An: there are two gas stations side by side in my town and it's always so funny to me when I see them. I've always liked Donut, he won't always be the main for this story but for this opening chapter he is
A part of Valhalla city lovingly nicknamed Blood Gulch for it's scalding heat was home to two less then decent gas stations, located across the street from one another.
It would be a perfect place to lay low for anyone who had more then one life.
Close to the main city, but in an inconspicuous run down neighborhood, not many supers passed by, Villain or Hero.
For some reason, a team of superheroes and supervillans made their civilian life in these two Red and Blue color coded gas stations. As if they had all been drawn there by an unknown force. Of course, the two sides had no inkling of an idea that the other gas station was home to what they considered to be their nemesis.
Donut met his fellow superhero's in costume before he met them out. He had not actually known he had any powers to begin with before a few weeks ago. Now though, he was acutely aware of his power of persuasion, and his incredible throwing arm. He also had his eyes on a low league superhero team he was looking to join.
Right now, they were stoping a small time bank robbery. They all must have thought these people had powers and that's why they stepped in, but now it was getting pretty obvious that these people did not, and they had taken hostages to compensate for that fact.
"Shit, how are we supposed to get the gunman down. We're not made for these hostage situations." A medium skinned man in a hooded orange snow jacket said.
"I'm working on it." The cyborg responded. Covered nearly head to toe in sleek black and red, except for his mechanical parts that were showing.
"Dang, we cant risk the civilians any longer, Soldiers." A man with a gruff voice and red armor announced to his two partners.
"Working on it Sir Sargent." The cyborg replied.
It looked like the trio were having problems getting a good hand on the situation. None of their powers could be used effectively in this situation.
"Maybe I could be of some assistance!" Donut Interrupted their get together.
An unexpected result of this action was that the cyborg let out a shriek, and dropped the devise he was working on.
"What the hell? Who are you Pinkie?" The Orange one said.
"I'm-"
"I don't care random civilian!" Sargent shouted.
"Hey! I'm not a civilian I'm just like you, let me demonstrate my powers of persuasion." He said then turned to the Orange one, putting pressure into his words. "What's your name?"
"It's Grif." He said, then let out a, "Shit I didn't mean to say that. I mean, I'm Cool Crush."
"That's my power, I can make people tell me or do whatever I want. I want to use if for good."
"Well it's not like the situation can get worse. The police aren't coming for another thirty minutes. Something with the Freelancers has them backed up. I calculate that if we don't let them out, they'll start shooting civilians in approximately ten minutes. I'm Cyber, by the way." The cyborg said, typing on his devise.
"Hmmmm." Sargent said gripping his gun.
It was then that the news crews started setting up, and that the Superhero team did their best to look somewhat organized.
"I'd say go for it Pinkie." Grif said.
"I'll be right on it!" He gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.
The scene when Donut walked into the bank was a mess. The security doors had been dropped, people where on their hands and knees on the ground and the was the smell of gunpowder in the air. Immediately three gunman took aim at him.
"Now I'm not here to fight, I'm here to talk." Donut said to them in a voice as non-threatening as he could mange.
"Yeah... right." What Donut assumed to be the leader said.
"Now!" Donut began putting that certain inflection to his voice. "Please gentleman, put your guns down and follow me nice and gentle. I don't like to take things too fast."
All three men complied. Dropping their guns on the spot and trailing after him.
"I'm gonna be real with you, didn't expect this." Grif said.
"Now I told you I'm persuasive." Donut answered.
"Well it's a good thing Pinkie was here, I don't know if we could have done this without casualties otherwise." Cyber said.
"Job well done soldiers!" Sargent announced to all of them. "Now lets keep these villains company until the PD shows up."
"You got a civie job yet Pinkie?" Sargent asked after the police had shown up and taken the men away. The four of them were lounging on top a rooftop courtesy of Sargent summoning a vehicle and dropping them off. "The dirty blues just got a new guy at their place and we gotta stay one man ahead."
"Nope! I'm fresh and unused in this city." Donut replied. Although he had no idea what Sargent was talking about with that second part.
"Then how'd you feel about working with all of us, outside of this superhero business." He responded.
"Of course we understand if you say no." Cyber said. "It can be quite dangerous to hang around the people you do in costume."
Crush shrugged at that statement.
"Of course I'm gonna say yes. I love getting together and hanging out with the people I dress up with!"
That was how Donut got quickly settled into Blood Gulch.
The news reporters must have heard the other superheroes call him Pinkie, because that is what they were calling him in the latest superhero report. They said it was a good name because it matched his pink hair and costume.
His hair wasn't pink. He wanted to tell the news reporter. It was lightish red. At one point it time it had been a bright vibrant red, but it had quickly faded away into a lighter color. He didn't mind how it looked, so he never bothered trying to re-dye it. But it still irked him how they got the color wrong. And his suit was obviously a salmon.
Although it also wasn't the superhero name he had wanted to be called, at least he was able to make some friends.
"So, I see I haven't been told what Sargent's name is, he's not wearing a name tag either." Donut asked Grif and Simmons on his first day at work in the gas station.
"It's Sarge." Simmons says.
"Yeah I know! He won't tell me."
"I mean like we all just call him Sarge. Got no idea what his real name is." Grif responded. "I think he used to be in a higher league and got kicked out so he's real into secrecy. You know how anal those big league supers get."
"Aww that's too bad. I really love getting to know my fellow man."
There was a long moment of silence after that statement before Grif spoke.
"Hey, you know what. I got an idea." He looked over towards Simmons and winked. "Why don't you go introduce yourself to the Blues. Over there across the street."
"Yeaaah, they love meeting new people, and they just hired a new guy two, you should go make friends." Simmons agreed.
"Oh gosh really!?" Donut exclaimed. "You'll let me take a break on the first day to go see them?"
"Of course we will Donut." Griff says with a smile. "Now have at it."
He missed how the two high five each other as he left the station.
"Oh! Hello Donut, you know I'm just so glad to see you're finally here too." A large blond man greeted him the moment he went through the front door. He was wearing a uniform similar to Donut's, except it was in a deep blue instead of his lighter red.
"You have?" Donut asked. "Did you get a text saying I was coming to visit?"
"Nope! But I remember you came to say hello after I had just been here so, hello! You are here now again."
Donut didn't exactly get what he was saying but he didn't want to be rude.
"I hear you! Say who else works here?"
"Oh you know there is my very, very best friend of all times!" He gleefully said. "Then theres Tucker." He much less happily spoke, then in a long winded sentence he went on to say. "Yeah Tucker is outside a lot. He says it's to meet new people more, but he is dumb and wrong because I am meeting you in here and he is missing out. You know with how long you spent in the sandy place with him. I think he should meet you for the first time again right now instead of later."
"Caboose what are you-" Another man said coming out of a back room. Likely drawn out by the noise. He had glasses, green eyes, a goatee, and black graying hair. "-Oh god dammit, look buddy, I'm not up for any fucking pranks today alright." Donut quickly decided his voice very much did not match his face.
"Well I was told to come here, I come a lot... in different places." Donut answered.
"Okay?" The man said with a confused look and crossed arms. "You know what just get out of here Red, you seem... nice enough, you're being hazed."
"What? But I always love a good hazing, and I always know when it's happening to me."
"Please leave before I loose my goddam mind."
Just as he's leaving he sees a third man, with a faded haircut and dark skin leaning up against the side of the building. He waved, but didn't say anything. That one must be Tucker.
Donut doesn't learn the name of the angry guy until he gets back to his Red gas station, where his two coworkers promptly burst out laughing when he tells them both what happened.
Leonard Church.
The name seems familiar to him even though he is new to the city and had never met him before.
There aren't many customers that stop by at either station throughout the day. Most of them stop in for snacks rather then actual gas. Although Sarge makes a note to begrudgingly mention whenever the blues have someone stop by.
Overall, it was a pretty good first day on the job for Donut.
And because they are all superheroes he doesn't have to worry about trying to sneak away if there is ever a need for them. It was the perfect situation for him.
It is not until the next day that he has the pleasure of meeting his new teammates nemesis Villains.
The trio look somewhat intimidating to Donut. At least on the outside, in an outfit based affair.
All of them are mainly dressed in black with shades of blue for highlights. Their outfits are far more coordinated then his team's, which gives Donut a weird sense of jealousy. They all also go to great lengths to cover nearly all of their faces. Unlike his team of heroes.
For a villain, identities are usually taken stranger attempts to hide.
The leader of the three is known as Sniper, named by the media for the sniper rifle he carries around at a near constant basis. Although he also carried a pistol with him as well. He has yet to be seen using any powers, but he certainly gives the orders. Sniper is loud and overly aggressive in Donut's opinion. There is no part of his body that is visible to see. Donut cannot even guess the ethnicity of this man.
Light-Strike is the only one who had loudly announced what his name was to the media. His ability was bending light, more specifically he can create a double bladed sword that he uses to attack. No one has ever seen him do anything but that, and because of it he is a weaker villain. His arms are exposed for all the see, due to his sleeveless hooded bodysuit, and he has dark skin.
The newest member was simply called The Rookie, because that is what Sniper often yelled at him. He is the heaviest hitter out of the three, or so Simmons tells him. Rookie is duel wielding abilities, although he often poorly uses them, sometimes even injuring his own team members rather then the opposing heroes. Much like Sniper, there is no visible skin on him.
Overall they were a pretty pathetic villain team compared to the other ones out there. But Donut did not mind that one bit. He knew he wouldn't be able to ever take on the more prominent and powerful ones, and that was fine by him. His powers were not exactly made for taking out the heavy hitters.
Today was a pretty standard ordeal. Or at least, according to the cyborg Simmons it was. One hostage, Sniper keeping a poor watch, Light-Strike talking to no one in particular while picking various things up, and Rookie sticking like glue to Sniper's side when he was supposed to be looking after the hostage.
The whole place looked upturned and ransacked. Once it was a halfway decent electronics store. Now it barely served as shelter from the sun.
"Crush, go for the big guy's feet, keep him from moving." Sarge ordered, materializing his favored shotgun. "I'll keep Sniper pinned down. Cyber you got Light-Strike, Pinkie get the hostage out of there."
"On it Sir."
"Yeah, yeah I've done this before."
Simmons and Gif said simultaneously.
Then the plan began.
"Open fire!" Sargent shouted jumping into plain view of the villains.
Sniper ducked under a nearby counter to avoid fire, while Light-Strike turned his attention to Sargent, charging at him while the man was aiming at his leader. It was then that Cyber went for a low blow and kicked out his legs, preventing him from reaching his target. Crush very easily froze The Rookie's feet to the floor, preventing him from going after Sniper and covering him, or from moving the hostage.
Now that they all were more or less immobilized, Pinkie made his move to untie the woman being held against her will.
"Hello!" The Rookie greets him as if his legs were not frozen to the ground and he was not holding someone hostage.
"Um, hi?" He responds, because he didn't really have a plan for this weird friendliness from the enemy. Perhaps that was a part of their villainous plan.
Quickly the woman was untied, and she made a run for it through a backdoor before even letting out a thank you. Although, the gunfire and sword swooshing sounds probably made her think she was still in danger.
"Pinkie!" Cyber Shouted as he was trying to hold off Light-Strikes sword with his mechanical arm. The arm could take the pressure and heat of the weapon, but Cyber could not compete in a battle of strength forever.
"What's the problem Cyber?" Light-Strike says in that cocky voice. "Can't keep it up?"
Cyber would not be able to keep competing in strength for much longer. Donut needed to be there right away, and he quickly got his bearings and made his way over while avoiding incoming fire between Sniper and Sargent.
"Bye Donut!" Rookie says casually a moment before Pinkie left his side, and for a minute Donut doesn't notice it isn't his hero name. When he does realize it, it's far too late.
Pinkie is able to keep Light-Strike from scorching Cyber's skin, but he wasn't much help in combat.
"Shit." Crush suddenly says as The Rookie breaks his way out of his iced feet, and runs through the gunfire to Sniper.
"We are going now!" He announced loudly and picks up his leader. It only takes a few shots from his sniper to send all of them ducking for cover, even if all of them missed their target.
"Oh fuck berries, Not without me!" Light-Strike shouts after them.
By the time everything registers in his head the three of the villains have disappeared. He has no idea where or how they got away. One moment they were there, then they were not.
Immediately, he informs his team about what The Rookie said.
"Guys! Guys! Rookie knew my name? I swear I never even-"
"Oh yeah forgot to mention that part." Grif interrupts leaning casually against the broken wall. "The Rookie knows all our names. Maybe that's another one of his powers or whatever. Doesn't really matter, the idiot never does anything with them. Don't think he even has the brains to tell his other teammates."
"That is... um."
"Yeah he's weird." Simmons said. "Could probably be a higher class villain if he had the mind for it. The dude is like crazy strong and invulnerable, and always knows what happens next."
"But he's stuck. On that dang nabbet dirty no good Sniper." Sargent says. "The man doesn't even have any powers! And he's no good with a sniper."
"Sir, we just haven't seen what his powers are." Simmons stated.
"Pretty sure he would have used them by now." Grif responded. "He's just the brain their whole thing. That's why he's got a gun."
"We'll I'd Like to wrap my hands around his gun one day." Donut began. "Get a real good tight grip on it and pull it nice and hard out of his hands. Then we can put him in his place. Prison!"
"Uhhh... I cant be the only one who notices that. Right." Crush awkwardly said.
"Moving on." Simmons stated, with a dry cough. "We haven't ever been able to get out hands on any of them. Now that you have some experience with them we were hoping you can use your persuasion powers to get them to tell us their identities, or to let us put them in prison. Preferably both."
The sound of muffled voices pulled three of them from their conversation.
"Yeah let's get going from this joint." Simmons stated.
"I never like the press." Grif said.
"Men. To our hideout!" Sarge declared with a hand in the air. Letting his gun drop and disappear.
As it turns out. Their hideout is just the back room of their gas station. Not that Donut minded.
Although calling it a hideout was making the place out to be more high tech then it actually was. It was simply a large grey cement room that was partly used for storage, that Simmons set up a multi-tier desk on where he keep some of his hand made devises. On the desk there was also a laptop where the cyborg made plans and kept gathered data. It was pretty small.
Simmons must have kept some type of record of their battles in there, because he was typing up a storm while the others talked about what took place.
"So, that went just about as well as it usually does." Said Grif, sitting down on the hard floor.
"Those dang nabbit dirty sons of evil and tyranny always get away!" Sargent said.
Donut attempted to reassure them.
"I'm sure we'll get them next time. The first date is always the hardest."
"Yeah well, let's just say we've had a lot of first dates."
"No fraternizing with the enemy Grif!"
Then Simmons stoped typing and suddenly spoke up.
"Oh my god, three Freelancers are dead."
"What?!" Gif exclaimed. "No. That's not possible."
"Dude, It's Maine and Texas and- and Carolina. They're all dead? The best agents just like that."
"First Florida and CT now this? Dude I think some big ass villain is talking them all out." Grif said. "Can't be anything else. We better watch out before our asses get handed to us too."
"Don't worry I'm sure, I'm sure they wouldn't go after small fry like us. No offense, to us."
Still, this news was nerve racking. The Freelancers were the best organized and most powerful league of Superheroes in the world. Somehow they had suddenly lost three of their best agents. And a month before they had lost two of their middle ground players. It was a shame, Donut had been really into that Florida guy.
"Reds! Reds hey, is anyone fucking home?" Church said interrupting the solemn moment. His pitch of his voice easily recognizable to even Donut.
"This is not what we need right now." Simmons said putting his hands in his head.
"Donut! Go see what the blue wants." Ordered Sarge.
"On it Sargent!" He gave off a mock salute before exiting the back room.
Church looked uncomfortable and out of place standing in their station, but Donut played it no mind.
"Oh hey, it's the new guy. You uh, you see the news." The blue said to him.
"Yeah I did! Now that's a real shame right there. I really love the heavy hitters."
"Yeah uh I meant the city destruction part."
"Ohhh." Donut had not been told of that, he supposed the death of the three Freelancers overshadowed the destruction that came with it. Or Simmons simply did not have the time to tell them yet. "Haven't really seen much of it." Then Donut put a certain force to his words as he said. "Can you tell me why you really came to visit us?"
"Well I was just coming to see if you're all good. Well I mean, Tucker asked me too anyways. He thinks this whole red vs blue thing is dumb. I got room in my place if any of your places were in the blast zone."
For someone who acts angry all time time Church sure did know how to be nice when he didn't need to be. It was a nice change of pace to see this truth reviled by using his powers. Usually he got less then nice answers.
"Aww how sweet of you, but we all live in Blood Gulch so no need to worry!"
"I uh- that's weird I didn't really mean to say all... of that."
"It's cause I got that special something about me that makes men wanna spill all over the place!"
"Do you wanna maybe rephrase that sentence."
"Nope!"
"Anyways I'll just," he gestured behind himself with his thumb, "get going back to blue station."
"Tootles!" Donut said goodbye as he left.
"Donut! Didn't I just say not to fraternize with the enemy!" Sarge, who had been listening in and had likely been waiting for Church to leave, said.
"But Sarge, Church isn't the enemy enemy he's the just guy who owns the other gas station."
"Exactly." He said, dragging out the word. "Now let's get back to work men! This operation stops for no one and nothing."
At least he now knew where Sargent stood on this whole Freelancer killing matter. He didn't say it out loud, but Donut is a very personable guy, and could tell Sarge believed they should all deal with their own villain problem before worrying with anyone else's. It was not as if any of them had the power to take on someone strong enough to permanently down several Freelancers. So they would all simply continue on as normal.
That was fine by Donut.
Villains:
Church: ? - Sniper
Caboose: Strength/invulnerability - The Rookie
Tucker: Laser sword - Light strike
Heroes
Sarge: summons guns and car - Sargent
Simmons: cyborg and technology- Cyber
Griff: Ice, minor invulnerability- Cool Crush
Donut: persuasion and healing - Pinkie