Chapter Text
Angel soared above the tall city buildings as his eyes tracked the red cape of his partner swerving between them. They were in hot pursuit of the dangerous villain Siren as he fled through the city.
Siren had been terrorizing the city of L’manburg for five years. At first he’d been a low level thug, robbing banks and convenience stores. However, after about a year, Siren made himself known as a dangerous and volatile villain by blowing up a large portion of the state house.
The small city-state of L’manburg had to pay attention to him after that. Siren only got more violent, taking hostages and demanding money, then blowing up the building he’d been holding them after the trade had commenced. Usually most civilians made it out unscathed but many politicians had met their end due to Siren.
Personally, Angel had no problems with a few corrupt politicians being crossed off the list of the living but this tormenting of citizens and the city-state itself was getting out of hand. The Heroes Association had placed him and his partner, Blade, in charge of the apprehension and subsequent punishments of Siren.
A sometimes unfortunate truth of the city is that the heroes are given far too much power. They have free reign to use their powers as they see fit and can act as judge, jury, and executioner to any power users marked as “villains.” Coincidentally, the Heroes Association also had the power to dub someone a villain. Usually the higher ups make that decision but if the majority of the active heroes vote for it, they can override the higher ups on whether or not a person is a villain.
A very corrupt system if you happen to have corrupt heroes, of which there are quite a few in the Heroes Association.
After some hunting they’d had an encounter with the famed villain and traded blows. Blade landed a solid hit on Siren’s side with his sword and the villain had taken off. Unfortunately for him, Blade had a keen sense for detecting blood, comes with the power of getting stronger with the more blood he draws.
That’s what led to them racing through the city, tracking Siren’s trail of blood from a safe distance. He was good at covering his tracks, paranoid almost, but there was no way he could escape Blade once he had his scent. He would tire eventually, that’s when they would strike. They had no intention of killing the villain like some heroes would but they’d bring him in and lock him up in Pandora.
Blade suddenly came to halt in front of an alley next to an apartment building. The building was severely run-down and probably violating a number of safety mandates.
This wasn’t good, if Siren knew they were following him, he may have gone in and taken hostages. Blade motioned for Angel to join him, which he did.
Swooping down on silent wings, Angel landed quietly next to Blade and gave him a questioning head tilt. Blade pointed to a rickety fire escape on the side of the building that had blood splatters going up the stairs to a cracked open window a few stores up. They shared a look and began climbing the stairs.
It was a bit of a struggle to fit his wings through the window but Angel managed. He had to stifle a laugh as Blade also struggled fitting his broad shoulders through. The amusement faded quickly however as his eyes focused on the blood trail leading across the tiled floor to a slightly ajar door with light spilling out and a quiet voice drifting from it.
Blade nodded towards it and Angel led the way up to the door. As he walked, the floor creaked under his weight and a quiet gasp came from the room. A small head of blond curls poked out from the room along with a glaring face.
The boy had striking blue eyes and dirty clothes on. The boy was obviously malnourished judging by the thinness of his cheeks which was concerning but by far the most concerning part of his appearance was the jagged scar across his face. It stretched from over one eye, all the way across his nose down to the opposite jaw bone.
“Who the fuck are you? What do you want?” The boy asked. He was young , he looked like he was just getting into schooling age. And he was swearing?!
“Hey, mate, we’re heroes. I’m Angel and this is Blade, we’re here looking for a villain, have you seen him by any chance?” Angel tried to keep his voice low in case Siren was listening in. “Do you have any family here in danger? You can tell us, we can help them.”
Somehow that was the wrong thing to say because the boy's face darkened and his anger only grew. Angel could also sense fear coming off him but it wasn’t the kind he was expecting.
“No! We’re fine. Fuck off.” This boy seemed very defensive and it was rubbing Angel’s feather’s the wrong way. Something was very wrong here.
“If you’re so ‘fine’ then why is there blood all over the floor?” Blade injected. Angel shot him a glare but Blade ignored it. Panic overtook the boy’s emotions for a moment but he quickly tried to wash it away and gave an obvious lie.
“Uhh, my… uhm, big brother had a nosebleed. He gets them suuuper easy and sometimes gets lazy and forgets to clean up. He’s resting right now and I needa help him now so you need to go away.”
“Oh, is he in that room right there?” Angel asked innocently. “Why don’t we help him so you don’t have to? It’s the least we can do to help after we burst in on you like this.”
It was very clear to Angel that Siren was hiding in the bedroom and threatening the young boy to get him to shoo them away. He was probably threatening the boy’s older brother or something. The only problem is that the boy was refusing to take any of the chances Angel was offering him.
“NO! No, we’re perfectly fine. You can just fuck off and leave us be. Go away. uhm…please?”
The boy tried to close the door in their faces and Blade had just about had enough of this. So as the door began to close, he caught it with one hand and forced it open, much to the protest of the blond-haired boy.
“Yeah, I’ve heard enough. Where is he, kid?” Blade growled as he forced the door open.
“NO! JUST GO AWAY! LEAVE US ALONE! YOU’VE DONE ENOUGH!” The boy was screaming at this point.
As they entered the room, Angel noted the bareness of it. The only things inside were piles of clothes and a single twin bed in the middle with a vaguely human shaped lump hidden under blankets on the bed. The lump had a concerning red spot forming in the blankets and there was a first aid kit open next to it.
The heroes began approaching the bed but, before they could reach it, the boy came running up and started weakly punching Blade’s legs. There were tears forming in his eyes as he stared up at them and continued yelling at them. It was more of the same things he’d been yelling before and Blade made to just forge through. Until…
“STOP! PLEASE! DON’T TAKE DADDY AWAY TOO! YOU ALREADY KILLED MOMMY, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!”
What?
Blade had already grabbed the edge of the blankets and pulled them away from the figure in the bed. It revealed the pale, tired face of a young man, barely into his twenties, with Siren’s mask discarded right next to his head. He was unconscious and very clearly bleeding out.
The boy crumpled to the floor at Blade’s feet. His tears freely fell and his face was red. He let out big, ugly sobs.
“Please,” the boy’s voice was so weak and sad, “please don’t hurt Dad. I–I know what he does b–but, he only does it for me and mommy. Please…”
Blade slowly looked from the unmasked villain's face to the young boy at his feet. Then back at the villain and from there to Angel. The picture that the scene painted was not a pretty one.
They stood like that for a long, long time. Eventually the small boy’s crying pittered out until he was just sitting at Blade’s feet sniffling. The dark red spot in the blankets only grew and Angel realized that if they didn’t do something, Siren would bleed out and die.
With a bone deep sigh, Angel reached for the first aid kit and pulled out the needle and thread. He peeled back the blankets to reveal the wound and winced at the sight of it. Angel made quick and careful work of stitching it together before turning back to the kit to see if they had any health potions.
A quick glance at the meager supplies told him that they did not but Blade pulled out one of his own and gave it to him. It was a bit of a struggle to get the potion down the weak and unconscious man’s throat but Angel managed.
Angel turned to find that Blade had taken off his mask and picked up the boy who had cried himself into a fitful sleep from all the stress. He reached up to his own mask and removed it to give Techno a mournful look.
Phil sat back on the bed and held his face in one hand. He let out a shaky breath and looked back at techno who bore the same troubled eyes.
“We can’t lock him up, Tech. It’d be just plain cruel.”
Techno swallowed and nodded.
“What are we supposed to do then, Phil? Siren’s crimes can’t just be ignored either.”
“House arrest?” Phil proposed weakly.
“Really? In this dump? Also, house arrest? For a big time supervillain? That’s not gonna work.” Techno gave Phil a deadpan look and the avian hero wilted. “The public hates Siren, Phil, you know this. In all honesty I’m doubtful anything short of life in Pandora or death would appease them.”
Phil’s gaze darkened as he thought. Techno was unfortunately correct on that matter. L’manburg was a ruthless city to those who achieved its hate and would only settle for their total disappearance… wait a second…Phil gained a dark smile as an idea came to him.
“Well…then it’s quite fortunate that Siren happened to perish in an old apartment after being fatally injured by the hero Blade. Although it is quite the tragedy that that very same building burnt to the ground and his body couldn’t be retrieved. Good thing the heroes who were hunting him were there to notice the flames in time and save everyone there, including the single father whose apartment he broke into.”
Techno’s lips quirked up to match Phil’s grin as he caught on.
“How kind and benevolent of those very same heroes to take in the struggling man after the traumatizing incident and help him recover and care for his young son. The two are so affected by the events that they hardly want to leave the heroes’ house and certainly never without the heroes at their sides.” Techno added as he smiled down at the boy in his arms, his smile turned soft at the sight of his scrunched up face. “Don’t worry little guy, we’re gonna take care of you two from now on, even if it’s a bit rough at first.”
Phil glanced down at the brown curls and brushed them out of his new son’s face. He looked peaceful in his sleep, the potion slowly bringing life back into his face.
“Don’t worry, mate, you might hate us but, we’ll prove to you that you can trust us.”