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Squiddo did not expect for her night to go like this.
One second she was cleaning the counters of the coffee shop she worked at before closing up, and the next she's helping an actual supervillain into the backroom of said coffee shop.
Okay, they should probably give context to that.
Squiddo was just minding their business cleaning the coffee shop before closing. It was a few minutes after midnight and no one else seemed to be coming in, so they took that as their cue to start cleaning counters and sweeping and mopping the floor quickly, already wanting to go home and pass out.
It was when she was cleaning one of the booths tables that she heard someone enter the shop thanks to the ear deafening bell they had over the front door to alert the cashier of someone entering.
"We're closed!" She called out, focusing on getting this one stain out of the damned table. What even was that?
Instead of getting a simple 'Oh, okay!' or 'just take my order really quickly!' they got a nightmare inducing: "I'm not here for fucking coffee." Which. Oh! That's horrifying! She expected to turn around and see someone masked and holding a gun at her, asking for the money at the cash register or else they'd shoot but rather than that she still had a masked person, it's just that they looked like they were the victim of being shot.
"Oh." Squiddo said dumbly, watching as the figure swayed slightly, their two hands covering whatever wound they had in there left lower abdomen.
It was then she realized this was one of Essempi's top ten villains. Glitch. Which, totally very creative name, one of the best, really. By his name alone, you can kind of guess what his power is.
Glitch was one of the more laid back villains, but could definitely fuck up your shit if he wanted to. More of a fuck around and find out type of deal. So that didn't make him one of the top three, but he was up there. Squiddo just wasn't sure where.
His power was really labeled, just called 'glitch's power' since no one else had it besides him. He could basically give you some glitch fever shit that sucks, fuck up your ability to walk, shit that would make you horrible in combat with him. He could also open portals wherever he wanted, so that definitely would've placed him a bit higher on the danger level if it wasn't for the fact he doesn't really attack anyone unless he had a good reason to.
But here he is, in the coffee shop Squiddo worked at, gloved hands pressed over a bleeding wound that was dripping onto the floor.
Goddamnit, Squiddo just cleaned that.
What does she do? There is a supervillain in front of her, bleeding out of a possibly fatal wound. Her job training didn't teach her what to do in this situation?
Do they let him bleed out? I mean, he is a villain, but..
"Look, I know you're really fuckin' confused but-" Glitch stopped to hiss in pain, and Squiddo finally took in the amount of blood he was losing. "-but I.." He seemed to swallow his stubborness and pride. "I really need help. Like, a health potion or even a fucking towel." He finished lamely.
"Oh! Oh, okay, um.." It was too late to figure out your own moral code, all she knew was that he was hurt and she could either choose to let him bleed out and die or something, or help him. Help Glitch, a top ten villain.
"Crap. Okay, uh, come with me!" They were about to scurry off to the back before realizing that Glitch was barely even walking. "Um. Do you need help?" They asked, only to have a disgruntled noise as a response. "I'm gonna take that as a yes."
After helping him into the back and laying him down on some towels, they grabbed the first aid kit and set it down. First she would need to disinfect the wound and heal it enough to at least stop the bleeding. Now that Glitch had his shirt lifted up enough to see the wound, they could see that this could have definitely been a fatal wound. That was probably why he was trusting them so much. It was a death-death situation, so they guessed he at least was gonna try to get help.
They grabbed a wet towel to try and wipe away the blood that was still slowly streaming out the wound, it looked like it was made from some sort of blade, but to be fair Squiddo had never seen a blade wound this close before, so who was she to know?
"You do know what you're doing, right?" Glitch asked, and Squiddo hummed.
"I do, I do! I just gotta make sure that I know that the wound is clean, don't want you getting an infection." They mumbled, and Glitch made a weird noise.
Probably the pain, they guessed. Definitely not the fact that they seemed concerned about him, a villain, getting an infection.
After the would was cleaned up and checked to see if there were any debris left in it, Squiddo put her hands up against the wound, causing a started noise from Glitch. "What the fuck are you doing?" He whisper-yelled.
And before he got his answer her hands were fucking glowing.
Call Glitch Flynn fucking Rider the way he thought this bitch was Rapunzel.
"Holy shit?" Glitch said, baffled at how lucky he was.
Did Squiddo mention that she had healing powers? No? Well, she does.
It only took a minute or two until Squiddo felt the suicide contemplating headache begin to build in their brain. After a couple of seconds they couldn't help it and pulled away, their headache fading away in seconds, but exhauseted out of their mind.
They looked back at the wound and saw it was mostly healed, looked more of like a normal cut you would get, just.. larger.
Then they looked at Glitch, and they didn't need to look under his mask to know he had the most confused look on his face.
"What the fuck?" Now that Squiddo was more focused on his voice, they could hear the slight distortion of the voice changer.
"Sorry I didn't tell you, but I guess lucky you?" They shrugged, tilting their head.
"I'm so tired." Glitch groaned. "Yeah, me too." Squiddo hummed, grabbing some gause and helping Glitch sit up to wrap it around his stomach. "I could've used one of those big bandages, but were fresh out, so.. sorry about that. You wont believe how much people burn themselves here." Squiddo joked, trying to lighten the mood between her and a fucking supervillain. Surprisingly though, Glitch let out a chuckle. "It's alright."
It was silent for a couple of seconds, the only noise being the buzzing of the florescent lights above them, shining blinding light upon the supervillain and the barista kneeled on the cool tiled floor.
"Why did you help me?" Glitch suddenly asked as Squiddo pulled away after they finished bandaging him up.
"I mean, you asked for help and I did what I could." They mumbled back, but even they knew there was more questions to be asked.
"Yeah, but.. I'm literally a villain?" He sounds confused, and she doesn't really blame him. To be honest, she's confused as well. "I don't know. I just kind of.. did. But to be fair if I had really thought about it, I probably still would've helped you." Squiddo says with a soft laugh. Don't get her wrong, she's still super skeptical of this freaky villain guy and is still not one hundred percent convinced he won't murder her and her entire nonexistent family, but as of a few minutes ago this dude was bleeding out on the coffee shop's floor, so she isn't much worried about him attacking her right now. Healing takes a lot out of both the healer and person being healed. Plus, he sounds like he's genuinely confused as any person would be.
The reminder of him being a person seems to register in her brain, and now she's happy she saved him. She would've felt like shit if she hadn't. Even if he is a supervillain.
Glitch is staring at them, and they feel as if he's reading their entire life story just by looking into their eyes.
"Thank you. I owe you." And with that, Glitch slides his shirt back down and grimaces at the red staining his shirt. He gives one look back to Squiddo before leaving out the back of the coffee shop.
Squiddo smiles a bit, feeling the tiniest bit accomplished by helping somebody. Even if it was a supervillain in the back of a coffee shop she works at.
Then the painful reminder sets in that they have to mop again.
Goddamnit!