"I'm back." James said, walking into the villain league.
"Plant boy?" The Samurai looked at him questioningly. "You're still with us?"
"Of course. The heroes wouldn't think about harming me, they could hold me for so long." The Samurai looked into James's purple eyes closely before walking past him.
"Lord Mayhem will want to speak with you." Was all he said.
James waited until he was out of earshot before whispering, "I'm in," to the wire under his shirt.
Thirty minutes earlier~
"James, what I'm about to ask is extremely dangerous. Only except if you want to." Phoebe explained to her little brother's boyfriend.
"It's not like I have much to loose, go ahead." She started to explain her plan, but Billy for one, wasn't listening.
Billy was still feeling bad about what happened a little while ago. James told him the he loved him and Billy couldn't say it back. He wanted to, he really did, but he just couldn't get it out and now, James isn't even looking at him. He knew he should talk to him, but he didn't want to complicate things further. So until now, he's decided to suffer in silence.
"They obviously know that we have you, but they don't know that Colosso has broken the effects of the mind control. If you can convince them you're still on their side, with us listening of course, we can overhear Mayhem's plan and get a step ahead of them. How convincing a villain can you be?"
"My dad was The Juggernaut. I can do it." Colosso walked up and began to attach the listening device to the inside of his shirt.
"You guys ok?" Max asked, snapping Billy out of his trance.
"Huh? Oh yeah, we...we're fine." Billy said trying to dodge the question.
"Then why are you trying not to look at him?" Max asked.
"Max, please I don't wanna talk about it."
"C'mon just trust me." Max pleaded, placing his hand on his little brother's shoulder.
Billy took in a deep breath "James told he loved me." He said quiet enough for no one else to hear.
"That's gre-"
"And I didn't say it back."
"Horrible."
"Am I awful?" Max looked at him concerned. "Should I feel as bad as I do for not saying it too?" Billy asked, with his eyes trained onto the floor. He began to visibly shake.
"Billy, follow me." Max said, standing up and leading Billy into a different room. James looked over and saw Max leading his boyfriend out of the room nearly in tears and had to try his best to keep from breaking in front of everyone else.
"Go ahead." Max told Billy once they were in a different room. Billy buried his face into Max's chest and began to cry hysterically.
"I wanted to say it back, but I couldn't. What do I do now Max? Is it all over for us?"
"I honestly don't know Billy. But listen, you do not need to feel bad about what you said, or didn't say. James sprung it on you and you weren't ready. But you need to talk to him."
Billy wiped his eyes. "Right, I'll do it."
Back in the main room, James was about to leave when Phoebe walked up to him. "I forgot to mention, while we will be around in case something happens, I want you to avoid any conflicts you can."
"Infiltrate the enemy, find out what their planning, don't start a fight." James summarized the plan.
"And don't die." Phoebe told him
"Great, thanks." He said sarcastically.
"You'll need these." Colosso said, handing him a lens case. These will make your eyes look purple." James took them out and placed them carefully in his eyes.
As we was about to walk out when Billy and Max walked back in. "James," James turned around and Billy sped over to him. "Listen I,"
"Later." James interrupted, Billy looked up into his eyes. "We'll talk when I get back, I promise BillBill." He said before kissing Billy's forehead. "I love you."
"I…" Billy began. James face lit up with excitement. "I…" He tried to say, but words wouldn't come out.
"Just kiss me idiot." James said with a sigh. Billy leaned up and connected his lips with James's. "I'll be back soon." He said brushing some hair from Billy's face. Billy nodded and James turned and left.
Now~
James entered Dark Mayhem's room and could feel his power while he was just sitting there. "I have returned my lord." He said, bowing down and trying to side mind wiped.
"Very good. Your powers will help tip the balance back in our favor." Mayhem told the young teen, his voice booming.
"I will do everything in my power to fulfill your master plan."
"He's doing good so far." Phoebe said to Link on the rooftop across from the villain league building.
"Yeah, but can he keep it up long enough to get out of there?" Max asked through her earpiece. Max was on a different roof with Billy, while Nora, Harris, and Cherry were down on the ground. Chloe and Allison were back at Blobbin's with Colosso. "I mean, he's a pretty shitty actor." Billy didn't say anything but nodded behind him.
"On that note, my lord, what is our end goal in all this?" James asked.
"Fear not, young one. You'll know what you need when you need to know."
"Of course," James said, rising to his feet and leaving the room. He walked down the hallway, running into other villains on the way including King Crab, Quinn, The Green Ghoul, and Candi. He decided that Quinn would be the easiest to talk to. "Quinn,"
"Oh hey kid," She said, not looking away from her phone.
"You wouldn't happen to know what all of this is for do you?"
"Um, world domination dummy." She mocked, rolling her eyes.
"Of course, but how? We could just launch a full out attack."
"Well, Lady Web was going to tell me everything, but she got arrested buy your old friends. And Mayhem scares me, so I'm not going to ask him."
"Well, that did nothing." James said walking away and bumping right into The Cloaked Figure.
"You want to know what all of this is for?" They asked in their genderless voice.
"Uhhh...yeah. Yes, I would be pleased to know what I'm working towards.
"Well, I'll tell you. As soon as you remove the wire connected to the Heroes."
"Oh crap." Phoebe said, after hearing James getting caught. They all felt the ground rumbling as giant vines, trees and what not bursted up from the ground through the Villain League Hall. The heroes jumped the ground and gathered together and they saw James running out of the building.
"Hey guys, bye!" He said as he ran past them. Max and Phoebe used their telekinesis to pull him back next to the group. "Oh, we're fighting ok."
"No more running away." Phoebe told everyone.
"This ends tonight." Max finished. All of the heroes stood together as the villains ran outside except Mayhem and the two new villains. Nora wasted no time blasted her eyes lasers right at The Green Ghoul, to no effect of course as he just phased through it. Max ran up to King Crab and tried to tele-blast him, but he blocked with his crab arm and knocked Max back a few feet.
Quinn fly out in full bug form and grabbed Link before flying up into the air. Phoebe tried to pull them down, which left her open to flying kinc from Candi. "Eyes on me, Thunderman."
"Keep trying to shoot me down, watch how well in works." The Ghoul mocked Nora attempting to stop him.
"Stand back, I got this." Cherry said stepping in front of the young child. She pointed a small pistol at the ghost and fired a ball of light with landed a direct hit. The Green Ghoul fell to the ground and kept flickering in and out of solid form. "Thank the bunny doctor." The blond said with with a smug grin.
"Fine, I'll fight you myself!" He said flying at them.
"Put me down!' Link cried punching at Quinn in her bug form. She drop him for a second, only to quickly grab him. "Ok, bad choice of words. But nevertheless, cut it out!" She responded by biting one of his arms and causing it to stretch and go limp. He tried to move it, but couldn't even feel it.
Down on the ground Candi was fighting Phoebe and losing badly. Phoebe was really proving to be a better fighter even without her powers. Candi put up a shield of candy around herself to keep Phoebe away, to which the hero rolled her eyes and began to use her heat breath.
Max had frozen King Crab's pincher and in doing so, made it a heavier weapon. How ever it had also slowed the villain down allowing Max to get more quick hits in. Dark Mayhem, inside, was not pleased watching. "My lord, our forces are failing." The Cloaked Figure exclaimed.
"Get our special guests out there!" He told them.
Harris and Nora were firing at The Green Ghoul and almost had him down when lightning came from the building and shocked him until he fell to the ground. They looked over and saw Thunder Man and Electress walking out of the villain league hall.
"Harris!" Link screamed, before head-butting Quinn and and falling to the ground, Max slowing him down with his powers. He crawled over to his younger brother with one limp arm and one limp leg. "It's ok, he's still breathing." He said, while checking for a pulse at the same time. The Thunderman family however was too distracted by seeing both of their parents completely turned to the side of evil.
The parents began to charge at the kids when suddenly everything to stand still, at least for James. He looked over and saw Billy with his hand on his shoulder. "Billy? What are you-"
"I brought you into me time." Billy explained.
"You can do that?" James asked.
"Apparently. This is the first time I've done it. Anyways, I'm going inside to fight Dark Mayhem."
"What? You can't, that's insane!"
"James, I have to. Mayhem's too powerful, I'm the only who's fast enough to beat him without he even knows what happens." Billy tried to tell his boyfriend.
"At least take me with you, you'll need back up in there." James pleaded.
"I can't. You'll be in too much danger. I can't put you in danger, you mean to much to me."
"Billy...please...you can't…" James's voice trailed off.
"I'm the only one who can." Billy told him once again. James knew Billy was right. The two embraced in a long kiss that felt like it lasted forever, but only could have lasted less than a second in real time. Pulling apart was the hardest thing either of them have had to do.
"I love you Billy. Promise you'll come back to me." James said, looking into Billy's deep, chocolate eyes
"I will. I always will." Billy told him, his reflection visible in James's emerald eyes. James turned back towards the fight as Billy let go to return him to normal speed. Billy took one last look at his beautiful partner before speeding off inside. He ran through the base past all the plants that had grown up through the floor. He ran past one door but turned around when he something unusual inside. "Dad?" He asked.
Outside James was wrapping vines around Thunder Man's limbs, like he had before. "That didn't work the last time if I remember correctly. You think it'll do more this time?" The Evil Hank asked in an amused tone.
"Yeah, kind of." He admitted. As a small pod grew and sprayed a green gas in Thunder Man's face. "A nice poison gas for you. Not enough to kill you, but it should make things easier for us."
Meanwhile Electress shot her lightning at Max and Phoebe, but they hid behind Crab and Candi letting them take the full blast from their mother. "Well, that's one way of solving the problem." Max chuckled.
Electress and Thunder Man looked at each other and nodded. The children looked on as Electress began shooting lightning at Thunder Man until the point where he began electrically charged. They all looked scared as he prepared to fly at them.
Back inside, Billy was in a dark room with his father. Not in his super-suit, but in his normal everyday clothes. "Dad? How are you here? You were just outside. Are you even mind controlled anymore?"
"Don't call me that." His father said coldly. "Don't call me 'Dad' you little freak." He sneered.
"What?"
"You heard me, you're filth. I've never been more ashamed of anything in my life."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm tired of putting up with you. You're an embarrassment on this family. You pathetic little faggot."
"N-no...you…" Billy fell to his knees hearing all the things he was afraid of leaving his father's mouth.
"Quiet! I'm tired of hearing you talk." Billy looked away and did his best to stop from crying.
Cherry through a small orb and The Green Ghoul, but his phased through him and landed on the ground. Once it was on the ground however, it opened up sucking the evil spirit within and closing up. "Wow. Colosso has thought of everything."
The Electric charged Thunder Man lifted off the ground and fly right at the twins. They tried to slow him down with their powers, but it didn't have much effect. The closed their eyes, preparing to get hit, but when they opened their eyes, the saw their cousin standing in front of them, with their father's attack completely stopped. "Blobbin!"
"Hey guys. Looks like you could use a hand here." Their cousin said in his usually upbeat tone.
"You're not him." Billy said flatly to his "father." "My father loves me, and he would never say something like that to me. So I don't know who you are, but you need to get. Out. Of. My way!" He sped forward and began to speed punch his fake father as fast and as hard as he could before uppercutting his opponent. Before him, the illusion wavered as The Cloaked Figure fell to the ground, the helmet falling off to reveal a woman Billy didn't recognized.
"Impressive." Billy turned his head and saw Mayhem standing at the other end of the room. "Unfortunately, this is where your journey ends." He began to charged an attack when Billy sped up and ran over to him This is it! Billy thought. I just have to take him down and it's over. And I'll
be hero like Mom and Dad. Like Phoebe and Max. And then...I can finally tell James that I-
Billy's thoughts were cut off by an intense pain in his stomach. He looked down and his eyes went wide when he saw a sword going straight through his body. It became hard to breath and his whole body began to shake. He reached a weak hand towards Mayhem in a desperate attempt to hit him. But before he could, the sword was pulled out and he was kicked down to the ground.
"What took you so long?!" Mayhem demanded an explanation from the The Samurai who had entered just in time to stop the young hero.
"I'm here, that's all that matters."
"Fine, tell our tropes to meet at Mt. Fuji in Japan, And grab her will you?" He said pointing to the unmasked Cloaked Figure. The Samurai lifted her over his shoulder and follow Mayhem through a secret door in the wall.
Billy was lying on the ground trying to stop the bleeding from his stomach, but to no avail. In this moment, the voices of his siblings and James started to echo in his ears.
We're your family Billy, nothing's ever going to change that.~Phoebe
I love you so much Billy. You're my hero!~Chloe
You're not just my brother, you're my best friend.~Nora
You're still a kid, you've got your whole life ahead of you.~Max
I love you Billy. Promise you'll come back to me.~James
Tears began to fall from Billy's eyes as the voices got quieter and quieter. All he could hear, was his own sobbing and all he could feel now, was cold.
Thunder Man and Electress were beginning to tire. With Blobbin on the defense, they couldn't land a single hit and were beginning to fall back. A firework shot up from the villain's base causing the Thunderman parents to glance at each other before looking up at Quinn, still in the sky. They all nodded, and flew off into the night sky.
"Is that a good or bad thing?" Max asked.
"I'm not sure, but they've stopped fighting. Let's take that with a grain of salt for now." Phoebe told the group. James kept his eyes trained on the building for several minutes. Once he ran out of patience, he ran inside.
"Where are you going?" Max asked running after him, with Nora and Phoebe following.
James ran directly to the room where he met Dark Mayhem and there he saw Billy, lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. His eyes shot open wide. "BILLY!" He ran across the room and knelt down over Billy. Max and Nora and Phoebe entered the room and were horrified by what they saw. Phoebe backed up against the wall and started to have a panic attack. Nora covered her mouth as tears poured from her eyes. Max fell to his knees and punched the ground in anger before he too, felt the tears rising.
"Billy! Wake up!" James cried through choked breaths. "Come on, you have to wake up! Please Billy! Open your eyes!" He said hugging Billy tightly. He heard a small breath and leaned away.
"J...ja…..mes….?" Billy asked weakly.
"Billy?! You're still alive! Ok, come on, we're getting out of here." James said with a small bit of hope, attempting to life Billy from the ground
"May…..hem…...Mt…..Fuji…." Billy managed to say.
"Ok, we'll go, but don't talk. You need to save your strength. We're going to get out here and we're going to go fight them together and it's going to be great, I know it." James was barely speaking at this point, most words just coming out as sobs. Billy smiled dimly and shook his head.
"James….I…..l….o…..v…...e…...y…...o…...u…." Billy said before taking his last breath and going limp in his boyfriends arms. James clutched Billy's body tighter and let out a deafening cry.