DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely none of the properties you will see here. All rights go to their respective owners.


Infinity Verse Spotlight

El Tigre: Love and Duty


The sun's ray's peeking through the closed blinds of windowsill was what woke Manny up from his slumber. He grumbled a few incoherent words as he reached over to his bedside drawer and fumbled around for his phone. After finally finding it, he looked at the digital clock, saw that it was 11:25 AM and let out a groan. If he was at his father's house, he would have been berated by his dad for sleeping in, even if it was a weekend. Thankfully, Manny was at his mother's house for the weekend and she let him sleep late. Besides, she was out for the day recording tracks for her latest album and wouldn't be back until later tonight, allowing her son to stay in bed all day if he so chose to.

Rather than get up and get dressed, he put his phone back, wanting to at least get another thirty minutes of sleep in before starting the day. But, just as he set it down, his Infinity League communicator went off, nearly making him jump out of his skin. He quickly reached over and answered it, making sure not to switch on the COMM's holo-projection setting and stuck to audio only as he did.

"Yeah?" he said into the COMM.

"Dude, are you gonna show up at all today?" Dipper's voice asked on the other end of the line. "Your shift started like forty minutes ago."

Manny let out a groan at that. Wen he was first recruited into the Infinity League, he thought it would be a neat idea to fight crime alongside other young heroes across the globe, but what everyone failed to mention to him was that saving the world required serious work. Whenever he was on his shift, he usually found himself wrapped up in world-ending crises every other day of the week. Last week alone, he was almost crushed by the Kaiju named Varan, nearly gutted by Goldar and had his molecules rearranged by a machine created by Dr. Dementor.

Still, he somehow hated being ordered around more than he did being nearly killed by some villain. Before he was a member of the League, he enjoyed being his own superhero, unless he was working with his dad, White Pantera, or scheming with his grandfather, Puma Loco.

"Yeah, give me like ten minutes," finally answered.

"Alright, dude, you're the one who's gonna get chewed out for being late, not me," Dipper replied.

"Just tell them I'm fighting a supervillain or something," Manny suggested.

With that, he hung up. He then turned his attention to the other side of his bed, where he looked upon the person he was sharing it with. Her name was Zoe Aves, and their relationship was a complex one to say the least. Years back, during his early days of being El Tigre, he fought several battles with Zoe, who in reality was the bird-themed villainess known as Black Cuervo. Together, with her mother and grandfather, they were known and feared throughout the streets of Miracle City, Mexico as the Flock of Fury. The trio of women had sworn a blood oath to destroy the Rivera family at any cost in several acts of vengeance for the heartbreak they suffered from each member of the family. For the longest time, Manny fought against Zoe in her villainous persona and that was it. That was, until a year ago, where during a fight between the Flock and the Riveras, the two were separated from the others in a brutal fight.

It was during this fight that Manny knocked Zoe's helmet off to reveal her true face to him. In her public identity, Zoe was Manny's classmate and rival to his best friend turned girlfriend, Frida. (granted, he and and the blue-haired rocker had gone back to being friends by this point.) With him and Frida no longer dating, Manny had had been noticing Zoe in school more often and, while they were on good terms, he never attempted to date her, thinking that she'd say no out of spite for Frida, who in turn would be also mad at him for asking out her rival. But in that moment of seeing Zoe's true nature, Manny's whole world turned upside down. Rather than continue the fight, he let her escape before the rest of his family could arrive on the scene.

Later that night, Manny laid awake in bed, trying to mentally process what he had just witnessed. There was a time years ago where Manny and Frida suspected that Zoe was Cuervo, but they were mislead by a trick to hide Zoe's secret identity with the help of her grandmother. His mind raced with a thousand questions, but there was one that always kept reemerging: Could he still be with her now that he knew who she really was? That question kept lingering in his mind until he finally saw her again in school. He pulled her aside and swore that he wouldn't share her secret identity with anyone else. Rather than ask why he would do such a thing, she merely thanked him, awestruck that he would do her an act of kindness such as this. From that point on, their relationship as rivals began to change from one of hate to one of respect, then flirtation, and then, finally, one of love.

Of course, a romance such as their's was one that was looked down upon by both heroes and villains alike, not to mention that their parents would be firmly against this and stop at nothing to keep them apart. Zoe once made a joke that they were like Romeo and Juliet, only with more lasers and a much bigger chance of dying a more painful death. But, despite all of that, they stayed together and kept their love hidden from the rest of the world.

"Hey," he greeted gently. "I gotta go."

"Yeah, I heard," Zoe said as she rolled over to face him. "Seriously, Rivera, you have no concept of volume control."

"You're one to talk," her lover teased. "You were pretty loud last night yourself."

"Maybe you can stick around for a bit and see what other sounds I can make?" Zoe suggested in voice that was smooth as silk.

"As much as I'd love nothing more than that, mi amor, I gotta go," the hero denied. "I don't want to be in more trouble with the League than I already am."

"Fine, fine," Zoe agreed. "Besides, I should head home myself. I told my mom I was out all night casing the new bank."

"And she bought that?" Manny inquired curiously.

"Like a fish to a hook," Zoe confirmed with a smirk.

With a quick kiss between the two, they both got out of bed and began to get dressed. Manny was dressed in his regular attire while Zoe put her armor back on. Once he was fully dressed, Manny spun his belt buckle and became his superhero/villain persona, El Tigre.

"I'll see you after my shift is done, babe," he informed is girlfriend. "Assuming I don't get forced into doing overtime with some world-ending-type junk."

"It's a date," Cuervo agreed with another kiss.

With that, the young villain turned and went to the bedroom window and opened it in order to take off, but before she could, she heard Manny make an 'ahem' to her.

"Zoe," he said calmly. "Give them back"

"Give what back?" she asked, unsure what he meant by that.

"Zoe..." he repeated in a firmer tone, holding his hand out as he did.

"Oh, fine!" she finally relented. "You're no fun!"

Zoe reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of jewelry that belong to Manny's mother before handing them back to her boyfriend. As much as Tigre loved Cuervo, he knew that she was still a villain. However, rather than try to change her into a hero like in so many comic book cliches, he allowed her to remain the way she was. One thing that Manny understood that his father never did was if a relationship was to remain intact, one shouldn't try to force change on their lover, but let it come naturally should that even happen. If Zoe chose to give up being a villain, then she would do so herself. Besides, he wasn't exactly on the side of angels sometimes either. Plus, if Manny was being honest, he liked bad girls. The secret couple also had a rule in their relationship: neither would tell the other about their missions. This way, they wouldn't be able to spoil each other's respective teams' activities to be used against them by said teams.

With another, final parting kiss, Cuervo jumped out the window and took off into the sky. Once his lover was gone, Manny gave the okay to Dipper to be teleported up to Skyward Tower.


It wasn't before long that Zoe returned to her home/supervillain HQ. She flew down into the bird-shaped observatory and suspected to see her mother and grandmother in the midst of either scheming for their next heist or upgrading their respective armor and weaponry. What everyone seemed to underestimate about the Flock of Fury was that they were not only lethal, but smart. Zoe's mother and her grandmother both had masters degrees in engineering, chemistry, advanced mechanics and aeronautics. The goth girl herself was also quite intelligent in her own right, considering that she built her armor and weapons herself from starch. True, her mother gave her a hand every now and again and taught her how to fight, but this armor was her achievement.

However, neither elder member of the villainous trio was doing either of what Zoe was expecting of them. Instead, they were both standing in front of a hologram of their weapons dealer, Black Hat. The demonic arms dealer always gave the goth the creeps, and while he supplied her family with the weapons and tech they needed to carry out their various crimes, His very smile chilled her to her bone. Zoe didn't catch what the group was talking about, but Black Hat's attention focused on her when she arrived on the scene.

"Ah, the little one has finally shown up," the demon stated. "Now I can make my offer to all three of you."

"And I will tell you 'no' again, Black Hat," Voltura informed. "We're not interested."

"What is he talking about, Mom?" Zoe asked.

"It doesn't matter, miha," her mother replied. "Because we are refusing."

"I wish you'd reconsider, Carmelita," Black Hat insisted. "The world is becoming a scary place for people in our line of work."

As much as Zoe hated to admit it, the demon was right on that remark. Ever since the Infinity League had been formed and had been rapidly expanding its numbers, it was hard for any villain to make ends meet these days. There were also horror stories she heard about how supervillains, serial killers and other criminals were being round up after either being suddenly given to Global Justice's custody or after battles with the League by the GJN and never heard from again. [1]

"If our enemy is any indication, there is safety in numbers," he furthered. "If we have any chance of combating the Infinity League, then we must unite as one!"

"You mean, unite as one...under your thumb," Voltura corrected. "Sorry, but the Flock of Fury will never bow to anyone!"

Black Hat get out a low growl of dissatisfaction from his throat, making the family of villains begin to feel apprehensive. Black Hat was as powerful as he was temperamental and could easily use his dark powers to reach out from wherever he was hiding these days and kill all three women without breaking a sweat. Thankfully, the arms dealer composed himself before speaking again.

"That is...unfortunate," he stated. "I trust you'll still buy from me regardless?"

"It's not like we have a choice," Lady Gobbler mentioned harshly. "You've killed all the other local sellers and Destro charges too damn high!"

"Then perhaps we can come to an agreement," Black Hat reasoned. "If you do a little favor for me, then I'll give you this month's shipment of parts for your suits for free."

"You don't just give out anything for free, Black Hat," Carmelita noted in suspicion. "What exactly is this favor?"

"There's an GJN armored convoy of confiscated alien weapons passing through your neck of the woods tonight," the demon began. "If you get me those weapons, then I'll give you what you want without charging you a single dime."

Voltura went silent for a moment, a clear sign that she was considering this. It was too good to be true for Zoe, and she knew her mother had the same thought too. But, thanks to the League and the GJN, it was getting harder and harder to commit any successful crimes these days, so the funds they needed for their suits were starting to dry up. The Flock hated the idea of directly fighting the Global Justice Network, knowing what would follow soon after. After weighing her options, Voltura answered her dealer.

"We'll do it if you give us our shipments free of charge for the next three months," she demanded. "That's my offer. Take it or leave it."

"Done," Black Hat agreed, a little to quickly for Zoe's taste. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Black Hat's image vanished, leaving Zoe to finally speak her mind.

"So nice of you to consult the rest of us before making your decision," she said, her voice heavily laced with sarcasm. "Truly a team leader through and through."

Her mother's answer came in the form of her suddenly reaching out and grabbing her by her chest plate and slamming her up against the wall. Voltura was by no means an abusive mother, at least, that's what she told herself, but she wasn't exactly a caring one either. She had a tendency to compliment her daughter one moment and back hand her the next. Voltura told her that her form of tough love was the only true love she was ever going to receive in this cold world, which was a total lie considering that she was given actual love by Manny. Zoe's grandmother stood on the sidelines, sizing up her daughter and granddaughter to see which would be the stronger in these fights like she always had done. No doubt this cycle of harsh love came from her after Puma Loca left her at the alter all those years ago.

"Open your mouth like that again and I will rip your tongue out!" Carmelita threatened.

"This is bullshit and you know it, Mom!" Zoe snapped. "He's up to something and we're gonna get screwed because of it!"

"We don't have a choice!" her mother shouted back. "We need those shipments!"

"We can just steal what we need ourselves!" Zoe countered. "We don't need him!"

"We're doing this, Zoe!" Voltura proclaimed slamming her daughter into the wall again to stress her point. "Do you understand me?"

Zoe glared back her mother defiantly.

"I said 'do you understand me?!'" Voltura snapped, punching her the stomach in the process.

"Y-yes...Mother," her daughter wheezed out.

After getting her answer, Carmelita dropped Zoe to the floor, letting crumble up into a fetal position as she tried to recover from the pain her abdomen.

"Now, get ready for tonight," the vulture-themed villain sneered.

As Zoe tried to pull herself from the floor, her family went about preparing for tonight's heist. Once she was able to stand on her feet again, Zoe limped silently back to her room and cried in the darkness.


The second Manny materialized on Skyward Tower, he saw a rather cross looking Danny Phantom standing beside Dipper and looking back at him with anger in his green eyes.

'Oh, good, he's already pissed off at me,' Manny thought to himself sarcastically. 'That saves me a lot of work.'

Despite being a member of the Infinity League, Manny had a rather strained relationship with his peers. It wasn't just because of the fact that he was the grandson of a notorious supervillain like Puma Loco, but also because of the various crimes he committed during his time as El Tigre. As one would imagine, this made his untrustworthy among his fellow heroes. In fact, originally, the League's leaders only wanted Manny's father to join and wanted nothing to do with him at all due to his checkered past. However, White Pantera refused to join unless his son was allowed membership as well, saying that this team was what he needed to keep him on the side of justice. After putting it to a vote, the League's leaders allowed Manny to join their ranks, but kept a close eye on him whenever he was around.

"Hey, so, they didn't believe the supervillain story," Dipper noted.

"Maybe next time you should switch off your communicator's tracker before saying anything," Danny added sharply. "And maybe think of a different lie from the one you've constantly used over and over again while you're at it."

"Hey, I'm here now, aren't I?" Manny defended before making a mock saltue. "El Tigre reporting for duty, your worship!"

"Cut the crap, Rivera!" the half-ghost warned. "You don't get to just waltz into the Tower whenever you please. What if we needed you sooner and you weren't here? Or do you not grasp the concept of a team?"

"I'm not in the mood for a 'power and responsibility' speech, Casper," El Tigre replied dully. "Just let me do my job in peace."

"You know, when we voted on weather or not you should join the League, Kim, Jenny and I were against the idea of having you here," Danny informed. "And so far, you've done nothing to prove me wrong."

"I'm guessing you wouldn't come down from you throne unless you needed me for something," Manny noted. "So, can we skip any further pleasantries and get to the point?"

"You're needed for a mission," the half-ghost told him. "We just got an anonymous tip that the Flock of Fury is going to try and rob a GJN armored transport carrying alien weapons."

That took Manny by surprise. Due to the rule Zoe and him had, he had no clue that his lover's family would be crazy enough to attempt such a thing.

"Are you sure?" he asked, trying to keep his cool. "I mean, it could just be prank or something."

"Maybe, but we can't take any chances," Danny replied. "You've the most experience with the Flock, so we need you on the team that's going to be on security detail for the transport."

"What about my dad?" Tigre inquired. "Why not ask him instead?"

"Your dad's still helping out with cleaning up in Bejing after that recent battle between Rodan and Megalon," Danny answered. "Believe me, we would've preferred asking for his help, but instead, we're stuck with you."

Manny growled at that as he clenched his fists in anger, but said nothing.

"Report to the briefing room on level B at once," the spectral hero ordered. "You've made them wait long enough."

With that, Danny turned and left, leaving Manny standing there for several moments in his anger before heading to carry out his mission. As he did, one thought went though his mind: How was he going to keep Zoe safe?


As Manny entered the briefing room, he found several heroes who had already gathered and had been waiting for him to arrive. There was Raphael, a member of the Ninja Turtles, Broadway, a Gargoyle of the Manhattan Clan, Rena Rouge, one of the guardians of Paris, Gung-Ho, the rough and tumble marine from G.I. Joe, Ironhide, the second-in-command of the Autobots and finally, the Yellow Power Ranger, bearer of the Sabertooth Tiger Power Coin.

All eyes fell on El Tigre as he stepped into the room, who brushed off their cross looks in response to them. It was then that Manny saw who was leading this certain group of heroes. It was the American Dragon. A League Leader and one of the people who voted him into the Infinity League. Unlike Danny, the Dragon was one of the few heroes who treated him fairly and was one of the more easier people to work with. In fact, the Dragon was the tie-breaker in the vote for if Manny was worthy to join the team after Kim, Danny and Jenny voted against him while Prime, SheZow and the Ninja voted for him.

"Nice of y'a to finally join us, Tigre," Ironhide mentioned sharply.

"Only took you, what, an hour to get here?" Raphael added, his patience clearly having ran thin.

"Leave him alone, guys," Dragon said. "He's here now, and that's all that matters."

Once Manny had sat down, the Dragon began to talk about the plan to protect the transport.

"Okay guys, let's be real. There might be a good chance that this might all be BS. But if it isn't, then we need to be ready for them."

"So, what's the plan?" Broadway inquired.

"Ironhide will disguise himself as one of the armored cars and be on the end of the line with Gung-Ho dressed as a driver, since that'll be one the Flock will most likely attack," the Dragon explained. "Rena, you create an illusion inside of Ironhide to make it look like the weapons they're after. The rest of us will observe the transports from the rooftops and keep an eye out for them."

As Manny listened to the Dragon's plan, he inwardly began to think of anyway he could keep Zoe and her family out of the GJN's hand. He had to be extremely careful about aiding the Aves family, least he be thrown into prison alongside them. He doubted he keep the entire Flock of Fury out of custody, but as long as he kept his lover out of the GJN's reach, he could live with himself. And honestly, he was pretty sure Zoe would be fine with that.

"Tigre," the Dragon addressed. "Do you have any notes you wanna share on how to beat these guys?"

Finally. An opportunity he needed to save his girlfriend from a life behind bars. He had to play the part of a determined hero instead of a man trying to keep his lover safe.

"The Flock prefer to do hit-and-run heists, but they'll fight back if they're cornered," he informed the other heroes. "They fight at their best when they're together, so we should try to split them up. You guys should let me handle Cuervo. I have the most experience with her."

"I bet you do," Raph noted mockingly. "Didn't you and her have a thing?"

"I was working undercover for my dad when that happened," El Tigre defended. "Trust me, Z-I mean, Black Cuervo, is gonna wanna shoot me instead of kiss me."

Manny mentally cursed himself for nearly saying his girlfriend's real name to the other heroes. The Flock had paid a hefty sum of bribe money to the Miracle City PD to keep their true identities out of their databases and they wanted to keep their true selves hidden from the rest of the hero community. While he thought that his teammates didn't catch his error, he failed to notice that the Dragon was narrowing his eyes in suspicion at that small slip of the tongue that Tigre had mentioned, but said nothing, shrugging it off as a brain fart of sorts.

"Alright, dudes, get you gear and get ready to head out to Miracle City in next hour," he informed his team.


Zoe and her family and been keeping their distance as they followed the GJN convoy. As they flew high above the armored cars, they used the cover of the clouds in the night's sky to mask their approach. Zoe still had her misgivings about this heist, but she knew better than to question her mother again. Like a pride of lions stalking a heard of zebras, the Aves family waited for one the vans to either be slowed down or cut off from the rest of the convoy so they could strike.

There was a part of the goth girl who wanted to break off from the rest of her family and let them continue on with this suicide mission by themselves, but she ignored that thought, not just because she knew what her mother would do to her, but because she did, in a twisted way, care for her family. The young goth knew that this wasn't how a family should be, but she had no other option. She couldn't just drop everything and run away with Manny like in the movies. This was real life, and in real life, she couldn't just up and leave the only people who cared about her, no matter how often they struck her.

Her mother then pointed down to the convoy, showing the other members of the Flock that one of the trucks had suddenly pulled over while the rest of the convoy continued to move ahead. At first, the Flock was a bit apprehensive about moving to intercept the downed truck, fearing that this may be a trap, but greed got the better of Voltura, and soon enough, the Flock descended downward to begin their attack.

The driver had just stepped out of the vehicle when Voltura swooped down from the sky, grabbed hold of the driver and pinned him up against the wall of a nearby building. She then activated her wrist laser and pointed it directly at the man's face.

"You speak, you die," she warned him in a low voice. "Got it?"

The driver nodded in understanding. While her mother held the the driver in place, Zoe and her grandmother went to the back of the truck and opened it, keeping their weapons drawn. Inside was a single female guard sitting beside several crates that no doubt held the Flock's prize. The guard put her hands up and backed away as Lady Gobbler kept her staff trained on her, thus allowing Zoe to crack open the crates and see what weapons were within it. Inside the boxes were several alien weapons ranging from Kraang and Cybertronian to Cluster and even Triceraton. But, just as Zoe reached down to pick up one of the weapons, the guns and the boxes themselves suddenly vanished in a cloud of orange smoke. The guard smirked at the sight, instantly making Cuervo realize what had happened.

"It's a trap!" she exclaimed in a panic.

The guard's uniform faded away to reveal the French hero, Rena Rouge, who kicked the two stunned villains out of the back of the truck. The attack distracted Voltura long enough for the 'driver' to now make his move.

"Yo, Joe!" Gung-Ho shouted as he smacked the wrist laser out of his face and cracked the villain across the jaw.

Voltura stumbled back before retreating to the rest of her team. Rena climbed out of the truck and approached the trio of villains as Gung-Ho joined her side.

"Well, well, well," the marine said as he and Rena approached the trio. "Looks like we caught us a couple of ducks for dinner!"

"You're still still outnumbered!" Voltura snarled back.

"You might wanna recount," Rena corrected her.

Moments after the fox-themed hero had spoken, Broadway, Raphael, the Dragon, the Yellow Ranger and much to Zoe's dismay, El Tigre, all descended down from the rooftops they were hiding from and surrounded the trio. Once the heroes revealed themselves, Ironhide transformed into his robot mode, changing back into his red color scheme as he did.

The Flock of Fury was outnumbered and outmatched by the group that now encircled them, but, despite their odds being against them, Zoe only saw her lover standing against her like their younger days. Manny looked back at his secret girlfriend with pain in eyes. He hated this. He wanted nothing more than to start attacking his comrades and clear a path for Zoe to make her escape, even if that meant damning himself to lifetime behind bars. But, as much as he wished he could do that, he knew he'd only do more harm than good for both of them.

"You've got one chance to surrender," the Yellow Ranger declared as she readied her Power Daggers. "I suggest you take it."

"And be thrown to the mercy of Global Justice? I think not!" Voltura snapped back defiantly.

"Please, Voltura, for once in your life just listen to reason," El Tigre pleaded. "Think of your daughter."

The Dragon was surprised by this sudden act of peacemaking from El Tigre, especially on the Flock's behalf. He then noticed a look of concern from Cuervo's eyes. It was small, but it was enough for the winged reptile to see that perhaps there was a connection between them.

"HA! You have some nerve, Rivera!" Voltura spat. "You've broken my daughter's heart more times than I can count, and now you care for her well-being?"

'If you only knew,' he thought to himself before speaking again. "I'm trying to help you out here!"

"I suggest you listen to him, little missy," Ironhide spoke out. "Ya can't fight your way out of this one."

"Watch us!" the Flock's leader sneered. "Vendetta!"

With the trio's battle cry, Voltura fired her wrist laser at Manny, who narrowly evaded the blast and the battle was on. The Flock quickly spread out and picked their targets. Zoe avoided fighting her boyfriend and instead focused on her attack on the Yellow Ranger. Likewise, Manny did the same and launched himself at Lady Gobbler, though he did keep an eye on his lover as he did. However, in his act to keep a watch on his lover, he failed to notice a laser blast from Lady Gobbler's staff that sent him flying backwards. The elderly villain would have finished him off had it not been for a flying roundhouse kick from Rapheal into her chest that saved him.

El Tigre quickly recovered from his hit at the same time his attacker did, who now drew an egg-shade grenade and activated it before throwing it at the two heroes. Fortunately, Ironhide managed to reach out and grab the the explosive, letting it blow up in his hand.

"Heh, that all you got?" the Autobot mocked. "I've had Scrapplet bites that hurt more than that!"

Lady Gobbler was stunned by the alien machine's ability to remain unharmed by her bomb, giving Raph the chance to try and throw one of his sais at her, only for her to knock it away with her staff. She then activated a switch on her weapon, unleashing a high-pitch sonic wail from it, bringing the trio to their knees from the sonic blast. Luckily, the Yellow Ranger, having narrowly avoided an energy blast from Zoe's cannons, knocked out the elderly villain with a surprise left hook, saving the others from her weapon.

Meanwhile, Voltura was busy fighting the Dragon, Broadway and Rena while Cuervo fought Gun-Ho, who was quickly aided by Tigre. He did not wish to do so, but he wanted to make sure that his lover would be safe. Meanwhile, the other heroes had since joined the fight against Voltura, who was already being beaten back. Knowing that she was going to lose this fight, Carmelita turned to look at her daughter as she took out another egg-bomb of a different coloration.

"Run!" she commanded before throwing the egg down.

Manny already knew what that particular egg was meant for and had already shielded his eyes from the ensuing flash of bright light. Zoe was unaffected by the blast thanks to her helmet's visor. Taking the chance her mother had given her, she flew off into the night's sky. However, while Tigre was at first thankful that she had managed to escape, he saw that the Dragon had also covered his eyes just in time to avoid being affected by the blast of light as well. He quickly spread his wings and took off after the young villain. Throwing caution to the wind, Manny shot out his fist chain, grabbed onto a nearby rooftop and swung after the two.

While the chase was going on, the other members of the League charged towards Voltura, only for her to quickly fly off into the skies, holding onto Lady Gobbler as she did so. Broadway was about to fly after them, only for another of Carmelita's egg-shapped flash bombs to go off, blinding the heroes once more.

"Leaking lubricants!" Ironhide cursed.

Black Cuervo had only made it a hundread yards away from the fight when the American Dragon closed in on her and slashed open her jetpack, causing to fall from the sky and smash down into into an alleyway. Thankfully, the armor took the brunt of the impact from the fall, leaving Zoe with only a few bruises. The Dragon landed in front of her with his claws at the ready while Zoe drew her wrist laser, refusing to back down. But before either could make a move, the Dragon suddenly collapsed to the ground in an unconscious heap. Standing behind the now knocked out League leader was Manny, who had crossed a line for his love.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Zoe said in utter disbelief.

"Saving you," Manny affirmed.

"But they'll know you helped me!" his lover reasoned.

"Then I'm gonna need you to make this look good," her lover began. "Shoot me."

"What?! No!" Cuervo denied.

"It's the only way I keep out of prison and you can still have a chance to escape," El Tigre explained.

"I'm not shooting you!" Cuervo refused.

Just then, the two secret lovers heard the distant voices of the other League members who were fast approaching. Knowing time was running out, Manny pulled her close and kissed Zoe deeply.

"We're out of time," he whispered to her.

Zoe nodded slowly in agreement before pressing her wrist laser up against his torso.

"It's okay, Zoe," he assured her. "You can never hurt me."

With another kiss, Manny felt a sharp pain in his torso as a bright flash of violet light overtook his vision.


The first thing Manny saw when his eyes finally opened again was a bright light, making him think that perhaps Zoe shot him with a little too strong a blast. But once more of his sight came back to him, he saw that Ford was standing over him, as well as Danny, who was looking down at him.

"Did I go to Hell?" Manny dryly joked. "It would explain why you're here."

"Very funny," Danny replied. "Good to know you're sense of humor isn't injured."

Manny tried to sit up from the medical bed he had been placed on, but a sharp pain kept him down. He looked down to see that most of his costume was removed and that his torso had been wrapped in bandages.

"You took a nasty hit from Black Cuervo," Ford said. "Had it not been for your enhanced durability, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Then it hit him: what happened to his lover?

"Cuervo...Did she...?" he timidly asked, fearing the answer.

"She got away," Danny informed him. "The rest of the Flock got away too, but they didn't get their hands on any of the weapons, and that's what counts."

Tigre let out a mental sigh of relief at that. He kept the face of a hero who failed on the outside, but on the inside he was more than happy to hear that she was out of the hands of the GJN.

"What about the Dragon?" Manny asked. "Is he okay?"

"Aside from a really bad headache, I'm good," Dragon's voice cut in as he stepped into the infirmary.

"Dragon told us that you're the reason he's still alive," Danny added. "Cuervo was about to kill him, but you jumped in to protect him and fought her off."

That, of course, was a total lie. Manny looked at Dragon with a confused look, wondering if he had hit his teammate harder than he intended to. It was then that Danny spoke up again.

"I owe you an apology, Manny," he began. "You stayed and protected one of our own instead of turning on him. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

"Looks like I finally proved you wrong," El Tigre said slyly.

"Get some rest," Danny said.

With that, Danny and Ford left the room with the Dragon following behind him when Manny spoke up again.

"What's going to happen to Cuervo?" he asked.

"GJN is staking out the Flock's hideout," the winged firebreather said. "She won't get far, dawg."

As the Dragon left the room, Manny frantically reached into his pocket and pulled out his communicator. Shortly after joining the League, Manny modified his communicator with Zoe's help to tap into into her helmet's frequency so that they could talk to one another when he was on Skyward Tower since cell phone service wasn't exactly the strongest in space.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up!" he whispered in a panic.

"Manny?" Zoe's voice asked on the other end of the line. "Oh, thank god! I thought I killed you for a second!"

"Zoe, listen to me, we don't have much time," he began in frantic voice. "Where are you right now?"

"I'm about to meet up with my family at a rendezvous point we set up before the heist," his lover replied. "Once I meet up with them them, we're headed back home."

"Don't go home!" Manny nearly shouted. "I just found out that there's a GJN ambush waiting for you there!"

"Are you serious?" Zoe asked. "What should I do?"

"You and your family need to get out of Miracle City until the heat dies down," Tigre suggested. "Don't tell me where you're going, just run!"

"But I might not see you again!" Zoe stated.

"I swear, I'll find you again, Zoe," Manny offered. "But what matters right now is that you stay safe for the time being."

"...Alright" Cuervo finally accepted. "I love you, Manny."

"And I love you, mi amor," he replied sadly.

Zoe switched off her end of the line, letting Manny listen to only the static as his heart sank deep into his chest in sorrow.


'Son of a bitch,' Jake thought to himself. 'I hate being right.'

The American Dragon knew that Black Cuervo didn't knock him out, but he wasn't a hundred percent sure if it was Manny who did either, only suspecting him from his actions throughout the day. But, after to tuning in on Tigre's frequency on his COMM., his suspicions were all but confirmed. There was a part of him that wanted to turn over his findings to Danny and the others and let them deal with him as they saw fit, but he refused to do so. Jake knew a thing or two about being in love with a bad girl, and he too had to keep his relationship with her on the down-low as well. He wasn't about to condemn someone for what he was also doing as well.

So, he let it go, knowing that Manny had already enough of a bad day as it was, and hoped that Cuervo was a lot more like Rose than his first impressions lead him to believe.


With their HQ compromised, the Flock of Fury were forced to flee from Miracle City entirely, knowing that they would get no help from the other villains who resided there. Cast out of their home by a forced exile, the trio had only one option of staying out of the GJN and the Infinity League's grasp.

Despite how much they hated it.

"It's a pity that you were forced to flee Miracle City," Black Hat noted as he met with the trio in his office. "But I'm so glad you chose to join us."

"We didn't have a choice," Voltura stated coldly. "If the League hadn't been tipped off, then we wouldn't be here."

"But they were, and now you are," the arms dealer informed her. "So, like it or not, you now work for me."

Flugg then stepped into Black Hat's office.

"Flugg will show you to your new quarters," the demon told them. "Welcome to the Society of Supervillains." [2]

As the Flock followed the mad scientist out of the office, Black Hat let out a soft chuckle, clearly happy at the thought that his scheme to get the Flock of Fury to join his Society went off ever so perfectly. Meanwhile, Zoe only clutched her necklace that held the tiny screw Manny had given to her so many years ago, all the while inwardly praying to whatever god was listening that she could be reunited with her love soon.


[1] - To know which supervillains are currently in GJN custody, read Part 11 of The New Frontier and Chapter 1 of The Dark Phoenix

[2] - Concieved in Part 4 of The New Froniter