Intro

Mr. Wolf: Yeah! I'm bad!

Mr. Snake: You're bad!

Ms. Tarantula: He's bad!

Mr. Hornet: She's bad!

Mr. Piranha: We're bad!

Mr. Shark: Who's bad?

The Bad Guys: Yeah!
We're the Bad Guys!

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After another night of fighting crime in Los Angeles, the Bad Guys just finished another mission. They marched out of the elevator, exhausted and still wearing black body suits. It's been weeks since they hid their identities as crime-fighting vigilantes at night, and everything was the same as always; couldn't take the credit for saving the day. Being criminals in secret was fine and all, avoiding jail time again, but being vigilantes in secret is volunteer work without getting paid nor getting appreciated. It was like their work was worth nothing... at least that's what Wolf would think. His friends had no problem with that though. They were happy they do volunteer work without the public knowing it.

But that's about to change

Wolf headed straight to the couch, and dropped himself to slouch and relax. He was so tired of all that fighting back there. He deserved a break, while his friends were doing the same. They were all very tired.

Wolf had thoughts about their crime-fighting job, and he had to share this with his friends, "I know it's been a lot of work out there, guys, but don't you think we should promote it just a little?"

Even though still feeling exhausted, the Bad Guys brought their attention to him.

"A little?" Piranha repeated.

"Promote? What do you mean?" Snake asked suspiciously.

Wolf sighed as he clarified his idea in the right way, "I don't know, guys. Sometimes, it gets so annoying when people still look at us as criminals, even though we're living normal lives. I don't like when people are around just watching us like that."

The other Bad Guys glanced at each other as they showed their concerned face, proving that Wolf would be right.

"Well, yeah, they are pretty annoying," Tarantula admitted.

"Tell me about it. At the grocery store, they asked me if I'm a criminal or just an ordinary hornet. That's offensive," Hornet added, also feeling annoyed while remembering it.

"Okay, I think we're on the same page here," Snake said, then turned to Wolf, "What's your plan, Wolf?"

Wolf sat up, and trying to make things easy to explain to his friends, "I think... maybe it's time to let the public know our intention."

"What?!" The rest of the Bad Guys exclaimed

"You mean, telling the public that we're doing... good?" Shark clarified Wolf's explanation

Snake whipped his tail, disapproving the idea, "No, I don't like it!"

"Come on, Snake," said Wolf.

"You promise this job should be our secret, and no one else would know!" reminded Snake about Wolf's promise when they started this business in the first place.

"Look, we've been criticized several times by half of the city. And you, you've been criticized as well, and you didn't like it."

"Yeah, but I didn't take it personally."

"But you almost lost it," Wolf exhaled while pinching the bridge of his nose, "Listen, if it makes you feel better, we can do a little bit of crime in secret, like we always planned in a day. And besides, it's not like we're still working with the authorities. We're still going to be vigilantes as our own business. We'll just do good our way. What do you say?"

Snake was still unwilling to agree with this, but maybe this whole vigilante business had been long enough to keep this a secret. Everyone would find out eventually, even if they would be careful of hiding their heroic tracks. Secrets cannot be kept forever, even from the public. Being a vigilante is a complicated private job, so it won't be a secret any longer. Only Snake hated was letting Wolf know he was always right, "Ugh, you know I don't like it if we agree to disagree, Wolf."

"I know how much you love us, Snake. You pretended to partner with Marmalade to do good just for us. I know you'll do the same with this."

Wolf was right once again. Snake didn't want to agree to this deal, but if his friends agreed to this, then he has to go along. Snake loved his friends very much; his own family. There was nowhere else to go.

Snake slowly turned around, and said softly, "Go bad..."

Wolf smiled as he held his fist on his friend, "Or go home."

When the two head-fist bumped each other, Snake questioned him, "So, how should we get started? We can't just go out and tell everyone. They won't believe us."

"No. They won't believe what was coming out from our mouths," Hornet said. Like the other guys, he was also thinking about how they would show their new business to the public. But then, he thought of something, "Guys, this sounds crazy..., but I think I know who can help us," Hornet smirked as the rest of the team glanced at each other confusingly.

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At the News Company building, Mira walked from her office to the lobby when she was called that someone was looking for her. She then stopped at her track when she saw a group of known criminals she even knew.

The Bad Guys turned to see her with their sinister grins.

"Mira Rose, my darling," Hornet greeted her.

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When they went to her desk, Mira sat down and exhaled deeply. She tried to calm herself down. It was unusual that, of all the journalists in Los Angeles, the Bad Guys came to her, in front of her desk.

"Mr. Hornet..., Bad Guys, it's been so long. I mean, not too long it's been a year since I last saw you," Mira chuckled nervously. She was a bit scared to talk to all the Bad Guys at once. She was okay if she spoke to one of them, but all of them together was a bit terrifying, "You know, I kept staring at you guys when you drove back to the city after your release, and then it came to me. That's the Bad Guys from the gala last year."

"Yes, yes, last year was a short year," Hornet nodded.

"And we decided to change our names a bit... We're the Good Bad Guys," Piranha corrected.

Mira was confused by the new title of the Bad Guys, but she silently nodded, and decided to go along with it.

"Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Hornet here told us you're a proud journalist," Wolf said.

"Yes, well, I like to write some interesting stories and all in newspapers," Mira answered.

"So you go to places, and you take pictures, and you print gossip? That's your job?" Snake questioned.

"Yes, well. Not as fun as it sounds."

Tarantula shook her head, "Oh, it doesn't sound fun, girl. It sounds useful."

Mira widened her eyes, and nodded confusingly.

"We'd like to start our own label, Mira. Why don't we work together to create some buzz for this old rag that you continually fill for the whole city of Los Angeles, and continue to compete with that spotlight-stealing news reporter?" Hornet smirked.

With what he said, Mira knew what the Bad Guys meant as she smiled, "You have that twinkle in your eyes."

"What twinkle?" Shark asked.

"Well, I'm starting to remember that you all have a bit of an extreme side."

The Bad Guys looked at each other and laughed. They were surprised that a human journalist like Mira knew them pretty well.

"Well, then you remember what fun that is?" Hornet sighed from laughter, and Mira nodded, still smiling.

"Don't tell me you're one of the people who admire our exploits back when we were full criminals," Snake guessed, pointing his tail at her.

"Well, your exploits made interesting stories," Mira admitted.

"It's settled then!" Wolf exclaimed, "I want you to help us tell them who we are."

"Would you guys go back to jail for that?"

"It's nothing like that, Mira," Hornet explained, "We're doing something new, and we thought you would be interested in writing our story."

Something new, huh? Mira knew this was the risky thing the Bad Guys would do, even with newspapers involved. She was so confused about the Bad Guys' plans, but their ideas might improve her work as a journalist, and their stories were always interesting to write, "I'll go get my pen and camera then."

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That's where the party began

The lights flickered slightly as a gang of criminals entered a warehouse. The night shift guards were late, so that gave them enough time to break in. And it was a shame for whoever was working at the warehouse since they didn't bother to place cameras. This meant those criminals could get to bust in without using disguises.

It could have been easier said than done if they weren't seen stepping into an unauthorized part of the ground.

Just when they thought that it would be easy, the lights suddenly flicked to a blue color. The security system suddenly kicked in as it locked the majority of the windows. The sirens went off with a loud sound that could rip through their ears. It was even enough for one of them to drop their bag of weapons, scattering them all around.

Tarantula laughed from on top of one of the shelves and had just successfully triggered the alarms to catch the criminals off-guard.

This was when the Bad Guys make their appearance with Shark throwing Piranha right at the criminals. Piranha whooped as he attacked several criminals, bouncing off every single one of them. Like the last few times, he was able to knock out most of them, but one of the criminals grabbed him. However, Hornet swooped in time to headbutt right into him, saving Piranha.

For those who were still standing, they were left to Wolf and Shark.

A few of the muscular ones decided to try to wrestle with Shark. While Shark was nearly overwhelmed by how he was outmatched, he still held onto his own as they tried to push or throw him down. At one point, one of buff criminals grabbed Shark by his hand and tried to swing him to the ground. Trying something out, Shark quickly placed one foot on the ground and eventually swung his attacker into the others.

Meanwhile, Wolf decided to try to grab one of the weapons. However, one criminal charged and kicked it out of his hands. This one kept trying to kick him all around with Wolf quickly backing away while focusing on catching the weapon. It bounced into his hands, but slippery fingers got in the way. As the criminal grabbed his shoulder, Wolf accidentally pressed the trigger.

And it was actually another taser weapon.

The both of them were zapped silly, but since Wolf gained a bit of resilience against being electrocuted (due to being zapped before when trying to take the Golden Dolphin from Marmalade's mansion), the criminal flew back, disheveled.

"Hey, Wolf!" called Snake. "Watch out!"

Snake was already throwing out a box of what must be pieces of copper. They scattered around the remaining criminals, nearly close to each other.

Wolf grinned as he shook the taser weapon around. After all, coppers were good conductors.

The door opened just in time for Mira to finish taking the last few pics of the Bad Guys fighting the criminals trying to break into the warehouse. The highlight was Wolf taking fire to the copper pieces in which the electricity was running through every single piece and every unlucky criminal who got in the way. Good thing that the taser weapon in his hands wasn't at a higher power or else Wolf might have been making a BBQ.

Piranha nearly lost focus while he was trying to pull down one criminal down, looking like he wanted marshmallows at the sight of electricity traffic going on.

Mira wiggled her eyebrows before continuing to take one last picture of this beautiful sight while nonchalantly ducking from one of the criminals Shark had thrown off.

Without waiting to start tomorrow, Mira was already on her computer, uploading the pictures from her camera. The first one she decided to display was the one with Wolf electrocuting all of those criminals. She wished that she could take more when the police arrived to arrest the criminals, but the Bad Guys had to go off for another task in the city. She grinned as she typed down what she saw.

With Mira's first article about the Bad Guys as vigilantes, the people of Los Angeles couldn't believe of what they were reading. Bad Guys fighting crime? How was that even possible?

At the police station, a lot of cops were also reading the newspapers. They smiled in agreement for believing the Bad Guys were doing good once in a while, but Chief Luggins, who came out of her office, heard of her fellow cops' gossip, and couldn't believe they were talking about the Bad Guys going good as what it said in the newspaper. She couldn't believe it... literally. She didn't want to consider this happened.

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Another day, three bikers were trying to break into a shipping container at a seaport. There were rumors that a large container of gold was gonna be transported to a bank. Well, gold was a rare item to get around unless they were rich, but if there was an easy way to get them, this was the spot for them. With crowbars, they slowly tried to peel a piece off to look inside.

Though, the reveal was never shown when they heard a loud shriek coming from above.

Piranha appeared from the top as he grabbed one of the bikers by the beard and slammed him down. The other two were shocked by this before they were ambushed by the other Bad Guys.

Piranha was thrown off by the biker he pounced on, but then, Hornet came in time to spin the biker around. He decided to try to bring the biker down by grabbing onto his beard and pulling hard. This nearly worked, but the biker only stumbled forwards...and Hornet was left carrying a piece of ripped facial hair.

Seeing this, the biker growled and tried to slap Hornet, only succeeding with his finger hitting Hornet and spinning him around briefly. Piranha then did a power kick right at the back and left it for Hornet to headbutt the biker in the face.

Meanwhile, Shark and Tarantula were already onto the second biker. With Tarantula on his shoulder, Shark charged in with a solid blow to the face, but the biker grabbed him by the arm in an attempt to punch him in return. Shark quickly countered this using his other arm before trying to reach for the gun in the biker's hand. The biker tried to grab over Shark, but he quickly pushed him further and struck upwards on the biker's chin. In frustration, the latter tried firing his gun, but Shark quickly lifted it up, making it a pointless shot, and gave Tarantula an opportunity.

She simply hopped and landed on his hand, wrenching the gun out of it. With that, she jumped out of the way and Shark punched the biker, serving a knockout.

With the third biker, Wolf and Snake decided to do a playful dance.

Snake allowed Wolf to spin him around. The biker could only watch in bemusement as Wolf slowly approached him while spinning Snake around like a lasso, making strange noises. As the biker rolled his shoulders and was ready to fight, Wolf swung Snake right at the biker who only dodged. However, before being pulled back, Snake immediately wrapped around the biker and did the strangest thing.

He began tickling underneath the biker's right armpit with his tail.

The biker found himself laughing at the ticklish feeling...only for Wolf to use this distraction to punch him, knocking him unconscious.

Just in time for a small touring group to see the fight happening. Mira was with them, quickly whipping out her camera to take more pictures of the escalating donnybrook.

Mira was back on the desk, already filled with news to share. As she got onto her computer with more pictures ready, she spotted one picture of the Bad Guys celebrating their victory. She smiled, seeing them up close together for the camera. As she debated whether to include it in the newspaper or not, she was happy for them with sticking together for their new and old careers.

She decided to save that picture onto her computer, so that she could look back at it another time. She wondered when would be the next time she saw them working as vigilantes.

The Bad Guys entered the FasTogether while Wolf holding a newspaper for himself and his friends to read.

Some of the customers greeted them while some gave them high-fives, which Shark, Piranha, and Hornet accepted.

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It didn't take long as when she was walking home from buying groceries, she found the Bad Guys already dealing with another group. She was just walking on her own since the supermarket wasn't long until she heard a commotion going on in a dark alleyway. Deciding to venture further, she took a look around the corner to find an interesting sight.

The Bad Guys got themselves mixed with a group of rough-and-tumble delinquents. It turned out, they were trying to vandalize property, including spraying graffiti. It could have been a harmless act if it wasn't for them trying to make a ruckus, causing cracks in the walls for entertainment and sound, and trying to write a message on the wall. As Mira narrowed her eyes, judging by the incomplete words on the wall, they were trying to write down 'MARMALADE PWNS FOXINGTON'.

By incredible luck, the Bad Guys already pwned the delinquents.

Snake was already spinning the delinquents around when they refused to stand down. Tarantula and Hornet decided to try something, using spray bottles to paint the delinquents pink and yellow. While visibly fatigued, the delinquents were really stubborn, ticked off by this.

As Shark prepared to complete a mock insult when one of them joked if he was gonna 'sit on them', Mira took out her camera to take more pictures and munched on some peanuts. A loud scream and the unmistakable sound of Shark sitting on some new cushions echoed through the alleyway.

People in the streets were buying newspapers to read the news for themselves. Some were happy and interested, some were dissatisfied and arrogant to believe the Bad Guys were doing good, even using their old criminal skills to do so.

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A couple of days passed, and Mira had been joining the Bad Guys' vigilante missions at night. Everytime the Bad Guys fought off thugs, burglars, and other criminals, Mira took perfect angles of them fighting. Together, by pair, 3, 4, 5, and even alone. Mira had her fingers full every day when she wrote down the articles.

Though, this is a good advantage for the Bad Guys to do their own secret criminal missions. While everyone was distracted by how good the Bad Guys did every night, the crew had a chance to rob banks without anyone noticing, but they still put up heists, just to be careful. Not everyone believed they were doing good for a moment.

One day, after Mira published five articles, the Bad Guys had a chance to visit Mira again in her office. Mira was holding a copy of her article were the Bad Guys were

Another article finished as Mira slammed her own copy onto her desk to show the Bad Guys what she had done so far, "Guys, I have to admit. You did pretty good out there!"

"Well, that's our job," Wolf smirked

"And we have so much fun doing it," Tarantula chuckled.

"I guess you guys won't go to jail for this?" Mira winked.

"About that," Hornet grinned nervously before confessing quietly so no other journalist would hear him, "We are still doing a bit of crime."

Mira gasped as she wanted to yell, but she looked around to see if anyone hear them, and since no one stared at them, she whispered closely to the group, "Wait what?"

"Just a little crime," Wolf admitted making his two fingers close together before making a gap between them, "We miss doing those things. It's kinda our thing as a family."

Mira took a deep breath before clapping once her hands together and saying, "Well, I understand that."

"But you don't understand," Shark whimpered before he and the other Bad Guys were surprised by Mira's response, "Wait, what?" he asked

Mira formed a serious smile on her face, "Bad Guys, the reason I was so interested in writing you, even those years ago because... I can see you're more than just a bunch of criminals... you guys are family. You always stick together side-by-side without double-crossing each other."

Snake nodded in agreement, "Yeah..., I guess we are like that."

"Look, don't listen to what everybody said. You guys should do what you want to do together. If it was doing good together, then so be it," Mira said with the Bad Guys smiling in response, "Or if you do a little crime together, then I don't mind."

"You promise not to put that in your article?" Piranha pleaded.

"Hey, you gave me a lot for my article. I don't think anyone is gonna know... just yet... unless it's up to you," The journalist explained while pressing her own finger on the newspaper, "You guys might be the Good Bad Guys, but you're still the Bad Guys. Nothing will completely change, and you just have to be who you are and what you want to be. That's what I like about you guys."

Tarantula grinned sheepishly, "Well, we're flattered, Ms. Rose."

The other Bad Guys nodded while they smiled sheepishly as well

Mira rolled her eyes, and admitted, "Ah, your criminal history and friendship story made my articles great. And I hope I'll get more stories from you."

"I guess this is a good start of a new partnership, Ms. Rose," Wolf said as he offered his paw to Mira.

The rest of the Bad Guys stood up as well as they offered their hands on the journalist.

Mira smiled excitingly, "Please, call me Mira. And I know it's just five days but you're more interested than before, so... It's a deal."

Mira shook hands with Wolf first, then with Snake, then Shark, then Piranha, then Tarantula, and lastly, Hornet. Mira used only her finger for the last two Bad Guys.

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The next day, after resting from their mission last night, the Bad Guys woke up to start the day. When Piranha and Hornet didn't receive any article written by Mira when they took out the trash together down in the tunnels. The two then returned back up to their hideout to tell the gang what they discovered.

"Hmm, we haven't seen Mira since last night," Hornet said.

"Yeah, she said she'll always go out to spread our story," Piranha agreed.

"I wonder what happened to her?" Wolf wondered worryingly.

"Maybe we should go to her office, and check on her," Snake suggested.

"Good idea," Shark nodded before saying admittingly, "I think I'm more concerned for her well-being than her job of telling our stories."

One day absent wasn't long, but they already made a deal with her that they'll give her interesting stories for her to write, but she didn't write last night's story. She didn't even show up to take pictures of them while they were on a mission last night. Something's not right here. So, the Bad Guys went to Mira's place to check on her.

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When they arrived in the writing room, they saw Mira's desk empty while the other journalists kept on typing their stories without bothering to notice or fear them.

Hornet landed on Mira's desk, and noticed there wasn't even a written draft on her desk either, which meant Mira hasn't been written a story for her article since last night, "Huh, maybe Mira's absent today. Maybe she's sick?"

When the Bad Guys were waiting at Mira's desk, Mira came into the office late with both of her hands wrapped in bandages.

"Whoa, Mira! What happened?" Piranha asked.

"I touched poison oak. The doctor says I have to keep my hands bandaged for a week so I don't scratch them," Mira explained.

"How did it happen?" Shark questioned.

"I was on a nature hike, and I went off-trail to pick a pretty little flower."

"Aawwww," the Bad Guys cooed.

"Shut up. Now scram. I have a true story to type up," the journalist sat down on her chair.

"Uh, there's no way you're using a keyboard with your hands like that," Tarantula pointed.

"Oh, I could help you! Not to brag, but back when Snake and I were at typing camp, everyone called me, 'The Finger King'." Wolf said, then cringed embarrassingly, "Oh gosh, that sounds really dirty. I swear that's not what I meant."

"Yeah, it was typing camp. Nobody thinks that," Snake said.

"Anyway, I don't need your help," Mira stated.

"You're really gonna try to make it through an entire day on your own?" Hornet started chuckling hysterically, "Well, well, well. Mira Rose is finally gonna learn the lesson that no matter how strong she is on her own, true strength comes from accepting help from others."

"That's not what's happening," Mira started to remove her coat, but she was unable to pull it down without her fingers.

"Mm-hmm, yeah, that's how normal people take their coats off," Shark said.

"I'm fine," the journalist groaned while trying to take her coat off.

"I can see that," Hornet deadpanned.

"This is going well."

"Clearly." Tarantula rolled her eyes.

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Later that day, Mira was going to work by turning the monitor of her computer on, but when she pushed the button, the monitor didn't turn on.

"Ugh, why won't this dumb monitor turn on?" Mira growled.

"Because you can't work without your hands," Wolf pointed as he and the Vad Guys came in after lunch.

"Trust us, if you could do this job without lifting a finger, we would've already cracked it," Snake chuckled.

"Because we're the Bad Guys. Tarantula did a lot of hacking... though she doesn't need to hack to crack that thing," Piranha grinned excitingly.

"Oh, so you rather hammer it down on the desk to turn it on? I don't think so," Tarantula shook her head as he thought Piranha's compliment was unnecessary.

"I'm just not doing it hard enough," Mira decided to punch the button to turn the monitor on, but instead, she accidentally knocked a bottle of soda next to her, causing it to burst and spill all over the floor.

The Bad Guys even dodged from the soda.

"That's a double-sponger!" Shark laughed.

"All right," Mira got up, and said, "I am cleaning this up, ad no one is helping me."

"What happened with 'I've been inspired by your teamwork'?" Hornet reminded me of the night when Mira said how she was inspired by the Bad Guys' teamwork back at the Gala of Goodness.

"That's different. You guys are a team, I work alone," Mira gave Hornet a death glare, supposedly scaring him, and went out of the writing room.

"That's the exact opposite of us!" Wolf exclaimed.

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At the supplies closet, Mira entered inside, and picked up a couple of sponges. However, because she opened the door so hard, the door swung close. Mira rushed to the door with the sponges, and tried to open the door, but she was helplessly trapped inside the supplies closet with her hands wrapped with bandages.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Mira groaned angrily.

For an hour, Mira tried her best to get out of the supply room. She tried to turn the knob with both of her bandaged hands, but they just kept slipping. She even tried using her legs by the back of her knee, and then her arms, but the knob kept slipping her grips. Feeling frustrated and impatient to get out of the room, Mira began to shout, punching, kicking, and slamming her own body against the door, hoping to break herself out, but the door was sturdy to break. Mira also shouted at the door and rolled on the floor like a tantrum baby.

Currently, Mira flipped her own bandaged hand, hoping to turn the knob.

Just then, she heard voices from outside of the closet.

"Mira? Are you stuck in there?" Hornet guessed as the Bad Guys were outside of the supply room.

Mira didn't want to let the Bad Guys know they were right that she needed help as she said in denial, "No, I'm in here by choice."

"Oh, 'cause we hear some banging noises as if someone was struggling to open the door," Tarantula smirked.

"No. That was the pipes."

"Or, is it the sound of you learning how to ask for help?" Snake said. As the safe-cracker, he has good hearing behind walls, so he knew it wasn't the pipes.

"You know, you can't spell 'independent' without 'dependent," Wolf said.

"And you can't spell 'Go screw yourselves' without 'screw you'!" Mira scowled as she knocked her bandaged fist hard on the door, causing a loud bang that startled the Bad Guys.

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Mira didn't know how long she was in that supply room. It felt like hours for her, and she didn't want to stay in the supply room forever. She hated to admit it, but she did need help. There was a telephone next to her, and she knew exactly who to call.

"Luckily, I have Hornet's phone number," Mira mumbled as she grabbed the phone with one hand, and used her nose to dial Hornet's number.

Hornet's helmet vibrated as he answered with the screen showing the HUD effect "Mira" and a soundwave at the bottom of her name, "Hello?"

"You guys win. Please help me," Mira admitted, still feeling in denial.

"Uh, no," Hornet answered.

"What, why? I learned my lesson. You guys were right."

"No, you were right. For the past four hours, the guys and I have been watching you on the security camera."

The Bad Guys were revealed in the security room with monitors recording video footages of the security cameras all over the building, but they were more focused on Mira's end.

Mira looked up to notice a security camera pointing at her, "You have? That's weird."

"Yeah, we told the guy that it was his lunch break, so we took over his job. And when he came back, we gave him a day off," Wolf explained.

"But this isn't about us, Mira," Tarantula said.

"Still seems weird, and you've been tricking a guy. You were right. You may do good, but you're still the Bad Guys," Mira said through the camera and Hornet's helmet.

Wolf changed the topic, "Mira! Watching you try to open that door and fail again and again and again and again was inspiring! Coincidentally, we inspired you that we are a criminal-found family who loves each other, no matter what, but you inspired us to never ever give up, despite failing all over again."

Snake then added, "We were trying to teach you a lesson, Mira, and instead, you taught us a lesson."

"Great. What lesson is that?" Mira asked.

"There is nothing any human or animal spirit cannot overcome," Hornet replied, "So, Mira Rose, you are not quitting. If we don't quit being who we are, then you are not quitting who you are! You are gonna open that door because you are fierce, and you don't need help from anyone!"

Mira suddenly realized that the Bad Guys were right. She was independent her whole journalist life for just a small thing, and she thought she needed help, but she didn't. Listening to the Bad Guys' pep talk caused Mira to get back on her feet again, and agreed confidently, "Yeah, I'm Mira Rose!" Mira then knelt down to reach the door knob's level.

"You can do this, Mira," Shark cheered excitingly.

Mira placed her chin on the knob, grasping it with her chin and neck. She turned her head while yelling, and pulled.

"She's doing it, hermanos!" Piranha exclaimed proudly.

Finally, Mira heard a click, and successfully opened the door.

"YES!" The Bad Guys cheered loudly in slow motion while Mira yelled victoriously.

Now that Mira was out, the Bad Guys rushed to the hallway where the supply room was, and they happily hugged together in a group.

"You did it!" The Bad Guys screamed.

"I did it!" Mira screamed, "Oh that was great! I love being independent!" Then, her smile faded when she felt tinkle, "I have to go to the bathroom."

"Oh, okay, we'll help you," Tarantula said as the Bad Guys followed Mira to the ladies' room to have them open the door for her.

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After a week, Mira was cured of her poison oak incident, and proceeded to type her stories about the Bad Guys. She even wrote an article about teaching a "certain someone" about asking for help, and ended up encouraging "someone" to be independent. Now that was a good story to write. The Bad Guys even proceeded to do their secret criminal routine and vigilante missions without her as they wanted to give Mira a break. Strangely, Mira suddenly stopped writing articles about them one day, and it got the Bad Guys curious.

"Ugh, Mira wasn't working with our articles again!" Snake groaned frustratingly, throwing the newspaper down that he was trying to find his team from it.

"What?" Piranha asked, "I thought her hands are cured last week."

"They are, but 3 days later, she seemed to stop, and it's been another week now," Shark replied.

"Do you think she touched the poison oak again?" Tarantula guessed.

"I'll call her," Hornet dialed the number on his helmet, and the screen showed the HUD effect "Calling Mira...". Then, when it answered, the name was replaced by a soundwave, "Yo, it's Mira, what's up?"

"Mira, what the heck? You were supposed to write your article about us, but you haven't for the 2nd week," Hornet snapped.

Mira's voice was heard to be raspy, "Oh so sorry, Mr. Hornet. The thing is... I'm sick."

"Oh, you're sick?" Hornet repeated.

"Yeah, after my hard work, I think my immune system is weakened," the journalist coughed.

"Oh, well, I think that is a good excuse. So, just stay at home and get some rest, Mira," Hornet said before hanging up, "Okay, see ya."

Wolf then asked, "What happened?"

"Turns out Mira was sick," Hornet answered.

The other Bad Guys finally understood and nodded.

"Oh, that explains it," Tarantula sighed.

"But don't worry, guys. She'll come back tomorrow. She promised me," Hornet smiled.

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The next day, the Bad Guys decided to visit Mira in her office again to ensure she was alright. Upon arriving at the writing room, Mira was actually all alone, and the other journalists' desks were empty

"Hey, Mira!" Hornet greeted as the rest of the Bad Guys waved at her

Mira was surprised to see the Bad Guys around today, "Hey guys! What are you doing here?"

"We heard from Hornet that you're sick these couple of days, so came over to make sure you were alright," Wolf explained.

"And where is everyone?" Snake looked around with his voice echoing all over the room, "Are they still afraid of us again like old times?"

"Oh no, our boss gave us a day off, and let the other newspaper department write the stories today, but I decided to come in, and he didn't mind," Mira said while eyeing on her unfinished article, "But now that you guys are here, I don't feel so alone!"

"Alright. And we got you a bottle of champagne as a gift for your hard work of writing our stories in your article," Shark showed Mira a bottle of champagne with a blue ribbon around it.

"Aaawww, thanks, guys. The paper cups are right over there," Mira pointed at a counter next to the water dispenser where the paper cups are.

"I'll go get them," Shark volunteered before giving Snake the bottle for him to open

Mira did need a break from all the writing she was doing today, so she pushed herself from her desk, and stood up before her phone rang. Mira answered the phone, and put it on her ear, "Hey, Jackie! I'm at work right now."

"Hey, Mirabella! I called because we can use writing skills to get more money out of those bottled water guys. You really impressed them at the drink last night and those other nights after your hands were healed from the poison oak."

When Mira's agent mentioned that, this caught the Bad Guys' attention, and made Shark stop pouring champagne into the paper cup.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah–we should talk about this later," Mira said, not wanting the Bad Guys to hear more about this topic.

"Sorry, you're breaking up. Look, I said they loved you at the drinks these past few nights—the drinks these past few nights that you had with the water people?" While the agent was talking, the Bad Guys kept listening as their faces dropped from excitement to anger when they realized Mira was lying to them about being sick these past few days for writing their article, and they even respected her and gave her a rest from writing. Mira couldn't look at the Bad Guys' faces as she quickly looked away, and lowered the volume of her phone while her agent was still talking, "Ooh, I just hit a tunnel, but again, great job with the drinks last few nights! Bye!"

After the call ended, Mira looked back at the crew with a sheepish smile, "Guys, did you hear that?"

"Oooohh, we did, and there's been a change of plans. We're gonna take a rain check on the champagne, but it was wonderful seeing you," Hornet said, pretending to be happy while keeping his anger in.

"Why are you talking like a flight attendant?" the journalist asked.

Hornet continued while gritting his teeth, "This is how I always talk when everything is okay. Which it is right now. Please enjoy the rest of your day."

Disappointedly, the Bad Guys turned their backs on Mira, and headed out of the office.

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When the Bad Guys stormed out of the building, Mira rushed out, following them and hoping she could explain. "Hornet, I had a work thing. I can't believe you're being such a baby about this."

"I'm not being a baby!" Hornet snapped.

"Look, I'm sorry I lied, okay? It was a big opportunity for me, for my job. I was having drinks with the brand director of a bottled water company. I can't say which one, but it rhymes with, 'fart water.'" Mira laughed at that part.

"Perhaps one day, I will laugh at that. In the meantime, we're happy for all your success while you stopped writing about us, and we hope your partnership with 'fart water' is very fruitful. Good day to you, chica," Piranha said before he and his friends proceeded to walk away from her.

"Come on, guys. Just talk to me!" the journalist pleaded.

Hornet turned to her, and yelled, "We would if we were friends, but you're making it very clear that we are not, so we shan't!"

"Oh, you guys are shanting me?"

"Yeah, that's right, lady!" Snake scowled as the Bad Guys continued to walk away.

"Bad Guys!" Mira shouted.

"Can't hear you!" Tarantula shouted sarcastically, "You're shanted!"

"Guys!"

Hornet then turned around and clarified while the others turned to Mira as well, "I told you I only talk to my friends–all five of them–right here!"

"No, guys, I think I just got stabbed by that guy," Mira stood still while turning around pointing at a runaway man in black clothes, and showed a knife on her back.

Snake hissed in shock, "Ooooh, yeah, you did. You definitely did."

Quickly, Wolf grabbed a nearby chair for Mira to sit down while Snake, Tarantula, and Hornet helped bring her to the chair while Shark called 911 to send paramedics.

"Okay. The ambulance is on its way. They said not to remove the knife," Shark reported.

"Shark, Piranha, you go get our perp," Wolf commanded

"We're on it, chico!" Piranha saluted as he and Shark ran in the direction where the perp ran away.

Wolf, Snake, Tarantula, and Hornet decided to stay behind to watch over Mira.

Hornet looked down at Mira, "Alright, Mira, we want you to stay calm and just try to keep all of your blood inside your body."

"Darn, bug, what do you think I'm doing?" Mira winced.

"Yeah, I don't know why I said that," Hornet mumbled.

"Now bring yourselves down here so we can finish our conversation," the journalist commanded.

"We can do that later, Mira," Tarantula said.

"First of all, I have so much adrenaline pumping through my body right now, I can feel almost nothing. Secondly, you can't say no to me. I have a knife in my back."

"Yeah, that tracks. Okay, fine," Hornet said as he lowered himself on Mira's level as Wolf and Snake did the same with Tarantula on Wolf's shoulder, "So, we were saying that for the past week, you've been kind of a crappy friend..."

"Aaaaaaaooooo!" Mira shouted, feeling the pain on her back.

"We're definitely not having this conversation right now," Wolf suggested, especially with the knife still in Mira's back.

"No, it's okay. It's just hurt for a sec. Come on, let's do it!" stated Mira.

"All right, fine, what was I saying?" Hornet asked.

"You were saying that I'm a..." Mira reminded before pausing herself trying to hold the pain, "Bad friend."

"Right. You're a bad friend. That's what I was saying to you," Hornet admitted.

"And just that, you know, we thought we could trust you because you're one of the only people outside of our team who understands us, but it looks like you've been using us," Wolf explained.

"And yesterday, you lied to us about being sick. That really sucked, girl," Tarantula added.

"All right, well, listen, I'm sorry I lied to you guys. It's just that... I don't have friends before. I don't know what to do. I don't know how this works for us, but you've been showing me how to be a friend, especially to a group of vigilantes like you. I know you were getting upset because of my absence, and I didn't want to hurt you. But I don't know what to say about other stuff because this is my life, and I don't want to apologize for that," Mira confessed while trying to calm down.

"No, and Mira, you shouldn't have to. We're really proud of you for your job. You're totally killing it," Wolf commented.

"Yeah, people want to stab me."

"That's a very positive way of looking at thing, but yeah," Snake nodded in agreement.

"Thank you...," Mira chuckled until she felt a little more pain, "I hit a new level of paaiiiiin! Please keep talking, please keep talking."

Hornet then continued, "Okay, look I just wanted you to know that, honestly, when I was in jail with the guys... I kinda missed you, and you're my first friend ever outside of the Bad Guys, and I want my real friends to be your friend too."

"Aaw, that's so sweet of you, Hornet. You and the guys might be criminals before, but I know you're not all that bad... even now. I miss you too, dude."

"Great, so can we agree to stay friends after all this?" Hornet asked.

"Totally, and I promise I'll be a real friend to you guys. As in, for reals," Mira held out her right hand to shake hands, but she felt her bones crack, and the pain kept increasing. "Aah!" She winced more as she groaned loudly while trying to laugh it out hysterically, "We're not going to shake on it!"

"Yeah, we'll just take each other at our word," Snake muttered.

Mira puffed her pain out, "Oooh! That's a knife! That is a knife in my back. That's so weird to say. There's a knife in my back."

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Later, the ambulance already brought Mira to the hospital as wolf, Snake, Tarantula, and Hornet coming with her. The paramedics didn't seem to be afraid of the Bad Guys anymore as they heard about their good deeds this month, and they trusted them to accompany the injured journalist to the hospital.

Shark and Piranha found Mira's room, where the knife was successfully off from her back, and she was recovering on her bed.

"Hey amigos," Piranha greeted when he and Shark came in.

"How you feeling, Mira?" Shark asked while closing the door behind him.

"Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't," Mira answered weakly, "Almond Joy's got nuts. Mounds don't."

"She's very hopped up on painkillers," Hornet explained to Shark and Piranha quietly.

Mira suddenly squealed in amazement, "Hold up, when did you learn Japanese, Takahashi san?"

Hornet responded in Japanese, going with the effects of the painkillers Mira had, before he clarifying, "It actually helps to play along, I'm assuming."

Wolf then cut in to ask Shark and Piranha, "So, what the latest, you two? Did you catch the perp?"

Shark responded, "No. We almost had him. But then he jumped up, grabbed a flagpole, spun around it like Spiderman, and then flipped out of sight on a roof."

"It was crazy, chico. And crazy is my thing. The cops are still patrolling the area when we left," Piranha added.

After Shark explained the perp's skills when escaping, Hornet realized something familiar about it, "Oh, stinger, that's it!"

"That is it! The treasure is in the Forest of Enchanted Secrets! Let's go!" Mira attempted to get up, but Wolf and Snake pinned her back down on his bed.

"No, we can't," Wolf stated, "We have to stay here and guard the Amulet of Destiny."

"True dat, true dat," Mira nodded as she realized back into bed.

Hornet then explained to his friends, "Guys, call me crazy, but it almost sounds like whoever stabbed Mira knew parkour, just like the ex-husband of the lady from Mira's article that she wrote 2 years ago."

"How did you know that?" Snake asked, arching a brow.

"While we were in prison, I spent some of my free time reading some of Mira's past articles. They were interesting, and some of them were made up by her own perspective," Hornet giggled, feeling a bit ashamed of being a newspaper reader at jail throughout the year, "And that article she wrote about the ex-husband probably from Mira's own perspective that the lady left him."

"Right. Mira might've written bad things about what the man did to his ex-wife, and he probably wants revenge," Tarantula guessed.

"I'll have Diane look into it," Wolf said as he took out his phone, and dialed Diane while exiting the room for a clear signal.

Mira suddenly lightly kicked Hornet to get his attention, "Hornet, I cannot wait for this doctor. Will you please grab this knife out of my back? Get it!" She rolled over to her side to have Hornet get the "knife" off of her.

"Mira, it's already out," Hornet said.

"What?!" Mira rolled back down.

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A day later, when Mira got discharged from the hospital, she took another day off to rest. Luckily, the only people who visited her were the Bad Guys... though they were the ones who ask her if they could visit, and Mira gave them her address.

"How are you feeling, Mira?" Wolf asked.

"I feel good now! Better than ever," Mira said happily while serving the Bad Guys each a mug of coffee. Glad she got tiny cups for her little friends.

"Thanks for letting us visit you and giving us your address. We thought you needed some friends to accompany you," Shark said.

Tarantula then looked around the room, "Nice place you got here. Don't worry, we're not gonna come back to steal anything."

"Ha! Ain't that the truth." Mira chuckled, "And I had the energy to type my next article. So, when is your next vigilante mission?"

This made the Bad Guys go silent as they glanced at each other. Mira started to get curious when seeing their faces. Wolf cleared his throat, and confessed, "Actually, the guys and I were talking about it, and... maybe you shouldn't write articles about us all the time, Mira."

"But, I thought we agreed to that. We had a deal," the journalist reminded.

"And we still stick to that deal. It's just that, we don't want to give you such a hard time, and we get the feeling we were using you to let the world know about our new jobs," Wolf admitted while drinking his coffee

"Yeah, we don't want to treat like... an employee. You're our friend now, and we want to treat you as a friend," Shark added.

Mira was surprised that a group of vigilantes like the Bad Guys saw her as their friend, "Really? I'm... your friend?"

"Yeah. And we decided to you can write your article about us weekly instead," Piranha declared.

Mira put a finger under her chin, and looked up, trying to think, "Mmm, Nah, weekly is not enough. What about 4 times a week?"

Snake waved his tail of disagreement, "Too many days, what about twice?"

"Thrice."

"Deal!" All of them said in unison as Mira shook hands with each of the Bad Guys.

"Besides, I don't think everyone should know what we were up to everyday, and they'll use our vigilante jobs as their advantage against us," Wolf pointed.

"Plus, we're still criminals. We still secretly do a few crimes every day," Tarantula added.

"True dat," Mira nodded in approval.

"Mira, my friend, I think this is a start of a beautiful friendship between a journalist and a group of vigilantes," Hornet smiled.

The Bad Guys and Mira raised their mugs, and clang them together with a cheer, "Yeah!"

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Credits:

Sam Rockwell - Mr. Wolf

Marc Maron - Mr. Snake

Craig Robinson - Mr. Shark

Anthony Ramos - Mr. Piranha

Awkwafina - Ms. Tarantula

Rhenzy Feliz - Mr. Hornet

Stephanie Beatriz - Mira Rose

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Author
I.M. Rally

Co-Author
TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3

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This is the debut chapter of Mira in the series since The Bad Guys movie (rewritten), and her cameo appearance in The Bad Guys, New Beginnings, New Normal.

In this chapter, Mira was based on Anita Darling from Cruella (2021) and Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I even got references from these two franchises.

Special Thanks TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3 to for helping me make a scene where the Bad Guys fought other criminals while Mira took pictures of them for her article.