Chapter Text
Well this was an awfully unfortunate situation Branzy found himself in. He jumped right at the last second before a bolder collided with his back.
This was a misunderstanding really- well, the hero’s currently chasing him were correct in assuming Branzy was trying to hack into their master computer… but they weren’t supposed to be there!
Branzy cursed himself for being so sloppy with his plan.
The hero who was supposed to be guarding the computer should’ve been untrappable! Oh so easily manipulated untrappable! Branzy’s ex roommate untrappable! But noooooo because apparently untrappable didn’t mean un-kidnappable!
So instead of nice sweet ol’ Rek Rap Branzy was faced with fucking rainbow and the prince!
Two of the most violent “heroes” in the city.
One of which had a perfectly on brand rainbow whip that was incredibly good at flinging pieces of debris directly at little ol’ Branzy! Or as Branzy soon realized- cars!
“Hey! You gonna pay for that pore civilians car!” Branzy yelled, hoping to distract his pursuers.
“They have hero’s equities insurance! They’ll be fine.” The prince yelled.
Oh right, hero’s equities insurance. The insurance so that you’d get paid if something you owned got trashed by heroes. The only insurance you were required to plaster over everything covered by it so the heroes could use it as a weapon without feeling guilty.
If Branzy wasn’t so busy running he would have sighed and shook his head. Truly the only way to fix the city at this point was to burn it all down.
Suddenly the whip managed to land inches from Branzy’s costume. He still got hurt from the after affect of the whip. Gee, what Branzy wouldn’t give to take it apart and see what was inside it.
He’d probably be able to make a duplicate-
Another crack echoed through the air. Right, scheming later. Just focus on surviving.
Branzy tried to get an idea of what the damage was to his suit. The only thing he could manage to figure out while running was that his cloaking tech was probably busted.
Shit.
His cloaking tech tended to be finicky at best- it only really worked in scenarios where Branzy was trying to get in and out without being seen. All it took to shut his entire cloaking mechanism down was one little scrape. This scrape was more then big enough.
Especially since it seemed to cut straight through Branzy’s suit and into his skin. Ouch.
That was going to be a pain to explain to Chief when he got back.
So would whatever injury he just got from getting a piece of debris flung straight at his back. Double ouch.
Much to his body’s complaint he kept going, trying not to think about his poor suit that was getting so incredibly beat up.
Yes super suits were meant to get beat up… didn’t mean Branzy didn’t spend time crafting his villainous outfit! Packing it full to the brim with his latest tech. Speaking of… Branzy strategically jumped over a car flinging smoke bombs back at the heroes.
The smoke was also electrically charged so hopefully that’d jam whatever tech they were using, including that stupid whip!
Branzy should probably try to find some place to hide, but that was difficult in the day time when his suit was so obviously made for the night time!
It was one of the darkest shades of purple you could get before black, covering almost every inch of his body. Coming up into a mysterious hood with a built in vail underneath that. Covering Branzy’s most recognizable features, his white hair and bright glow in the dark purple eyes.
Those features. The only things marking him as a mutant. Branzy hated them.
His glowing eyes were technically considered a power, meaning he was grouped in with all the other people with powers.
Like a slightly enhanced ability to see in the dark meant anything compared to super strength, or flight.
The worst part was, everyone always assumed Branzy got some kind of advantage creating his inventions! No! The only benefit he got was not needing a head lamp when building! Everything else came from Branzy studying his ass off to learn everything about everything about redstone! Which wasn’t easy!
Yet another suddenly got tossed his way- honestly what was the prince even doing in this fight? Branzy soon got the answer to that question when suddenly the yellow morph suit wearing hero suddenly appeared in front of him.
The last thing Branzy remembered was getting flung head first into a window.
Triple ouch.
Branzy very slowly became aware of his surroundings, by that he mostly ment he slowly became aware he was laying on something soft.
Soft?
No that can’t be right.
Something felt weirdly incorrect about the situation- he- he should be laying on the ground. Surrounded by broken glass.
Branzy’s brain finally decided to cooperate.
If he was lying on something soft- that probably meant a prison cot. No, that wasn’t right either. Whatever bed he was in was significantly to comfortable then a prison cot. Branzy should know, he was practically raised in prison.
Hospital maybe? No that also didn’t make sense. Villains rarely got the privilege of their wounds being properly treated.
Branzy tried to open his eyes but wasn’t really successful because, bright!
He let out a groan and tried to sit up but was pushed back down by someone.
“Come on, wake up. Don’t get up though.” A voice said that Branzy didn’t recognize.
“Am- am I in custody?” Branzy moaned trying to adjust his eyes to the light.
He heard a chuckle from the stranger. “No- well, yes. But not the one you’re thinking of.”
Ok, weird.
That ment Branzy was probably kidnapped. That wasn’t good.
He tried to sit up again but was pushed down yet again. This time he felt gloves on the strangers hands.
“What part of don’t get up do you not understand? You have two broken ribs you don’t want to be sitting up right now.” The voice hissed.
Oh.
That made more sense, Branzy could now feel the pain from the brake.
He groaned in response to the sudden discomfort.
“Oh shut up. Don’t pretend you haven’t had worse.”
Branzy winced. He had definitely had worse, in fact he’s forgotten how many times he’s broken his ribs. But how did this stranger know that?
Branzy finally managed to get his eyes open and saw he was in some sort of bedroom. He started to look for the person he’d been talking to, and was met with the horrifying clown mask that he thought would only ever exist in his nightmares and museums.
Luckily for Branzy, and his broken ribs, his fight or flight response chose freeze.
He heard another laugh from behind the nightmare inducing clown mask.
“I see my reputation still holds strong hmmm?” The villain who was supposed to be dead asked.
Branzy’s mouth went dry. He couldn’t manage to say anything that even loosely resembled words.
Clownpierce showily tilted his head as if he was studying Branzy.
Branzy suddenly became very aware that he didn’t have his suit on anymore. He decided to see what he was wearing, and that answer seemed to be bandages and some oversized shorts that definitely weren’t his own.
“Uh…”
“You were incredibly beat up. Between the bruises, crushed bones, and million micro cuts from the window I couldn’t manage to treat you with your suit on. I didn’t look at anything unnecessary if you’re worried about that.”
Branzy reached up and touched his face, everything keeping his identity secret was gone. His hood, his vail, and the little domino mask he wore underneath it. Gone.
“So seeing my face, and ergo, identity was completely necessary huh?” Branzy asked. His fear started to wear off and now he was left with his signature annoying, dripping with sarcasm personality.
“As a matter of fact it was. I’m sure you can feel the bandages all over your face. Even had to stitch one cut close up there. It’s a miracle you’re eyes were spared.”
“Oh…” he was right. Branzy could feel what seemed to be half a box worth of bandages on his face. Still didn’t like it.
“Of course looking up your identity wasn’t necessary, just for fun. Hmmm, Zee?
Branzy cringed at his real name. Very few people actually knew it.
“Zee to Branzy huh? Not incredibly creative.”
“Ok, if you saw me on tv or something, with my big B branding, what part of my villain name would you assume was in my actual name? The “Z” bit or the “Bran” part?”
“Hmmm… far enough. I did assume your actual name started with a B. Definitely not the worst name I’ve heard.”
“So, why exactly am I- um… here?” Branzy waved his hand around at both the room and his bandaged chest.”
“Hmmmm… because I need an engineer, what a lovely coincidence one just so happened to fly through the window of the shop I was in.”
Branzy blinked a couple times.
You’ve got to be kidding.
The worlds deadliest villain, a man presumed killed after being left for dead right before a point blank explosion that leveled half the city, needed a random engineer?
Great, just great.