Sorry this took literally a month to get published, I've been so busy you guys don't even understand :')

▪︎¤▪︎■▪︎¤▪︎

"Two attacks in one day is absurd!" Flutterbee said as she and Avi flew toward the sound of the screaming people.

Avi nodded, narrowing his eyes as he searched for whatever villain could be causing such a commotion. "It's crazy, even for those lunatics," he agreed. "Down there!" He pointed at a park, where Catalyst was standing in front of a large monster with tentacles made of sculk. The monster was snatching people up and infecting them with the sculk, turning them into brainless zombies.

"Wait!" Flutterbee grabbed Avi's arm to stop him from flying down to fight Catalyst. "Catalyst is one of the most dangerous supervillains out there! Maybe we should leave this to the heroes this ti-"

"No," Avi snapped, and Flutterbee flinched. "We can prove to those dumb heroes that we have what it takes."

"But we don't," Flutterbee said softly. "Not against a villain like Catalyst. He's too strong. Only the Top Ten- Wait, Avi!" She reached for him as he began to fly down toward the park again, but she couldn't seem to catch up quick enough before Catalyst caught sight of the two.

Avi didn't seem to notice until he was caught by one of the tentacles.

"Avi!"

▪︎¤▪︎■▪︎¤▪︎

"This just in-"

Scar groaned at hearing the news playing in the living room. "Mumbo, I thought I said that-"

"Shh!" Mumbo hushed him, then waved him over and pointed at the TV. "Look."

Scar looked at the TV to see Catalyst and some kind of monster with tentacles terrorising civilians.

"-spotted at the park," the news reporter said, "infecting anyone it touches with sculk." He jumped and yelped when one of the tentacles swooshed over his head, nearly infecting him. He cleared his throat as he turned back to the camera. "Please, heroes," he said. "Save us and bring these people back to normal."

Scar and Mumbo looked at each other before pulling their sleeves up just enough to reveal silver bracelets with hero emblems engraved on them. Scar's emblem was HotGuy's bow, and Mumbo's was LeVerre's crystals. The emblems began to glow, which meant they were being called to action to stop Catalyst.

"Grian can cook dinner," Scar said with a shrug and a sigh, then tapped the bracelet twice. With a bright shine of light, he was dressed as HotGuy. He looked back over at Mumbo, who was dressed as LeVerre. "We should hurry."

LeVerre nodded.

▪︎¤▪︎■▪︎¤▪︎

Avi grunted as he struggled to get out of the grip of the sculk tentacle, thrashing about and kicking all in vain.

Catalyst laughed. "Struggle all you want, little birdie," he said. "You're not getting out of this." The tentacle brought Avi down to face the supervillain. "You're going to join us, or become one of those brainless sculk zombies for the rest of your life."

Avi scowled at Catalyst. "What do I have to gain from joining you?" he spat, literally.

Catalyst took a deep breath to calm himself, then grinned. "You'll bring back an old friend of ours," he said, and Avi suddenly wanted to cry.

"I am not Parakeet," he said through gritted teeth, and he began to struggle some more.

"Funny how you look exactly like them, though," Catalyst said evilly, his grin growing. "And Buttons tells me you have the same powers. Is this true?"

Avi huffed and turned his head away. "I don't know what you're talking about," he pouted. "I don't have an attack type power."

Catalyst quirked a brow at him and removed his goggles from his eyes to rest them on top of his head. "I said nothing about an attack type power," he said. "Which means she was telling the truth."

Avi pursed his lips. Dammit. "I don't understand why you want me," he said. "I never use it and I frankly don't know how to."

"You'll learn," Catalyst said, and the tentacle tightened around Avi, who grimaced as the slimy substance curled around him more. "You don't have a choice."

"You- you still haven't told me what I get out of this," Avi grunted, trying to smile as overconfidently as he could. "Not that I'd ever join you anyway. You're all a bunch of-" The tentacle tightened around him some more, drawing a pained noise from the vigilante. "-losers!"

Catalyst glanced up, then gave Avi a cocky look. "You won't be saying that when I kill your bumble bee friend up there," he said, then Avi gasped as he heard Flutterbee scream.

"Stop!" Avi shouted. "Don't hurt her!"

Catalyst laughed. "And why shouldn't I?" he questioned as the tentacle that had grabbed Flutterbee brought her over next to Catalyst. "She gets in the way."

Avi glanced at her, and she shook her head.

"Whatever you're thinking," she warned him, "don't do it."

Avi blinked away small tears that formed at the sight of her in pain, then looked back at Catalyst. "If I join you, will you let her go?" he asked meekly.

Flutterbee gasped. "Avi, no! I'm not worth-" She let out a pained cry when the tentacle around her squeezed.

"Perhaps we could make that arrangement," Catalyst said, grinning.

Avi knew he was falling into Catalyst's trap, but what good of a hero would he be if he let his partner- his sister- die? "Then I'll join you," he murmured, and Flutterbee sobbed.

"No, you can't!" she cried. "What about Dad and-"

"Shut up," Catalyst grumbled, and the tentacle holding her tossed her across the park as the one holding Avi let him fall to the ground. The vigilante smirked as an idea hit him. "Get up, let's go-"

"In your dreams, loser!" Avi shouted, and with a flap of his wings, he took off to the sky. "Flutterbee, hit him!"

The girl nodded and aimed her hands at Catalyst before two yellow orbs of light flew from them toward the villain and the sculk monster. One hit Catalyst and he froze, unable to move.

"Haha!" Flutterbee jumped into the air, her wings fluttering before she could fall back to the ground. "We just stopped one of the most evil villains alive!"

Avi flew down to her. "Hell yeah, we did." He walked over to Catalyst and stuck up the middle finger to him, laughing. "Deactivate your power, asshole, or I'll- uh- I'll..." He glanced behind him at the monster, who was also frozen, most likely because of Flutterbee's power. "I'll kill your monster thing."

Catalyst didn't budge and all the people infected were still acting like zombies.

"I said-"

"Uh, Avi," Flutterbee said, looking down at something on Catalyst's belt. "I think we should go."

Avi huffed, crossing his arms. "I'm not done here."

"No."

Avi blinked and looked at Flutterbee.

"We should really go." She pointed at what she was staring at, and Avi noticed a small device that was blinking red. "He probably called back-up."

Avi frowned. "But that means we should stay," he argued. "We can take them!"

Flutterbee laughed nervously when she saw Catalyst's hand twitch. "No," she said, "we really can't."

"But-"

"Look, it's HotGuy!" a pedestrian shouted, and Avi looked up to see the elf hero jump down from a building. A large flower grew from the ground to catch him and he landed gracefully on the ground next to Avi.

"Oh, fuck," Avi said under his breath, then he turned to Flutterbee. "You know what? Maybe we should lea-"

"Oh, no, you don't," HotGuy said, grabbing Avi's wrist. Vines curled around their hands to tie them together so Avi couldn't just fly away. "You're coming with me to HQ."

Avi's eyes widened. "I- Uh- No, actually, I can't- I... have... homework?"

HotGuy rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you have lots of it," he said. "You can do it in the lobby. Let's go." He started to lead Avi away, but the vigilante pulled back.

"Flutterbee, now!"

As Flutterbee held out her hands to send out a paralysing attack toward HotGuy, the hero moved and pulled Avi in the way so the bullet would freeze him instead. Flutterbee blinked and laughed nervously when HotGuy glared at her.

"You're coming, too."

▪︎¤▪︎■▪︎¤▪︎

Scar stared in shock at the two kids after unmasking them, his heart dropping into his stomach. Those were his children and they were vigilantes. "I have no words for the two of you," he said, turning away.

"Dad, we're sorry," Willow said.

Scar shook his head. "You two have put yourselves in so much danger," he said, "and you're sorry? I don't think so. Mumbo and I work so hard to shelter and clothe and feed you, and you're out in the city putting yourselves in danger for fun."

Grian rolled his eyes. "It's called heroism."

"It's called idiocy!" Scar argued. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You both are grounded for life after we're done here."

"What?!" they shouted in unison. "That's not fair!"

Scar shook his head. "What's not fair is the fact that you two decided that you want to be criminals," he said. "You could be arrested when Canary comes down here, you know that? He can decide at any point that you two are dangerous and he can arrest you for up to fifteen years. Fifteen years! Willow will be thirty by the time she gets out," he said, gesturing in his daughter's direction.

"But we didn't hurt anybody," Grian said.

"Canary doesn't care about that," Scar said. "He cares about stopping the endangerment of the city, and if that means placing the blame on you two for that fire or for the damage caused by Catalyst, then..." He sighed. "He's not afraid to frame you."

Grian scoffed. "This is why I hate heroes," he said. "This is why Xelqua and the villains hated heroes."

Scar scowled at Grian. "Don't you dare talk about Xelqua and the villains," he said coldly. "You know damn well that's not the reason they hated heroes-"

"Yes it is, Scar!" Grian said, standing up and glaring right back at him. "Heroes are just as corrupt as they used to be when X was around! The system is fucked up-"

"Watch your language, young man."

"Don't talk to me like I'm your son," Grian sneered. "You're not my fucking dad."

"But you're acting like a child," Scar said, stepping closer and leaning over the table, "so I'm going to treat you like one." He smiled sarcastically, making Grian furious.

The boy glared at Scar. "I hate you."

Shrugging, Scar said, "Hate me all you want. It won't change reality."

▪︎¤▪︎■▪︎¤▪︎

Pix paced back and forth in the kitchen as he waited impatiently for Maxine to get home. Oli had to stay late at work, so he had to leave Maxine to walk home by herself. Which left Pixl feeling like a terrible father for letting her potentially be kidnapped.

"I should call her," he said, stopping his pacing to pull out his phone and dial his daughter's number. He waited and took deep breaths to calm himself while it rang, knowing she always answered her phone.

"Hey, it's Max. I'm a little busy being too cool for your sorry ass, so call back later."

A tone sounded and Pix felt his heart sink into his stomach. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. She always answered her phone, unless there was something wrong. A million terrifying scenarios flooded Pix's mind as he thought about what could've possibly happened to her. She could've been kidnapped or killed or trafficked or lost somewhere-

His train of thought was cut off when his phone started to ring. He looked down at it and nearly fell over as he let out a long, relieved sigh at the fact that the name on the screen was his daughter's. "Max!" he said when he answered the call. "Why didn't you answer my call the first time?"

"Sorry, Dad," Maxine said quietly. "I meant to tell you, but I went to Greg's house."

Pix let out another happy sigh. "Okay," he breathed. "Tell me ahead of time next time, okay, Max? I was worried sick about you."

Maxine was quiet for a moment, then laughed a little bit and said, "Will do, Papa. Sorry for scaring you."

"I forgive you." Pix paused to stifle a yawn - he always felt tired after being so panicked like he was. "You have a fun time with your boyfriend. Be home by eight."

"I will."

"I love you, Max."

"Love you, too."

Hanging up, Pix sat down at the kitchen table and sighed contently knowing his daughter was safe with her friend. She's safe. He jumped when his phone rang again to see Impulse was calling him. The first that he had was, What the hell did my daughter do?

"Hey, Pixl," Impulse said when he answered. "I was just checking in to see how Greg and Max were doing."

Pix blinked. "Huh?"

"Y'know... my son," Impulse said, "...and your daughter."

"But they went to your house," Pix said, confused. Did she lie to me? Surely not... "Why are you asking me?"

Impulse went quiet, then Pix heard a quiet conversation come down the line. "You said Gregory went to Maxine's house, right?" Impulse asked.

"Yeah, that's what he told me," another voice said, presumably one of Impulse's husbands. Probably Tango if the slight raspiness was anything to go by.

"Is he not there?" a very faint, soft-spoken voice asked. Probably Zed.

"No," Impulse said. "Uh, Pix... I'll call you back," he said into the phone with a sigh. "I owe Gregory a call and a lecture."

Pix nodded. "As do I to my daughter."

▪︎¤▪︎■▪︎¤▪︎

Jamie nudged Macbeth, who was watching a volleyball game on the TV. "Mac."

Macbeth turned her head slightly in his direction, but kept her eyes on the screen. "Hm?"

"G's in jail."

Macbeth paused, then turned and looked at her boyfriend. "What."

▪︎¤▪︎■▪︎¤▪︎

Oooo cliffhanger :0