of the lock and a turn of the knob brings him back to reality. He doesn’t even take the time to speak to or even really look at the substitute before he storms out of the room.
“Martyn! Come in!” Jimmy grins and ushers the man inside.
“You guys said you have a plan?” The man wastes no time as he makes his way to the table that they were all now very familiar with after almost an entire week of working on it.
Martyn, Red Winter's partner in crime, had also been missing his spark while his partner was gone. The two teams resorted to working together to get the villains out of their… predicament. Martyn had dawned his villain outfit, a grey headband running through his curly blonde hair. He wore a red coat to match his partner's cape, jeans, combat boots and a black t-shirt.
Lizzie nods and smiles, already wearing her trademark villain outfit. She looked much better compared to the last time Martyn had seen her. Her hair was untangled and put up into braided buns, revealing her spotted cat ears, her face was clean of tear streaks and bags, and she was energized.
Jimmy also looked much better, he had shaved and his hair was finally washed, he was wearing a weird outfit but Martyn assumed that was part of the plan.
“Of course we do!” Lizzie grins, pointing to the map. “Now it took us longer because they switched up the placement of everything since the last time we broke in and out. Annoying right?”
Martyn nods, chuckling slightly at her energy.
“But we did it!” Jimmy chimes in, “the plan is that I go in as a new hire, seeing as there’s a bunch of blondes on staff and I look pretty normal without my wings, I can just take an ID from a locker once I get in. It's super easy to break into those things. And the rest of the plan is pretty obvious. I go in, act like we’re switching shifts, once the guard leaves, blah blah blah, boom we’re out!”
“And we have no concerns about how easy this sounds?” Martyn raises an eyebrow.
“Thats why you two will be waiting on a close by roof or in an alley and I’ll walkie you if I need back up! We really don't need to do this in stealth but it's so much more fun. If we need to break stealth it’s no problem. Once we have them out there's really nothing they can do to stop all five of us at once.” Timmy explains as he walks towards the door.
“…okayyy lets go.” Martyn nods, hesitant but seeing as the two have made so many jail breaks before..
Lizzie grins and practically skips out the door.
This is how Scar found himself grinning in his cell at the sight of a familiar blonde man walking in with his head to the ground, obviously attempting to avoid cameras. The guard who had been stunning Scar all day finally left without a single complaint which… rude. He's leaving the one, the only, Hermes and isn’t complaining? What a disrespectful man.
The moment the door shuts and locks the second guard rushes over to Scars cell, quickly dropping to the ground to start picking the lock.
“Oh my god! Look Red! A guard is breaking us out?! What a rebellious mysterious guard!” Scar exclaims, feigning surprise.
Red Winter rolls his eyes, though he can't hide the smirk spreading across his face.
“Oh shut up, Hermes.” The ‘guard’ spits at him as the door swings open.
“Ima need help with these too, Angel.”
“I told you to call me Arch Angel, people will and have started thinking we are dating because of your dumb nickname.” The man fake throws up before quickly moving to pick the lock on his cuffs.
“You’re so obsessed with sounding cool with your ArCh AnGeL name. It’s so long to say and I am not going to call you Arch.” Hermes whines as the cuffs fall to the ground.
“Too bad it’s Arch or Arch Angel. No in between.” He states before going over to Red’s cell and repeating the process of unlocking the door then the cuffs.
Arch Angel pulls a mask out of his pocket, not his normal mask but that would have been bad to have been caught with that if he was stopped by another guard. He quickly puts on the mask, takes off his hat and his stolen guard jacket, allowing his golden wings to stretch.
“Okay, it’s very possible alarms go off when we step out that door and the layout of the prison is different. You two need to follow me or you will get lost. Understand Hermes?” He glares and the taller as he grabs the handle.
Arch Angel earns a huff and a muttered, “Yeah whatever… sure.”
“Good.” He grins and opens the door.
As if he was a fortune teller, alarms quickly blared in his ears, an ambush had been set up once the security had been alerted of the broken into locker and missing ID.
Hermes sighs and cracks his knuckles, “do we have time to grab our weapons or do we wanna just pay Flame to make us new ones?”
“We might be able to come back later but our main priority is getting out right now.” Arch Angel offers some type of compromise, earning a smile and a nod.
Hermes and Red leave the room first, seeing as they have more muscle and offensive power than Arch Angel does. The avian was more of the defensive planning type, the other two liked to fight with all the money in the pot.
“We hear alarms, Arch, should we come in or is it under control?” A crackle comes through his Walkie Talkie and he quickly responds,
“We are good for now, alarms and lockdown but no visible guards yet.” Arch slots it back in his pocket as he follows the two villains with caution.
“Copy.”
Hermes pauses at a door, turning back to look at the two men behind him. A silent warning to be ready for a fight. Red nods and Arch Angel puts a thumbs up.
Rather than being a calm and discreet person, Hermes opts for kicking down the door and putting all the attention on the group of villains currently leaving prison.
Arch Angel sighs as all eyes turn on them. Guns are quickly drawn and commands are yelled at the three, the same words had been repeated to them so many times that they didn’t even sound like English anymore. Arch Angel quickly pressed on his Walkie, hoping that Lizzie hearing the sound of the guards would signal her and Martyn to come help.
Hermes and Arch Angel made eye contact before Hermes quickly abandoned the other two in the ring of cops, running out of the room followed by a group of guards.
Splitting up was the best shot for them to not all get arrested if it went to shit. If Scar was arrested, the two could go help, and vice versa. Arch Angel passed a dagger to Red Winter who took it with glee.
Phantom and The Ocean Queen quickly joined them in the room. Phantom disappears through the same door that Hermes had, seemingly going to help out the villain. Ocean Queen joined Arch Angel and Red Winter, her trident was unnecessary in this fight, so she came in with an axe for Red Winter, swapping weapons with him mid fight.
A part of each member of the group feels bad for the police they decimated. They shouldn’t be the ones forced to deal with Super Villains. That's the heroes’ jobs. A group of around fifteen cops could not stand a chance against five top rank villains. Though most villains had declared that if a cop or civilian had no chance of fighting back or hurting them, they wouldn’t kill them. A simple courtesy that could easily be switched if need be.
The villains walked out the building without a single cut or bruise. News helicopters circled the building though not a single hero had been able to get to the jail in time to stop the group. Red Winter and Phantom departed from The Bamboozlers. They thanked them for all of their help, agreeing that, though they hated it, they were in debt to the group.
Grian groans as he drops his bag onto his couch, his jacket following soon after. The sun had set on his way home, casting darkness into his apartment. He had to grab groceries on the way home and god did his feet hurt. That was the only downside to his job. He had to stand. All. God. Damn. Day. He kicks off his sneakers and flicks on the lights in his living room, allowing his wings to stretch behind him. They were messy and uncomfortable after being morphed into his back all day. He grabs the remote to his TV, turning it on for background noise as he makes himself dinner. Though before he could make his way to the kitchen the text on screen caught his gaze.
“Nooo-“ He groans, running hands down his face.
“Prison Escape! Villains Hermes and Red Winter Escaped From Their Cells With the Help of The Ocean Queen, Phantom, and Arch Angel!”
He throws the remote on the couch, pulling out his phone.
Big G > Dumbo 9:38 P.M.
“Yo, wanna come over and drink?”
Dumbo > Big G 9:40 P.M.
“Sure, I’ll be over in 15.”
Grian smiles and pockets his phone. At least he could get wasted tonight and not need to think about the fact he is going to have to talk to people at work tomorrow.
Grian walks into the kitchen and opens his fridge, the ugly white light illuminates the dark room, though he doesn’t care enough to walk across the room to change the fact.
He puts away the food he had just picked up before making himself a cup of tea while his chicken nuggets cooked.
He sighs and jumps up onto his counter, sitting cross legged while watching the oven cook his food.
A blinding light flashes in his eyes and he jerks back, almost dropping his hot tea on himself as he flinches back, eyes instinctively closing at the light attacking him.
He rubs his eyes and quickly opens them again. The lights were on? His head snaps in the direction of the light switch, his wings morphing out of sight into tattoos on his back, he finds himself face to face with Hermes.
“oH F-“ his cup falls from his hand and shatters on the floor, hot tea burning his hand from where he had spilled it before dropping it, a hand clamps over his mouth.
Grian’s eyes widen and his jaw clenches. How was Hermes? The Hermes. In his apartment right now?
“So vulgar and loud, quite different compared to how quiet you were when you were watching me, Grian.”
He can feel his blood go cold, his burn wound suddenly painless as he thinks about how this could be how he dies.
Grian doesn’t respond, obviously, due to the hand on his mouth. But even if he could speak, his mouth was dry and his tongue was lead.
“Now Grian, I’m not here to kill you despite what you might think.” Hermes' eyes squint, seemingly smirking from what Grian could tell, his mask hiding his mouth so any expression was truly a guess.
The hand is slowly removed from Grian’s mouth, the villain seemed to expect some kind of retort or at least a whimper or cry. All that he earned was staring. A very deep stare, soon becoming uncomfortable as he felt eyes boring into his own, it felt like his soul was being read. It was disgusting.
Hermes steps back slightly, looking the guard up and down, waiting for him to either talk or move.
Grian swallows and finally breaks his eye contact, the door to his apartment was closed but unlocked, he could bolt and attempt to escape before Hermes could reach him. It would be better to be caught trying to run than just cower and die in a corner.
Grian takes a deep breath before bolting towards the door. Hermes sighs and grabs his wrist, tugging the smaller man back and shoving him against the counter, maybe.. possibly….. definitely bruising a rib or two on the guard.
The guard chokes on the air escaping his lungs from the force of the push, leaving him gasping for air. Hermes pins one of his wrists to the counter, leaning down into the man's face.
“Grian… you’re smart, did you truly think you could escape me?”
The guard's eyes flutter open as he attempts to slow his breathing, quickly attempting to lean further away from the villain once he notices the proximity.
“What…” he swallows, his breathing slowing slightly, though his heartbeat seemed like it would stay eternally fast. “What do you want from me?” He attempts to sound demanding, or at the very least not scared, but his words come out more as a plea, a whine at worst.
“I have a single question for you.” Hermes smirks (from what Grian could tell) again.
“Shoot………. But not literally.” He mutters, nervous but still attempting to feign calmness.
Hermes laughs at the small retort and the sight of the guard cowering.
“How did you not fall under my command, dear?” Hermes tilts his head, digging his nails into the shorter wrist.
Grian winces and scratches his nails at his counter behind him.
“I don't know what yo-“ Grian was interrupted by a series of knocks on his door.
Mumbo.
Mumbo is here. Panic raced through Grian’s mind, his head whipping up to look at the villain whose attention was now focused on the door.
Herme’s eyes narrow and he takes a step away from Grian, letting go of his wrist.
“Go answer the door, Grian.” The villain commands.
Grian shakes his head, fear filling his eyes, his whole body trembling.
“Go, Grian.”
He sniffles and stumbles towards the door, his hands shaking as he turns the doorknob.
“Hey, G!”
“Mumbo! H-hey- uhm maybe come back some other time!” Grian sniffles, tears in his eyes.
Mumbo may be bad at social skills but he knows what distress looks like.
“G? What's wrong?” Mumbo’s demeanor immediately changes, concerning filling his face.
Grian glances behind him, expecting to see a deadly and calculating stare, planning his death. But he finds his empty apartment.
“I… wait what?” He mumbles and steps away from the door, giving Mumbo enough space to shove himself inside the apartment.
”Do you need a nap bud? Should you be drinking right now? Or have you already been drinking?” Mumbo speculates as Grian rushes back to the kitchen, looking for any sign of the villain. The only proof of the previous event was the nail marks in his wrist, burns on his hand, bruises now forming on his abdomen and the shattered glass on his floor.
Mumbo appears behind him, “Damn G, what the heck happened before I got here?”
Grian walks slowly over to the couch, a plate of nuggets in his hand, Mumbo following after him.
“Wait?! What!?! Hermes was here?! When I knocked?!“
Grian nods, sinking into his couch, rubbing at the mark on his wrist. A cold compress wrapped in a towel held on his abdomen by his other hand.
“Yeah… he was askin‘ me something about ‘falling under his command’?” Grian shrugs, sure his hands would perpetually be shaking for the rest of his short life seeing as he’d probably die tomorrow from Hermes coming to murder him.
“Well yeah obviously!”
“Huh?” Grian tilts his head in confusion.
“Well he has his weird flirty voice that makes people do things for him! Maybe it didn’t work on you when you were guarding him?”
“How do you know so much about a guy you’ve never met?” Grian raises an eyebrow accusingly, making fun of the man.
“Shut up, you know me.” Mumbo huffs and crosses his arms.
Grian rolls his eyes, “well in any case, I never talked to him. I have my earbuds in all shifts everyday.”
Mumbo frowns, stumped. “Damn… you guys never talked? Even over the week of you guarding him?”
“One. It was less than a week. And two. No! Of course I didn't talk to one of the most wanted villains! Why would I ever respond to him?!”
“You’re allowed to have your headphones in all day? What if they were plotting right behind your back!?” Mumbo accused.
“Well they’d be dumb to do so.” He huffed, taking a bite of one of his nuggets.
“Wait. You couldn’t hear them... So what if he did talk to you?” Mumbo raises an eyebrow.
“Excuse me?”
“Scar, will you shut up?” Jimmy huffs and takes a bite of his food.
“Wha- Jim! That's so mean!” Scar grabs his chest, acting as if he was physically hurt from the man's jibe.
“You’ve been talking about this ‘Grian’ for the past two days! Starting to sound like a crush, right Liz?” Jimmy smirks and elbows the woman, earning a chuckle and a nod.
“Excuse me?! It is not a crush! I’m just so.. Confused.” Scar mutters and huffs.
“If I’m not allowed to talk about Tango and Lizzie isn’t allowed to talk about Joel, then you can’t talk about Grian.”
“What’d you say about Joel?” Lizzie perks up, finally tuning into the conversation.
Scar crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. “The difference is that I don’t have a crush on him.”
“But I don’t have one on Tango and you still won’t let me talk about him!” Jimmy argues back, his voice seeming to raise an octave as he gets more annoyed with Scar’s persistence.
“Then I don’t have a crush on Grian.”
Jimmy frowns and crosses his arms, glaring at his teammate, receiving a shrug.
“I truly hate you.”
“Don’t worry Jim, I know.” Scar smiles and stands up, placing his plate in the sink before walking over to Jimmy and flicking his forehead. “You’re so stubborn sometimes.”
“Oi!” Jimmy swats his hand away a second too late, his forehead stinging slightly from the hit.
Lizzie laughs and places her plate in the sink as well. “What are you guys up to tonight?”
Scar shrugs, “I was going to interrogate Grian but I don’t want to get there and run into his friend again.”
Jimmy shakes his head, “I’ve got nothing to do.”
“Great!” Lizzie grins and takes both of the men’s arms, dragging them to the couch and forcing them to sit as she picks up the remote. “I’ve just spent an entire week trying to get your ass out of prison, so now you have to watch a movie with me.”
“I wasn’t in prison!” Jimmy protests.
“You are a constant burden to me Jimmy, you will forever be in debt to me.” Lizzie’s face becomes a hard stare, daring Jimmy to protest.
“But-”
“Forever Jimmy.”
“....Okay.”
“Great!” Lizzie’s smile returns.