Chapter Text
"Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer."
"Do you know why you're here?"
A fight. A thrilling one, at that. Fights with this villain in particular were always especially fun, he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the taunting remarks they threw back and forth between each other, or the way in which Decay would unnecessarily (and quite obnoxiously) try to showcase the ways in which he was able to flip and parkour around the surrounding buildings that always happened to be their battlefield. Angel knew the fights weren't supposed to be fun, they were just his job as a hero. And yet, he always found some excitement in his work.
"What, you want to copywrite your name? Are you upset I stole it and wore it better?" The hero joked, a small smirk on his face. He could tell there was a one-way mirror on the wall despite the room being shrouded in darkness, save for the dim lightbulb hanging above his head.
Clearly, the villain in front of him didn't find the quip humorous. He almost wished Decay was on the other side of the mirror so that someone with a little sense could have a small laugh, but alas, all that Angel could hear from the chair he was stuck in was silence. The Angel of Death was silent as well, making it impossible to actually gauge his full response, as the man's face was hidden under a dark veil and a mask. After a moment, he responded, voice monotone. "I don't mind your unoriginal name, actually. I mean, I guess it just shows you have good taste. Could've at least tried to be creative.." He shook his head, realizing he was getting carried away. "But no. This isn't about me. And you know that."
He had been backed into an alleyway, Decay guarding the entrance. There wasn't enough space for Angel to spread out his wings and fly out of the situation, and he could tell that Decay knew that. So, he pulled out the two golden discs that lay on his belt and prepared for a more intense fight. A simple button press allowed for over half of each disc to have sharp blades protrude from them. It served as a threat, but one that Decay unsurprisingly didn't shy away from. Angel charged first, looking to get out of the inconvenient area and level the playing field, but Decay read him like a book and easily defended himself from the attack and pushed Angel back, not receiving even so much as a scratch. As Angel stood up again to look for a new pathway or strategy, Decay decided it was his turn to attack. He pulled out his own weapon, a crowbar, and threw it straight at Angel's face with no remorse. Angel had.. technically dodged, as it didn't actually hit his head, but..
His arm was definitely bruised, and the ropes tied around his limbs were pushing up against the injury, which was more than annoying. He didn't intend on staying long, though. The agency was most definitely aware that he'd been taken, and this little spot didn't seem like it'd be too hard to find. Plus, the ropes were tied a bit loose. Maybe if he shifted his wrists a certain way...
"You want me to apologize, or what, mamahuevo?"
Suddenly, the door behind the Angel of Death swung open, revealing Totem. The man's stature was much larger in comparison to his fellow villain, though the height difference was small. Totem mostly dawned golden gear with green accents, wanting to be seen whenever he was on the battlefield. It made him stand out from his teammates who seemed to prefer darker, more drab colors. They did all keep one thing in common though, which were the gas masks they used to hide their faces. Each mask was personalized, but aesthetically, they all worked together surprisingly well. Angel would be lying if he said he wasn’t sometimes envious of their annoyingly great sense of style.
The villains shared a look with each other as Totem took a few steps into the room. "You're taking too long. Predator and Decay are getting bored already."
"Are you kidding- He just woke up, what do they expect-"
"They expect to get at least something. You're just- They've waited a while for him to properly wake up, and now you're taking your sweet time asking questions-"
"Leave me alone, I know how to do my job. Done it longer than any of you. Just tell 'em to fuck off if they can't handle it."
Totem sighed, looking to contemplate arguing any further, then walking out the room. Before he managed to close the door behind him, though, both previously mentioned villains--Predator and Decay--rushed into the room. Totem didn't move to stop them, but he did look disappointed in them based on his body language. Which.. was fair, Angel supposed.
Angel watched in amusement as Predator crossed his arms over his chest and began muttering something angrily to Death.
Angel let out a yelp as the crowbar hit his arm, recoiling and reflexively moving to feel at the injury. That would hurt a lot later, huh?
"Cabrón! Fuck you!" He yelled, as his opponent continued to walk toward him. Angel swiftly recollected himself, more prepared for an attack this time.
"Quite the mouth for a self-proclaimed angel," Decay chuckled.
Angel took the time Decay had so foolishly given him to throw a disk at the villain, unable to see if it hit or not as he made a break for it. He ran to the end of the alleyway, but quickly stopped in his tracks as he came to be face to face with Totem.
"Not so fast, buddy."
Ah. That's why Decay had been approaching so slowly. He had backup now.
Decay, as he entered the room, went straight to Angel and brought a knife to his throat without hesitation.
"Oh. Wow. Always straight to the point with you, eh?" Angel remarked, eyebrows raised as he examined the sharp metal looming inches away, threatening to spill his blood.
"I saw you trying to mess around with the ropes, and I wouldn't recommend any extra movement," he whispered, cold breath reaching Angel's face through the.. seemingly quite ineffective mask.
The hero scrunched up his nose. "Damn, your breath is freezing. What were you eating before this, ice?"
God, he couldn't take anything seriously, could he?
Decay faltered for a moment, grip loosening on the dagger. "I-" he stopped for a moment, looking behind him to see his arguing friends next to a now empty doorway--Totem had long since left. "..Yeah..?"
Angel snorted. "You eat ice?" He asked, slightly dumbfounded, but mostly just trying to stall.
"Bitch, eating ice is fun as hell!" Decay was quick to defend his point, before recognizing the simple trick. "Oh, fuck you, whatever- I don't need your approval to do shit. What I do need, however.." he started, having had recollected himself and turned cold as he lifted up his blade once more and pushed the chair onto it's two hind legs, "is at least a little bit of info. You actually have some good options here. We wouldn't mind a warehouse location, maybe a plan or two, or if you're feeling up to it, and like leaving sooner-"
"I'm actually in a very bad mood today. I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.." Angel paused for a moment for effect, then pretended to have the realization dawn on him. "Ohh, maybe it's just the attack on my life, kidnapping, and the ugly bitch with a knife to my throat. That could be it too. Kind of rubs me the wrong way.." He heard a deep sigh come from Decay as he went on. "..So, I wouldn't say I'm feeling super generous. Actually, no, not in the giving mood at all."
"Why are you still so confident? You're in the middle of nowhere, that fight wasn't broadcasted so who knows if anyone's noticed you're gone, and clearly you're aware of the dagger in front of your face."
Angel smirked.
He was royally fucked, that much was clear. He guessed there were a few more villains waiting behind Totem (they wouldn't send an injured villain without backup, surely), and the sound of steel scraping against pavement told him that Decay was retreiving his crowbar behind him. He definitely wasn't making it out of this battle, but that didn't mean he'd lost the war. The agency had prepared for situations like this, and around his belt was a handy little panic button. He'd press it in emergencies, it'd notify active heroes that he was in danger, and they would easily find him with the help of the mechanism, as it had a tracker built in. Angel was more than aware that he wasn't the greatest fighter, especially on his own, so he always made sure it was working and its battery was full at the start of every workday.
He wasn't worried at all. Because he wasn't in any kind of danger. Decay wouldn't kill him--none of the villains even took his mask off. Soon he'd be rescued, and everything would be just fine. So what if he got knocked out and was now surrounded by villains? Pretty soon, they would be surrounded by heroes.
"I know you think you are, but you're not scary," Angel responded matter-of-factly.
Decay was silent for a good minute.
The whole room was, actually. Angel watched Predator and the Angel of Death stare at Decay silently, awaiting his response. Unprepared, the latter-most villain did not come up with a proper retort.
"You- Fuck you, man. I'm leaving." Decay dropped his arm and walked over to Predator to hand him the knife, but the third villain in the room quickly intervened and took the weapon instead. The other two sighed. Decay then left the room, walking backwards and holding up two middle fingers.
The hero just shrugged. "I'm sorry. Someone had to say it."
Angel listened to his footsteps as he walked away, and payed attention to them rather than the voices of the people left in the room. The echoed footsteps slowly faded away for a minute or so, before stopping entirely. The hero grinned as he made out a distant "oh shit" and the footsteps quickened and returned. As Decay re-entered the room, Angel had moved his hands enough to loosen his binds.
"Aww, miss me already?" Angel teased.
"Heroes- There are Heroes here," Decay blurted out breathlessly, practically ignoring Angel, only glaring at the hero for a moment as he spoke. "Reaper, Bellator, and Exosso."
Without a word, the villains suddenly became much more organized than they were mere seconds ago, and began to make their way over to their rivals, leaving Angel alone in the room. He slowly maneuvered his hands to slip free from the rope, then began working on untying his legs from the chair. He was able to make out a lot of commotion happening not too far away. All he could do was pray that his side was winning as he finished freeing himself and started a search for his weapons.
He peered around the doorframe and took in the scene before him. Reaper had already pinned down Decay with a boot and was about to swipe at the villain with his scythe, but was pulled and dragged away by Predator. Exosso quickly ran after Predator and attacked to help Reaper, as Death and Bellator battled it out, pretty evenly matched. Angel opened the first door he saw to quickly check for weaponry, and came across a sleeping Pterux--the blonde haired duck hybrid that was almost always seen by Decay's side (although, she hadn't been present for the fight earlier that day). Lucky for him, his belt was laid out on the floor. He was surprised they hadn't discovered his panic button, but thankful. He quickly picked it up and put it on once again, looking back down for anything he missed. As he did, he realized that the villain's mask was removed, lying on the floor next to her head. Angel stopped for a moment, tempted to move her hair away from her face and take a picture to show the others back at the agency. He would definitely get a raise, exposing a top villain's identity...
But, he wasn't able to ignore the fact that he still had his own mask on. He had never actually fully lost consciousness after the initial encounter, although he was definitely close to it as he was being dragged to this warehouse. Even though he barely managed to keep his eyes open, using all the strength he had not to pass out, never once did any of the villains try to remove his mask. It was confusing to him, and strangely kind for such criminals to do. The least he could do was return the favor, and not ruin this woman's life and career. Just this once, he'd let an opportunity go.
He readied his blades and rushed into the battle.
He ran at the Angel of Death first, hoping to aide Bellator enough to overtake him. He lunged both of his circular blades at the man, forcing him to change focus and protect himself with his sword. A few of Death’s crows had apparently found their way into the area, as Angel had to stop a moment to shoo away a few that began pecking at his helmet. They were always such an annoyance, but not very dangerous so long as they stayed in small numbers.
Bellator took the moment Angel had given him to recover before jumping right back into his battle, tossing a small container at Angel as he charged at the Angel of Death again. Angel turned it over and subsequently realized what it was. He begrudgingly opened it to find an earpiece, one he had “forgotten” back at HQ. Reluctantly, he shoved it in his left ear to immediately hear a fellow hero on the other end.
“You can’t keep doing this. I know you’re leaving my tech behind on purpose. Fuckin’ jerk.”
“I like not having to hear you scream in my ear, Mechanic. It throws me off when I can hear you,” Angel remarked, as Predator came into his line of sight, charging at a now occupied Bellator. Angel intercepted, narrowly avoiding a hit from the villain’s sharp claws.
“Oh, you know what else can throw you off? Being a DUMBASS who gets kidnapped because no one was there to keep tabs on you!”
Angel huffed out a sigh. He heard another voice from the other end sound out a moment later. “Aw, you made him angry. And faster than usual,” he could hear Reaper say.
“Oh, hola Reaper. Too busy to help me out over here?” Angel asked, as Predator attempted another slash at him, Angel barely escaping another hit on his bruised arm. Angel retaliated, barely skinning the other’s neck with a blade, giving him a small cut. The villain practically hissed as Reaper spoke.
“You don’t need that much help, do you?” His fellow hero asked him. Angel snickered.
“He’s got a big group after him,” Exosso commented, Angel hearing the man’s mumbled remark through the earpiece. It served as a warning, showing him that Decay was now charging at him to his left, giving him enough time to dodge the attack and prepare one of his own.
"I can see that. Sorry, I kinda let Decay loose on accident," Reaper remarked, now running back into Angel's view.
Swiftly, Angel took the moment he had to step on Decay's right boot, making the villain yelp and lose his footing. As he did, he chuckled and muttered to his fellow hero, "You're useless, Reaper."
"It's not my fault they have a favorite!" He said, shrugging and going back to trying to incapacitate Decay, who gave a lot of struggle despite having the blade of Reaper's scythe up to his throat.
Angel looked back to see that his other two allies were also in stalemate. "Who do you want me to help first, coach? Everyone seems equally matched.."
There were a few beats of silence on the other end before Mechanic responded. "I know he's furthest, but you need to take out Death first. The more birds that cloud up the place, the harder this'll get."
"On it." Angel sprinted toward the Angel of Death, who was still battling it out with Bellator, their swords clashing repeatedly as neither one of them could seem to get the upper hand. He threw one disk at the villain, who was forced to take a step back and recuperate, giving Bellator a proper opportunity to strike. He was only capable of breaking through to the villain's armored shoulder, but used the opportunity of having a sword close to his enemy to move it toward the neck. This gave Death the chance to resist, but this time he was forced to exclusively defend, for if he moved to the offense, his neck would suffer an unrelenting blow. Angel utilized this to finish his sprint to their duel and cut off Death's necklace, stealing the whistle on it.
"Mierda- ¡Angel, cuidado!" Exosso's warning didn't reach him quickly enough, as this time, Predator managed to catch him off-guard and tackle him to the ground. As he fell, he lost his grip both on his one remaining weapon and the item he had just stolen. Predator held one hand tight around Angel's neck as the hero struggled against him, and raised his other claw up before forcing it down. Angel barely managed to save his chest, successfully moving to the side, but wincing in deep pain as his left wing suffered a blow. Predator's sharp nails sunk into his wing, and it hurt like hell. Fuck. That would be pretty noticeable outside of work, wouldn't it?
Angel's attempts to reach back and grasp his discarded blade were nothing but futile as he gasped for air, staring at his enemy's masked face. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of expression hid behind it. To muster up the courage to continue fighting, he had to imagine it was a smile.
Angel shut his eyes, only capable of focusing on the slowly moving stinging sensation in his wing and his pained breaths. All he had the ability to do now was try not to faint--Mechanic would kill him if he did, so long as Predator didn't get to it first.
Luckily for him, he wasn't alone, and he didn't have to wait too long before Bellator yanked Predator away from Angel to give him the time to recuperate.
As he caught his breath and once again wrapped his hand around his remaining blade, he could hear Mechanic sigh through the earpiece. "Alright, this isn't going anywhere.. Angel, get the fuck out of there. I want everyone else following him, but don't leave behind any trail. Got it?" Everyone gave their own verbal confirmation in response, and Angel did his best to stand up, a bit unsteady. He dug his own nails into his palms and ran, this time in the direction he now saw Exosso pointing at with a free hand. As much as he hated to do it, he retreated from the scene, leaving the other heroes behind. He ducked into the nearest alley he found to catch his breath and find out where exactly he was. Not too long after, Reaper managed to find him.
Slowly but surely, the four heroes grouped together again and lay low for a bit before being instructed to go into a nearby building using a back entrance. They did so, and were met with yet another masked ally, Korat, who immediately took notice of Angel's injured wing.
"Oohh.. That doesn't look to good," she commented, putting a hand on her hip and leaning forward to look at it a bit more closely. "I'll make sure to make you some good tea when we get back, and let the infirmary know that they'll need to get ready.." she set down the bag full of items on a counter of the unoccupied store to pull out a phone and message some people back at the agency.
"Sorry, Tina.." Angel mumbled sheepishly as Bellator reached into the bag and found his clothes. He left to change first. No one commented on Angel's use of Korat's real name--it was safe to assume they all knew it at this point.
"No, no--it's not like you would get hurt on purpose. It's really no trouble at all," Korat insisted, shaking her head. She set her phone down and sifted through the bag, pulling out each person's outfits and laying them separately on the counter. A knock sounded on the back door, signaling that Bellator was no longer in the area, and Etoiles, 'just an ordinary citizen working in software development and absolutely definitely no other fields,' was leaving. He dropped the hero's outfit and mask on the floor.
Korat handed Angel's clothes over to him. "Here, you should get out of here next and try to head over to the agency as soon as possible. Try not to draw too much attention to yourself, okay?"
"Of course." Angel smiled and made his way into the bathroom, a pretty shitty place to end up in. It wasn't very well taken care of, but he tried to ignore it as he changed, although the mix of the area and the smell of blood (shit, Predator hit a blood feather..) was very difficult to not pay attention to. Before exiting, he looked in the mirror and examined the wound. Korat's reaction was underexaggerated, honestly. His wing looked really torn up, and he assumed he wouldn't be able to fly as much with the imbalance...
He sighed and left, handing Tina his costume before walking out to the streets, holding both wings close to him to try and hide the injury. Although, he didn't care much if these random civilians noticed.
He just hoped his boyfriend wouldn't.