Holy Crap I'm actually posting this. And I bet all five of you who glanced at my profile thought I was just making shit up. Nope. here it is. Still unfinished but I'm posting it, dammit.
First chapter/prologue/step to get me to post something other than a one shot!
Short, but has cursing. Read with caution.

"Happy Birthdayss, Boss." Snake hissed quietly, dabbing his leader's bloody cut with the cleanest scrap of gauze he could find. Ace tensed at the suggestion – he'd forgotten what day it was, not to mention what day his birthday fell under. Eh. Didn't seem all that important in the midst of all this crap. What a great birthday it was – poor, starving, and now busted up thanks to three particular super powered little girls.

Ace hissed this time, only half hearing Snake murmur an apology. It had been bad this time, but not bad enough to get them to retreat to the free clinic. At least the girls let them limp off without tossing them in the back of a squad car. They had only jacked some food, after all. Maybe there was an advantage to having chicks beat you up – more empathy for piety crime. But Ace wasn't kidding himself. Another move like that and they'd be land ass-first in sing sing – which wouldn't be a problem if Ace hadn't suddenly become aware of the fact that he was now a legal adult. He couldn't remember how old he was exactly, but he was pretty sure this was as far as he could milk the 'but I'm just a kid' excuse. Not that he wouldn't try.

Snake withdrew his probing hand, blinking up at him. He hissed softly and glanced back at the bandaged hand, then up at his boss. Maybe the birthday thing hadn't been the best thing to bring up. He'd just figured it'd make him feel better. Guess not. He winced in anticipation of the hit he was probably gonna get. Still, he peeked up at Ace, hoping he'd appreciate the thought. He bandaged up his cut good enough, right?

"Already, huh?" Ace sighed, almost sounded defeated. Snake nodded, hissing a bit, watching Ace glance over at the other limping, bruised, and otherwise oblivious members of the gang. "Thanks Snake."

"No problemss, boss." The reptile smiled weakly, blood in his teeth "Needs painkillers?"

"Na, I'm good." He sat up and turned to spit on the ground. "Go make sure none o' those guys is gonna keel over."

Ace shooed him off and stood up on shaky legs. Happy goddamn, shitty, fucked over birthday. At least someone remembered. And they weren't dead or in jail. And they had some food. And Snake remembered. Come to think of it, this day was better than most days, minus the Powerpuff beating, but even that was standard.

The leader rolled his shoulders and spat on the ground, adjusting his shades with a flick of his wrist. He watched Snake make his rounds, shuffling between the rest of his gang while they got it back together. He waited in the mouth of the alley, looking around for cops that could have overheard heard the commotion. Last thing he wanted to do was run, but if they had to they could. As far as law enforcement seemed to be concerned, though, the girls could take care of their workload. A couple of busted up kids weren't all that important.

Eventually, the gang part of the Gangreen Gang plodded to a halt behind him. Ace shot a cursory glance around the buildings corners before turning to face his bloody crew.

"Yous okay ta walk back?" He muttered, only half heartedly playing his big bad boss role. He wasn't in the mood. The rest of them nodded or mumbled in agreement, following Ace blindly while he limped out into the street.

Out in the open they made quite the shameful sight. The more reputable citizens of Townsville gave the lot of them wide birth on their way back to the dump. For his part, Ace mostly navigated blindly, the want to shut his eyes too great to pass up. He was kind of proud of his ability to get back only barely keeping his eyes open. He felt safe with the rest of his gang behind him. The loud thuds from Billy, the barefoot slaps from Grubber, the light taps for Arturo, and the shuffling from Snake.

For some unknown reason, Ace whistled a few bars of a familiar song that no one really heard.

Hap-py birth-day to me.

I know it's short - the chapters do get longer, I promise. I'm just testing the waters here. Please let me know what you think :)