Even for villains, there were certain things you just didn't do. Things such as, the use of lethal force or threatening the lives of civilians. If you did that, you would be painting a target on your back. The heroes wouldn't try to arrest you anymore. They would try to kill you to stop you.

But these jackasses didn't care apparently. First, they tried to blow us up, and if I couldn't regenerate with my power, they would have succeeded. And now, they were taking a hostage. And threatening to blow her up.

"Alright. First. Why don't you release Mute, hair bitch?" The blond bomber sneered repulsively.

Threadmaker grit her teeth and clenched her fists as she swore under her breath. But she listened and let go of the villain. She had no choice.

"And you come down! Stupid flying chicken!" He then shouted at Phoenix.

My friend did as commanded and landed next to me and Threadmaker as I rose up to my two feet. Prism wasn't present. At some point, he went on to search the rest of the building for the bomber. Well, that was pointless now. The bomber was right here.

"Where's the last one?! That disco ball fucker?!" The scaled sound controlled shouted.

"No idea." Threadmaker spat back.

The bald man frowned and walked right into her face before speaking. "Well, why don't you call him and tell him to come the fuck back so he can't ambush us, hmm?"

"Tch." The hair themed hero reached into her pocket through the air and pulled out a phone, before dialing and holding the phone next to her ear.

"And while we are at this, why don't we make sure you kids don't get any ideas?" He motioned to his terrorist buddy.

And then I felt something on my neck. A fly landed there. One of his flies, I presumed. And from the expressions on the other two girls' faces, they must have gotten the same treatment. Now they were taking us hostages? This was getting worse and worse by the second.

"Hey. Prism. The bomber is here. Hid among the civilians. They took a hostage. Threatening to blow her up. Yeah. They want you to come back." She paused then. I didn't quite hear what the other side was saying. "Yeah. See you." She hung up and put the phone back. "There. Happy?"

And then a punch. Straight into her face. She grunted and fell to the ground, holding her lower jaw.

"No. Now I'm happy." Then the Liz hybrid turned to me and gave me a combination of a death glare and a nervous glance. "And you f-fucking bitch." He then raised his gun and aimed it right into my face. "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have to do this!" His voice almost panicked.

Even as he did his nervous villain talk, my brain went into overdrive. They still had the hostage. I couldn't blatantly dodge the shot. They might just decide to blow her up if I did. But I obviously didn't want to die. I could probably reinforce my face and survive the shot, but if it looked like I survived, then again, the hostage might be in danger. So playing dead it was.

There was still one aspect of my powers that I haven't fully explored yet. Even though it was one of the first things I did when I got my powers. Making my liver spin. Or more generally, moving my internal organs. Once again, testing something like that in the middle of a villain encounter was really, really dumb. But I felt like I had no choice.

And so, I did what I had to. I moved the majority of my brain to the back of my head and created a thick shield out of lead. The same lead the villain let me analyze by shooting me. I did all of that and left the front of my head squishy and easily penetrable by a bullet. Honestly, it made me dizzy. My sense of balance seemed off for a moment, and I felt my left foot move involuntarily. But somehow, I managed it. I moved my freaking brain without blacking out.

And then, without any sound to speak of, I got shot. Right between my eyes. I felt the bullet enter my skull and hit the protective layer I created. It bent, almost squished the brain behind it, but held.

I didn't even have to make it into a show. My brain getting squished made me momentarily black out and I lost my footing before spinning and falling to the ground face first. I let the blood flow out of my forehead and retracted the roots, just to make it seem like my power was no longer active.

"IIIINK!" The horrified scream resounded from my best friend. Threadmaker and the civilians joined her.

"Fucking creepy-ass bitch." The villain said, his voice cracking at the end for some reason.

But it wasn't quite over. My best friend was breathing heavily. I could only imagine her expression since I was facing the floor, but it must not have been pretty. I felt the air heating up. Her power was getting out of control. Or maybe, she was willingly letting it get out of control.

"Stop that right fucking now, or you'll get the same treatment!" The villain shouted.

I couldn't see her reaction, but the heat was letting up, although her breathing hasn't gotten any lighter.

"Do hwu phuckews weawize what hwu haf dun?!" That was the other hero present with us. It seemed that her jaw was dislocated or something. "When hwu ge' kawt, it wo be jus pwizn foh hwu enimoh!"

And she was right. It wouldn't just be prison anymore, it would be an execution when they got caught. Well, sure, I was still alive, they didn't kill me. But they have clearly shown they don't shy away from using lethal force. And that was more often than not enough for the authorities to put someone on the kill list.

"Shut the hell up!"

I heard a yelp and the sound of an impact, and then the noise of someone falling to the ground. I could only guess he just kicked the already downed hair heroine.

"Where the fuck is the last one?! Did you even call him?!"

Somehow, it felt like he was getting impatient. Possibly because the other heroes were already informed by civilians outside the bank and on their way here. Backup was on its way. They wanted to finish their business and escape. Although, this 'business' must have been robbing the bank. Why weren't they doing that already?

"Mute, let's just get out of here. Cut our losses." Said the bomber.

"Fuck you! We came here for something! And now we're just gonna run with our tail between our legs?! Draconic and Minotaur are still knocked out thanks to that bitch!"

"Whatever! Fuck 'em! Let's go before other heroes arrive!"

"The heroes are nothing! We even have some as hostages!"

"Goddammit Mute! I'm telling you this is a terrible idea!" I could hear him walk towards us.

An internal conflict. Good. So even though they had the upper hand, they were panicking, falling into disarray. The sound guy even forgot to mute their argument up until this point. Well, the bickering gave me time to think about how to salvage this situation.

The main problem was the bomber of course. He was probably detonating the bugs with a mental prompt. That meant we had to knock him out. If we did that, we would win.

If he was getting closer, I could shoot out and send him into the dreamland faster than he could detonate anyone, but I couldn't hear anymore. Only mild vibration in the air and from the floor. And there was no way I could locate him using those. And obviously, I couldn't look without giving away my act.

So, I simply waited. Waited for the right moment. Like a predator hiding in the bushes stalking its prey. Except that I wasn't exactly stalking anyone, and I wasn't in the bushes.

It took a while. I kept intently listening to the ambient vibrations from what sounded like the two men arguing. And then finally, I felt the ground near me shake ever so slightly. Right behind me. Someone must have walked there. Exactly how far from me this person was, or who it was, I had no idea. If it was the bomber, I could turn it all around. If it was the other man, attacking him would doom us all.

So I waited some more. Until the person in question decided to do something. He kicked my side, making me roll over on my back. I had my eyes closed, so I still couldn't tell who it was. If I opened them, the cat was out of the bag. And if I couldn't disable the bomber quick enough, there would be casualties.

But on the other hand, I could feel two distinct points of origin of these vibrations. Two people talking, I assumed. And both of them were close to me. Very close. So that was it. I just needed to open my eyes, identify my target, and knock the wind out of him before anyone could react.

It was risky. So freaking risky. But I felt it was even riskier if I let them do as they pleased. Maybe they would end up killing others or taking them hostages. Flare, Threadmaker. Sure, I didn't really like the heroine since she was so rude, but letting her die would have been too much.

And so, I acted. At last. My eyes shot open and quickly scanned over my surroundings. Threadmaker crumpled on the floor, still holding her jaw. Phoenix similarly on the lying ground, shaking. Prism was kneeling down, hands on the ground. To my right, Mute. And to my left.

My target.

I shot out as quickly as I could while covering myself with roots again. Made a single step and already wound up my fist, turning it into the same heavy stuff I used against the axe man, Minotaur I think they called him. And while the bomber didn't seem as durable as him, I didn't even care if he survived the hit.

Similarly to Minotaur's axe, my fist caused a shockwave in the air as it traveled. But it hit the mark. His stomach caved in. I felt something splatter inside of him. I didn't care. His eyes rolled back as something gross escaped his mouth and he flew back.

"What the f-"

I didn't let the last villain finish the sentence. I spun, my foot flew through the air and impacted the armed hand. I felt it crunch, I must have broken his wrist. I didn't care. I continued, using the momentum from my spin, and landed the same heavy fist into his stomach. Even though his enhanced durability as a Liz hybrid, it knocked him out. He fell down to the ground with a thud and ceased to move.

All of the villains were unconscious. None of them were moving anymore. We. Won.

"I-ink?! Ink! You're alive! Oh my god!" I heard my best friend from behind me.

As I turned around, I got squeezed into a hug. I returned it, of course. I was glad it was over. And even more glad she wasn't harmed. Although, I had to revise my opinion a bit when she pulled herself out of the hug and looked at me. She had a black eye. Those fuckers punched her in the face.

"I thought you were dead! Don't do this to me ever again!" She shouted at me.

"Just playing dead. It turned out okay, didn't it?"

"I was about to burn everything down! Please don't make me think you are dead anymore!"

"Yeah. I. Sorry. I won't."

We hugged again. She began crying.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Prism helping his partner off the ground. She also got punched pretty hard. But, as with everyone else, still alive.

"God damn. Good job, uhh, Ink. I think you just saved all our asses." The glittering hero complimented.

I answered with a silent nod. We slowly separated from the hug with Flare as she wiped her teary eyes.

"But seriously, how did you survive being shot in the head? You might just be the most impressive regenerator I know."

I thought about what to say. "Well, I." But didn't even get to finish.

The front entrance of the bank burst open and people rushed in. Heroes.

One of them launched himself straight at me. Holding his lance in my direction. I went to dodge it to the side, but at the last moment, something odd happened and I was sent rocketing upwards for some reason. All while Flare screamed and was thrown back. The hero in question, Rook, was no longer moving. Dead stop. That was his power. Transfer of momentum. Though I had no idea where he got this much upward momentum from.

I spun in the air and prepared for the follow-up. That came from the familiar winged woman clad in armor wielding a sword and shield. Her sword glowed bright white as she stabbed it towards me and then exploded in dazzling light.

I had no way to dodge in midair. The white flame burnt me and sent me crashing back down. But I was already repairing all the burns before even meeting the ground. I landed right next to my teammate.

I stood up on all fours once again and glared at them. Rook and Bloom on the ground, Valkyrie up in the air. My brain was already formulating ways to fight all of them.

"Wait stop! They are on our side!"

Luckily, I didn't have to. Prism stood between me and the newcomers, defending us.

"What? Are you sure?" The Neo Warden captain looked at me disbelievingly, not dropping his battle stance.

"Yeah! They basically saved our asses!" The young hero kept shouting at his superior, all while the heroine he was still supporting nodded her head.

"I. See. I apologize for that. I jumped to conclusions." The man awkwardly put his lance down. Somehow, his apology seemed dry.

"It's fine." I answered as I walked to Phoenix and helped her stand while standing up myself. She grumbled something under her breath while tossing an evil eye at the armored man but nothing loud enough for him to hear. I also noticed that her black eye has healed already. She had her beautiful face back.

"Wait. I recognize you. Ink, right?" Valkyrie said as she landed next to her colleague.

"Yeah. Hi."

"Greetings." She nodded. "I apologize for attacking you. You. Um. Didn't really look friendly."

Yeah. Go on. Say that I look like some eldritch horror. I dare you.

"By the way. Why are you naked?" She posed a very good question, trying to avoid staring at me. That also made my friend next to me look. Her expression turned into something that basically said 'Oh yeah, she is naked'.

"A bomb. It all burned." I replied flatly.

"I. See? Are you alright?" She asked, a little pensive.

"I'm fine. Got shot in the head too." I pointed at the spot between my eyes that I already healed.

"You, what?" She seemed stunned.

"She's like a high tier regenerator. We all thought she was dead." Prism helpfully supplied.

"Right. Well, I'm glad everyone is still alive." Rook said and then looked around at the defeated villains. "Are they still alive?"

"Don't know." I pointed at the bomber "He might not be. Had to make sure. Or he would blow us up."

The hero captain frowned as he looked at the offender. "So they did have an extra member who was the bomber. I bet he was hiding while the rest were a distraction huh?"

"Pretended to be a civilian." I confirmed.

He nodded grimly and then turned to his companions. "Alright, call Lullaby." He prompted his winged colleague next to him. "And you tie up the villains." He nodded to the green-skinned plant manipulator.

After tasking his teammates, he turned to me and Flare again.

"Once again, sorry for attacking you. And thank you for saving two of ours."

"No problem! Well, Ink did most of the work, really." My friend finally quipped, taking over the conversation.

"I see. By the way, what's should I call you, miss?"

"I'm Phoenix! You know, like the one from the legends of the old world."

"Phoenix. Nice to meet you Phoenix. I'm Rook, the captain of Neo Wardens. You probably already know that though." He smiled and extended his hand.

"Of course I know you!" She shook his hand with a gleeful smile.

"And you too Ink. Nice to meet you." His hand extended to me as well. But for some reason, it was shaking now.

I frowned for a second before extending my hand. I retracted the roots from just my hand and shook it. He seemed to relax a bit as I did that.

"So, I have to ask. It doesn't often happen that civilians help out heroes. Even if they are hybrids as well. Are you planning on being heroes? Will you be joining the Neo Wardens?"

"Heroes? Yes! But we won't be joining. At least not for now." She nodded to me. "We were thinking about being an independent team."

"An independent hero team." The armored man frowned. "I don't think that's a very good idea. Independents are often targeted by Dragon Maw. Forced into joining them."

"Rainbow." Phoenix shot back.

"Rainbow is a special case." He shook his head slightly. "I would like to see an idiot who would try to poach her." He finished with a snort.

"Well, good point. But still, we would prefer to be independent if possible." She glanced at me, I answered with a nod.

"I see. I'll respect your decision. Just remember we will always welcome you among us if you change your mind."

"Sure. Thanks for the offer."

"So, for the time being, what should we call your team?"

My companion grinned. It was almost as if she was waiting for this question all along.

"We are team BlackBird!" She spread her fiery wings as she proudly put her hands on her hips.

We went through a lot of names. Dumb ones like Cat and Canary and a bit cringy ones like Burning shadow. But settled on either Ashen champions or team Blackbird. The latter won in the end.

"Ah, by the way, we haven't finished our costumes yet. This just kind of happened when we were nearby, and so we decided to help."

"I see." The Neo Wardens captain briefly glanced at me, before looking back at Phoenix. "Haven't finished your costumes."

Yeah, I knew very well what he was trying to point at. And no, I wouldn't be going around naked. Even though it was hard to tell I wasn't wearing anything right now with all the blackness in the way.

"Well, good luck to you then. And like I said, the Neo Wardens are always open for new recruits." He nodded to us and then turned around, but then seemed to remember something. "Ah right. Would you mind giving us a statement on what happened here?"

"Uhh, sure?"

"Can I get. Clothes? First?" I interrupted the two.

If I was going to get interrogated, I wanted to be wearing something.

"Of course. I didn't mean right away. You can come to the northern HQ later and give the statement there."

"Alright. We'll be there."

A nod. "See you later then."

We watched as the armored hero walked back to his teammates and the restrained villains. Then slowly turned to face each other. I cleared my face of the roots and only left two heart shapes on my cheeks.

She understood right away. "Of course. Let's get back to your place, shall we?"

I nodded back.

She took flight and I dropped down to all fours again. We rushed past the heroes and out of the bank at last. The perimeter was already secured by the police and there seemed to be a crowd gathering beyond the barriers. Including some very enthusiastic people with cameras and microphones. When one of the women holding a microphone noticed me, she stiffened for some reason. I gracefully ignored her reaction.

"Oh, it's blocked. Let's fly?" She asked me. I nodded and she scooped me up in her arms again.

I wondered what it must have looked like to the onlookers. A Rega hybrid with flaming wings carrying something very black. She burnt someone and now she was going to hide the body? Hah.

Anyway, we landed back in the alleyway where we stashed our bags. Luckily for us, everything was still there. Unluckily for us, we have been seen landing here, so we had to hurry.

I pulled a hoodie and shorts out of my bag, the ones I wanted to try turning into my costume, and changed into them. Flare finally removed her mask and stashed it away before we both turned into regular citizens without wings or cat ears and exited the alleyway through the other end. There were some yells behind us, but we ignored it and set course for my home once again.

But we didn't get very far. Now, that I was out of hybrid form, everything caught up to me. My head spun, and I felt like vomiting. My legs crumpled beneath me and I hugged myself as tears stream down my face.

"Ch-chris?!" My friend looked at me in panic.

"I. I almost died. Twice." A sob. "What the fuuck..." I whined to myself.

My friend in turn knelt down and hugged me. "It's okay. You're okay. We're both okay." The hair stroking felt especially nice.

 

---

 

Back at my home, we sat around in the kitchen. It took me a while to calm down from that entire ordeal. As I expected, Flare took it in stride. And, well, the hybrid version of me also did. But the real me was on a verge of a panic attack. Seriously, I got shot in the head! And I even nonchalantly declared it myself!

"Hey... are you alright?"

I sighed. "Yeah. Just. This was quite extreme. Exciting? Sure, yeah. But also horrifying."

"If it's too much for you." She smiled wryly. "You don't need to do this anymore."

"No! I!" I stopped for a second. "I do want to continue. It's just. This was a bit more than I expected for our first hero outing. I need some time to take it in, I think."

Before that, I faced common thugs. Not a problem. Then, I faced Black Rose. Also not a big deal since he wasn't trying to kill me, just knock me out. But these ones were basically terrorists. Murderers. The worst of the worst. It was too big of a leap.

Well, on the bright side, at least I didn't get a panic attack during the fight. That would have ended very badly.

"Alright then." She smiled. "Do we still want to go to the mall then?"

"I." I thought about it before continuing. "I think I'm gonna make us something for lunch, and then we go and give that statement like they wanted. We can go to the mall later."

"Alright! Sure! Your cooking is always the best!" She grinned.

"Heh. Compliments won't get you anywhere." I forced a smile.

I decided to make a simple risotto. I washed the rice and stuffed it into the rice cooker, cleaned the vegetables, and chopped them up, and began cooking the meat. All of it was automatic, while my mind focused on going over what happened today.

I still haven't calmed down completely from the heart attack that was our adventure, but I could at least think back on it and not completely freak out. Though I still shuddered when I remembered certain parts.

I leaned on the kitchen counter, closed my eyes, and slowly breathed in and out while I waited. A simple relaxation exercise. By the time the meat was tender and the rice cooker informed me it has finished, I was past the point of a freakout and more thought about all the dumb mistakes I made and what I could have done better to prevent it from almost going horribly wrong.

With our lunch done, I served two plates and put them on the table. Flare seemed to have been focused on her phone while I did the cooking.

"Hey. Chris?"

"Yeah?" I said, burying my spoon into the dish.

"There's already a thread about us on the forums."

I froze. "Uhh. Yeah?"

"They are calling me fire chicken and you are eldritch horror from nightmares."

I slumped down into my chair with a heavy sigh. Again. I was apparently never going to get rid of that nickname.

"Even Prism posted on there! He described you as 'super creepy, but totally saved our asses'!"

Of course, he would.

"Should we reply? Defend ourselves?"

"Huh. Actually, why not?" I realized that I also could have also simply replied to yesterday's slander. "But we gotta create new accounts. For our hero selves."

"Oh, right. Hmm. I wonder if Phoenix is taken?" A few taps later, she continued. "Ugh, it is. How aboooout BlackBirdPhoenix?" More taps. "Oh, that one is free! Good. Are you gonna be BlackBirdInk?" She looked at me.

"I guess? Ink alone would have been too short anyway." I pulled out my own phone and found the forums.

Luckily, BlackBirdInk also wasn't taken, so I took the liberty to register with it.

We mixed our lunch eating with posting to the forums. At some point, we took pictures of ourselves and uploaded them to the accounts just to confirm our identity after some people began doubting us. At least we had neat profile pictures now.

As we finished lunch, which took twice as long to finish because of our ongoing efforts online, we headed out once again. This time, to the northern Neo Wardens HQ to give our statement.