A girl walked out of the bar and onto the alleyway. Pale skin, long white hair with blue streaks but an outfit that completely contrasted. Black leotard and leather jacket, paired with sheer black leggings and black boots, and her signature black choker. And to be fair, she did feel like a badass in the outfit.
"Hey pretty lady," a man whistled.
"We're heading to another club if you want to join," another man chimed in, winking.
"That's a really tempting offer, but I'll have to pass," she replied, her voice laced with sarcasm, and started to walk away.
"Don't be such a tease," the first man told her.
"We're not taking no for an answer," the second one added, grabbing her wrist.
A random man stood in the background watching, the girl made eye contact with him, yet he ignored the scene going down. She knew who he was, and what he wanted, but she decided to play along.
"Guess I'm on my own for this," she muttered quietly to herself.
She whipped around and sharply elbowed the second man in the head, breaking the hold he had on her wrist. He fell to the floor. The first man stepped forward, she immediately whacked him in the groin and pushed him to the floor.
"Time for a little… frostbite," she held her hand out, to which ice was spurted out. She froze both their hands to the floor so they couldn't get up.
"You can come out now, Blaze," she said to the man watching. "I know it's you."
He pulled off the hood he was wearing and evaluated the scene. The dim light only highlighted the bright red streaks throughout his hair, that and his ridiculously cheesy villain costume poking out of his jacket.
"How'd you know it was me?" he asked.
"Lucky guess," she replied, scanning the alleyway. "You can come out too, Shaden."
He emerged out of the shadows and stood beside Blaze.
"What do you want?" she asked. "Don't tell me you're here to reunite our old squad. If so, forget about it. It's not happening."
"What if we had a proposition for you?" Blaze asked.
"And what's that?" she asked.
"To take over the government," Shaden told her.
"We're in the middle of a civil war," she told them. "Why would we want to do this now?"
"Don't you remember the old times?" Blaze asked. "During high school."
"Of course I remember them, why do you think I never contacted any of you after we finished high school?" she replied sassily.
"We were the top of the food chain at school, it couldn't be much different over a government," he said.
"I'm pretty sure a government is a lot more different than a high school food chain," she told him. "Just a hunch."
"Are you saying you don't want to be evil?" Shaden added.
"No, I'm saying I don't want to be the cliché villain that takes over a government," she said. "And fails."
"So you're happy creating small crime in the city and losing to heroes?" Shaden asked.
"It's an act, the heroes are weak," she replied. "Besides, there aren't any heroes without us villains. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way."
She started to strut down the alleyway.
"Oh, and Blaze," she smirked, making eye contact with him. "If you wouldn't mind melting the ice chains off those idiots; that'd be great."
"Frostbite! Get back here!" he yelled.
"No," she replied.
A fireball hurtled at her, she immediately took cover and froze the fire.
"What the hell are you doing, man?!" Shaden exclaimed, shoving him back a little. "Rylarth said to get her on our side, not kill her!"
She spun around to face Blaze, the culprit.
"Was that necessary?!" she exclaimed. "You know my weakness is heat."
"And it's a good thing my weakness is water, not ice," he replied.
"Ice is water," she rolled her eyes. "Thank god big brains aren't your power."
"That's not the point," he replied. "We all got our powers as a group, and the only way we're strong is as a group."
"You sound like Rylarth," she said.
"Mircalla would be pleased to see you," Blaze offered.
"A high school crush isn't going to make me join you," she lied, she would probably do more than anything to see Mircalla again. But she couldn't let them know that.
"Then perhaps I could," a mysterious voice said, Frostbite knew who this was.
"Rylarth," she said, turning to face them.
She wasn't in costume like the others, probably because it wouldn't work out well. She had purple hair, and wore the same band shirt, black jacket, jeans and boots combination since high school. Her eyes glowed purple in the dimly lit alley.
"You know what the agreement was, powers for your loyalty to us. I can just as easily take them away."
"That's the amazing thing though; you can't," Frostbite replied. "I remember the spell you used, you can't take them away. It can change if our personality does, but given that we all have original powers; I'm going to say that people don't change."
"I told you!" a guy came out of the shadows. "If you'd just listened to me."
"Brainwarp, how nice to see you too," she said.
"Why are we calling each other by our villain identities?" he asked. "It all seems childish."
"Fine then, Jax," she replied.
"Cool, Xenia," he told her.
"I'd rather you call me Nia," she replied.
"I know," he told her.
She rolled her eyes.
"I suppose I don't have a choice in this, do I?" Nia, or Frostbite, asked.
"Nope," Blaze said triumphantly.
"Then whatever, I'll join," I said.
A girl in a short, tight red dress walked out of the club. She had jet black hair and sparkling brown eyes, who Nia recognized immediately: Mircalla.
"That was some good tequila… Oh, you found Nia," she said, obviously tipsy. "Is she with us?"
"Didn't really have a choice," Nia told her, her heart racing.
"That's what you think," she replied.
"Anyway, where's The Princess?" Nia asked, rolling her eyes.
"You mean The Howling Queen?" Blaze, a.k.a Phoenix, asked. "It's a full moon, she's off with the wolves."
"Right, of course," Nia rolled her eyes, looking up at the moon.
"Hang on, where's Dixie?" Mircalla asked.
"You were supposed to keep an eye on her!" Jax exclaimed.
"You can't blame me for ditching her," Mircalla said. "She's a terrible wing-woman, she drove away all the people I was flirting with."
"Can't you just hypnotize them like you usually do?" Rylarth asked.
"No fun. I was trying to see how far I could go without my powers," she replied.
"Wait a second… don't tell me you found Dixie again," Nia said.
"It's more like she found us," Phoenix said.
"Or never left us," Rylarth added.
"Should I go back and find her?" Mircalla asks. "I mean, there was this one cute girl in there…"
"No!" Jax exclaimed. "You're far too drunk for that, I'll find her."
Jax left the alleyway and headed back into the club.
"So once we find Dixie, then what?" Nia asked.
"We go to the lair," Jax said.
"We have a lair?" Nia asked. "That sounds very cliché."
"Cliché, maybe, but it's got all sorts of resources to train with," Rylarth said. "We need to be certain that we can defeat everyone."
"That doesn't make it any less cliché," Nia replied.
"It's not really a lair, though," Rylarth said. "It's an old abandoned nightclub that I found and somewhat renovated it."
"What do you mean somewhat?" Phoenix asked.
"Well, there's still work to do," Rylarth explained.
"Wait, you haven't seen it?!" Nia asked.
"No, we've all been waiting for you," Phoenix replied.
"Well now I feel guilty," Nia replied.
"Who are they?" Mircalla asked, pointing to the men frozen to the floor.
"Oh right, they were trying to force me to go to another bar with them," Nia told them. "Should I let them go?"
"That would probably be a good idea," Rylarth told her.
Nia flicked her wrist towards the men and the ice faded. She glared at them, hand out ready to freeze them, as they scurried out of the alleyway and back into the club to safety.
"Glad that's taken care of," Nia smirked.
Jax walked back out in to the alleyway with a red-headed girl who had space buns and a flower crown in her hair and a quirky outfit of black and white polka dots with stripes.
"Nia!" Dixie exclaimed, going in for a hug. "So good to see you!"
"Yeah yeah, you too or whatever," Nia replied, only half hugging her. "Shall we go?"
"Yeah," Rylarth replied. "So Shaden can shadow travel, I can shift and fly…is anyone else able to transport?"
"I can light myself on fire and then fly," Blaze offered.
"Great," Rylarth said. "That just leaves Dixie, Nia and Jax."
"I'll take Jax with shadow travel," Shaden, a.k.a. Cassius offered, trying not to blush. Nia wasn't the only one with a lingering high school crush.
"Phoenix can take Dixie," Nia said.
"She'll burn," Phoenix replied.
"Duh, that was the point," Nia told him.
"Calm down, I can take both Nia and Dixie," Rylarth announced. "I'm a big enough Pegasus when I shift to carry two people, now."
"Alright then, let's go," Phoenix said, starting to light up.
The sky lit up with a blazing comet that was Phoenix shooting through the sky, no surprise that Blaze was his villain name. Cassius took hold of Jax, and reluctantly Mircalla, though this time had put on his hood to hide his facial expression, and faded into the darkness of the shadows. This left Dixie, Rylarth and Nia in the alleyway. Rylarth's hand became a hoof and her entire body soon shifted into her Pegasus form. Despite not being shockingly gorgeous like Mircalla or Nia, her Pegasus form was stunning. She was a deep black color with wings that faded into purple, flamed wings; her hooves were the same color. Her mane and tail were the same color too, but billowed in the breeze and was soft to the touch. She blended in perfectly with the night sky. Dixie and Nia boarded her, making sure to get a tight grip. The breeze of the night sky brushed against Rylarth's mane as she took off into the sky, the light of the full moon creating a dull light to just see her. The city shone below them, and they could see the light of Phoenix ahead of them.
"Woooo!" Dixie shouted.
"Dixie! Shh!" Nia scolded. "Don't be too loud, we're trying to stay hidden!"
"No one's going to hear us!" Dixie exclaimed. "Not like there are other people with powers around here!"
Out of nowhere appeared an old foe: Super Fly.
"You called?" she shouted through the noise.
"Now look what you've done!" Nia shouted at Dixie. "You've jinxed us."
"Whoops," Dixie said.
"I know who you are," she said, glaring at Nia. "You're Frostbite."
"Oh please," Nia said. "I'm not that cold-hearted."
"Maybe," Super Fly replied. "But you're cold-powered."
"That was the dumbest comeback, almost as dumb as your superhero name," Nia retorted.
"Now is not the time that we want to be fighting," Rylarth chimed in. "Freeze her and we'll continue."
"No need to ask twice," Nia said.
"Don't worry, I'll zap her!" Dixie exclaimed holding out her Taser.
"No, stop! You're holding it the wrong way!" Nia shouted.
Dixie pressed the button of the Taser, ignoring Nia. Dixie shook for a few seconds and dropped the Taser. Nia rolled her eyes.
"Whoops," Dixie said, again.
"Typical," Nia muttered.
Nia held out her arm and froze Super Fly's legs together. Super Fly slowed down and started to descend as the others shot ahead, flying over forest land and ascending into the clouds. Nia spread out her hands, sprinkling icicles through the sky. Dixie watched in amusement, wishing she too could have a power. Rylarth started to descend, meaning that the 'abandoned nightclub' must be nearby. Nia took caution of this, tangling her hands in Rylarth's mane. Looking below at a shady neighborhood, with abandoned streets and sheets of metal lying on the road.
Rylarth flew closer to the streets, approaching the club. She flew around and landed on the street, right next to the club. Nia jumped off and strutted to the entrance of the club, where everyone else was waiting, though Cassius
"What took you so long?" Mircalla asked.
"Got held up by Super Fly," Jax answered for us. "Dixie's fault, apparently."
Nia glared at Jax, "I get that you have telepathy and all, but I generally like to complain on my own."
"Why must our lair be in the snow?" Phoenix asked. "It's melting and turning into water."
"Told you ice is water," Nia replied.
"How are we getting in?" Dixie asked.
"Easy," Rylarth replied, back in human form, walking up the the metal door that guarded the cave.
She poked in some buttons and the door unlocked to reveal a dingy looking club.
"You've got to be kidding me," Nia said.
"Come in," she gestured.
Everyone hastily entered the club, and Rylarth pushed a button inside. The club transformed into a training room, with all sorts of technology specific to each individual's powers.
"Okay, I take that back," Nia said. "This might be kind of cool."
"I told you," Rylarth replied.
"So are there sleeping quarters in here, yeah?" Mircalla asked, and to be fair, she did look like she needed sleep.
"Yes, everyone has their own room," Rylarth explained. "I charmed them to suit your personalities, powers and preferences."
"Where are they?" Phoenix asked.
"Downstairs," Jax replied for Rylarth, who seemingly wasn't ecstatic about it.
"Correct," Rylarth agreed. "Follow me to the basement."
Everyone trudged down the creaky, wooden stairs to the basement, where a set out of doors lay with names on each room.
"I've used your villain names in case anyone somehow enters the lair," Rylarth told them.
Mircalla stumbled into her room, and a loud flop was heard.
"Should someone go help her?" Jax asked, looking at Nia.
"What, you want me to?" Nia asked him, knowing exactly what his plan was.
Though she couldn't truly run through her thoughts while Jax was still awake and could read her mind, she had decided that she would manage to find a loophole in the arrangement and leave as soon as possible. She figured that Jax probably already knew this and intended for her feelings to grow back for Mircalla, so she couldn't leave, and decided to play his method against him.
"Well, why not?" he said, obviously knowing that she knew what he was trying to do.
"Because, shockingly, I'm not in the mood to take care of a drunk Mircalla," she replied. "Someone else can do it, I'm going to bed."
"Just leave her," Shaden said. "She'll figure it out, eventually."
"Everyone, make sure to sleep well because we have got a full day of training tomorrow," Rylarth announced. "You're probably all off your game, so please sleep up."
Nia rolled her eyes and headed to her room, knowing that she was certainly not off her game. Despite her want for the room to be bad so she could complain; it was perfect for her. The room was nice and cold to her liking, and thankfully unlike previous years of making fun of the connection between her and Ice Queen Elsa, there was no merchandise of that in the room. Nia cozied herself under the blankets and closed her eyes shut. It wasn't long before she heard the door open and someone stumble into the room.
"I swear to God, Blaze, if you're going to try and prank me; I will freeze you," Nia threatened.
"It's not Blaze," a familiar voice assured her.
"Mircalla," she said. "What are you doing in here?"
"I wanted to see you," Mircalla replied.
"Cal, you're still drunk," Nia told her.
"Doesn't matter," Mircalla replied. "I wanted to see you. I missed you."
"Did you, now?" Nia snarked.
"I know you missed me too," she said.
"Stop it, Cal," Nia scolded her. "This can't happen."
"Why not?" Mircalla asked. "Just one kiss?"
Nia took this into consideration. If she did kiss Mircalla, she might re-hatch serious feelings for her. But she also might just have lust over Mircalla, and the kiss
"Fine," she said, her voice laced with an icy tone.
It had been years that she'd wanted this, she'd liked Mircalla almost as soon as she met her. She gazed into Mircalla's mesmerizing eyes, whether that was how they were naturally or because of her hypnosis powers; Nia couldn't tell. Mircalla glanced ever so slightly, down at Nia's lips, inching closer and filling the space between them. They pressed their lips together, and Nia could feel her insides tingling from the electricity of the kiss, flowing through her body. She didn't want to stop; but she had to restrain herself.
"I knew you'd be into it," Mircalla smiled, as Nia broke from the kiss.
"Off you go then," Nia ordered. "You got what you wanted."
"Goodnight," Mircalla whispered, leaving Nia with a kiss on the cheek.
She stumbled her way out of the room, and Nia could still hear her after leaving the room. She couldn't help but smile at her. This was bad, Nia felt as though she couldn't be crushing. Not only could Nia confirm she had feelings for Mircalla; but she now could say that the feeling was mutual. Though, she had a big day of training ahead of her and a lot to prove to Rylarth. After a few toss and turns, Nia managed to fall asleep.