More often than not, life was hard.

That was just the summary of it. Tommy didn't find himself praying to whatever god was up in the sky, thanking the guy for how amazing his life was, because in his opinion? It wasn't. His apartment was way too small, let alone with three people living in there, they could barely pay the bills without running them dry for a month, his job - an amusement park employee - mediocre at best. Their part of town was essentially just filled to the brim druggies and vandals. So, In short. Life was hard. But y'know what made this bitch of a life fun for Tommy?

Thievery.

"Okay, Tom. Be careful. This heist is - And I can't even begin to emphasize enough - extremely important." Sam's voice came in through crackly on Tommy's headset, tucked under his red and white hood and golden locks. The teen only groaned, mimicking Sam with is hand as he spoke. "Sam, Samuel, I'm highly aware. You've drilled it into my brain at least twenty times this evenin' alone. Quit worrying about me." He says as he picks up his white mask and blue visor up from the leaf-covered ground where he sat in the bushes. Sam sighs, and Tommy swears he can hear his mentor's eye roll. "Kiddo, this place is dangerous. I just want you safe."

At this, Tommy goes quiet. He knows Sam cares about him - Well, he hopes he does, or this would be awkward - but it always stuns Tommy, for no apparent reason. "Tom? Tommy? Zeus." Tommy startles, and lets out a small yelp, luckily not loud enough for any of the guards to hear him. "Oh, yeah. I'll be fine unbelievably safe. I have some friends comin' to help." Sam hums, disbelieving. "Alright, well you've got five minutes to be ready."

The younger clips his mask on, covering his mouth and nose, and sliding on his visor, before lifting his arms up to stretch. "Gotcha Big S. I'll move in soon. Zeus out." Tommy declared, holding back a yawn. "Prowler off." Sam replies, followed by two short beeps. And with that the line becomes static again, leaving Tommy to his thoughts. Now, onto the hard part. Where would Tommy get in? He locked at the large, multi-story building; guards scattered all around. All with military-level gear and rifles in hand. Some were in groups, patrolling the boarder, others in roofless armored jeeps. He could probably run in fast enough, but that'd easily attract more attention, it'd certainly gain the hero industry's attention. Something Tommy didn't want. At all. Ever. Though he could probably jump the fence and go to stealth-mode. That'd be majorly badass.

Rushing wind could be felt on Tommy's bare arms, followed by a cheery and upbeat voice from behind. "Hey, mate. I would've thought you were in there already." Tommy turns and is met with three towering men. The Guild. Raptor, a blond man, with large, brimmed hat and dark veil covering the majority of his face, and dark green and black outfit. Most of him looked normal, save for the large grey, nearing black wings on his back. To his left, was the tall, muscular, Wraith. Hair tips died pink and boar skull mask covering his face.  He wore a black button up shirt, bulky armor over top. steel-capped boots and a dark, crimson cape. And finally, off to the right of Raptor, was Wraith's counterpart, his twin, Phantom. The man was much skinnier than Wraith and had much less protection than his brother. his suit was short sleeved, his top half black and a muted cyan. He wore a silver headset, and a plain black and grey face mask.

Tommy giggled. "Pft, I could've gotten in there in seconds, I just wanted to wait for you to arrive, to show you how awesome I am." A collective groan was heard by Tommy, followed by Phantom pinching the bridge of his nose. "Whatever. How are we getting inside?" He questioned the teen, a singular, annoying eyebrow raising. "Well, if you must know, the safest bet is to probably just jump the fence, we can kick ass before Hero Industry is on our asses, right?"

The Guild exchanged glances, uncertain looks on their faces. "If you want? I suppose this is your op, after all," Raptor shrugged, silently telling Tommy it was a shitty plan. "But the Industry's systems are really advanced though. Our heat signatures will be picked up the moment we touch that fence." Shit. Tommy had forgotten these are heinously rich bastards they're stealing from. He glared at the tall, wired fence, biting his lower lip in deep thought. "I mean, you do have wings for a reason, so what if we just don't touch the fence?" The villain pitched, and he could see Raptor smile. "Adda boy."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "I'm not a fucking dog." But Raptor only chuckled, ruffling his hair.

As Raptor finally lifted Wraith over the fence, and landed next to the other villains, hidden behind a large dumpster, filled with tech scraps and discarded rubble from past fights, crackled his knuckles. "Alright," He nodded, a smug grin hidden underneath his mask. "Get in, get them shitty files S- Prowler is begging for, then get out. Maybe kick some hero ass if they're around, aye?"

Energy crackled at Tommy's fingertips, as he jumped from side to side, before getting into a running position. "Alright, 3, 2-" Raptor began, only for Zeus to speed off, Lightning sparking around his feet. He pounced at a trio of armed guards, flinging one of the men's guns from their hand. he grabbed the armored man by the shoulders, and rammed his left knee into his stomach, before throwing him to the ground. The other guards had begun aiming to fire, not only at Zeus, but the other three villains, too. Zeus felt the rush of adrenaline, lightning glimmered to life in his fist as it connected with a guard's jaw. In these few moments as he kicked ass, Zeus forgot his civilian identity. He ignored 'Tommy'; it was only 'Zeus'. Only the excitement, only the thrills. He snapped back to reality as Wraith yelled out to him. He turned towards the villain, he looked over to the - what he could only guess where - titanium doors he’d yanked open, shrapnel scattered around his feet. Tommy nodded. He elbowed the final guard right in the stomach, and kicked him in the head as he fell to his knees. He would be fine. Maybe. He let electricity pulse in his feet, and he sped over to Wraith. The Villain shoved the broken doors wider and nudged Zeus inside. Luckily, the inside halls were free from any guards. For now, at least.

"Where are the files?" Wraith questions, and Zeus stiffens. He'd forgotten to look at the building layout. "Prowler... He never told me." He chuckled nervously, Rubbing the back of his neck. Wraith scoffed. "Let's just start searching."

The pair ran through hall after hall, busting down doors and attacking guards, and to find? Zero. Zilch. Nada.

"Three more rooms." Wraith said, tired and annoyed. Zeus ignored him and went straight to the first of the final three to the left. He charged up his fist with electricity and punched the control panel. These guys were rich anyways, surely one more broken thing won't be too much trouble, right? Well, not his problem. The panel glitched and sputtered out sparks, before eventually slowly opening the large metal sliding doors. "I could've just punched it down, y'know?" Wraith spoke up. "And where's the fun in that?" The pair waltzed into the room, scanning the area for file cabinets, only to see a room filled with crates and boxes. "Maybe they're just... Really unorganized?" Zeus tried to reason, but Wraith was already making his way over to the far left of the room. Zeus tried to get in front of him, to see what he was going towards, only to be unsuccessful. Wraith finally stopped and stared. At a giant. Fucking. Battle axe. "Woah. That's so fuckin' cool!" The seventeen-year-old exclaimed, staring in awe, and immediately rushed over to try and pick it up, despite it nearly being as tall as him. Wraith only watched on, a small sigh escaping him.

Zeus rolled his shoulders back, and rubbed his hands against each other, not realizing he'd triggered electricity to spark at his hands. He gripped the metal handle of the axe, only to be shocked nearly instantly. This hammer was a bastard. "Hey!" He yelled to the weapon. Wraith let out a quiet, but hearty laugh, and picked up the axe with ease, slinging it over his shoulder, like a bag. Zeus' jaw absolutely dropped. "What. The. Fuck." He breathed, still glaring at the axe he now considered his life-long nemesis. "Let's just take one more look arou-" Waith started, but Zeus was already digging around a crate. He pulled out two large metal gloves. No, gauntlets. with a fingerless glove at the start, moving down into a metal painted in a sleek, clean white, and plain black lines, running up to the end. The Hero Industry's logo printed on to bottom of both. "Oh, now these are sick." Zeus said mischievously and slipped them on. A small light appeared on the edge of each one, four bars like a battery. "Take 'em. It's not like we're not here to steal important things already," Wraith said, and made his way towards the door. "I don't think there's any files in here, kid."

They made their way over to the second door, on the opposite side of the hall, Wraith rammed his body into the metal door, and it fell, a loud crash echoing. They stepped inside, and Zeus could've sworn his heart had done backflips as the rows on rows of filing cabinets were neatly lined against each other. "Fucking finally!" Zeus yelled, pumping his fists into the air in excitement. "Okay, uhm, the files- We're looking for Rhinestone's and Seraphim's." Wraith nodded in response, and stalked over to the row with the overhead sign that read J-T.

Just as Zeus was reaching for the second file - Seraphim's - a figure blocked the already limited light shining from the hallway. "The hell are you doing?" A stranger said. Zeus turned his head, and his eyes almost popped out his head. Ignis, the Number three hero, stood in the doorway, angry look on his face. Ignis was one of the few heroes who had no mask, and little to no protection. In interviews he consistently claimed that he didn't need it, probably a lie. These were corrupt bastards after all. "Uh, sight-seeing?" Wraith shrugged. Ignis let out a strained laugh, before cracking his knuckles, which were covered in charred rock. From the rocks, seeped out fucking lava. The burning hot liquid dripped down onto the floor as he ran at Wraith. "Let me handle this, Zeus." Wraith said and pushed Zeus back. Ignis had jumped up, about to land on Wraith, only for the villain to grab him by the elbow and chuck him at the wall. He hefted the battle axe higher, ready to attack again. Ignis let out what was close to a growl and ran at Wraith again.

The hero let out a flurry of quick, aggressive punches. Most of them Wraith dodged, but some landed on his un-armored arms, burning through the black shirt and making him twinge in pain. Wraith pushed his battle axe against the Heroes arms, distracting him. Wraith took this opportunity to bend down low and kick the hero out from below, flinging him over his shoulders and into the closest row of files. Ignis laid still, a low groan could be heard. Wraith stomped over, and Zeus could see a victorious grin peeking out from beneath the boar skull. In those few moments where Wraith was acting arrogant - Zeus' job, by the way - Ignis had recovered, and landed a heavy, painful kick to Wraith's knee, sending him to the ground and groaning in pain. The hero laughed as he jumped up from where he sat, "Yeesh, you must be old if I can beat you that easily." Ignis smirked as he stood up. Zeus watched on, jaw down to the ground - Wraith would get up, right? - . Ignis loomed over Wraith, fists tightening as he lifted them up, and slammed them into Wrath's chest, and Zeus seemed to freeze into place, like the pussy he was. Then Wraith was hit again, and a third time, each time Wraith let out a grunt, each one leaning more towards a strangled scream each time.

As Ignis lifted his fists up for a fourth go, Zeus decided he'd had enough. Lightning crackled all around him, tingles in his fingers and sparks flying from his feet, as he pounced at Ignis with record breaking speed. He grabbed the hero by the neck, squeezing it tight, and sending bolts through the man's body, before hurling him down to the ground, head banging against the wall and effectively dazing him. In this time, Wraith had partially recovered, struggling to walk, but could no less. He'd hoisted his axe up to use as a crutch, like the old man he was, as he dragged himself over to the dizzy hero, who was attempting to get up, only to be halted by Zeus by stomping on his stomach. The hero let himself be shoved down, a series of curses under his breathe, mainly aimed at Zeus.

"Yuh huh. Sure, big guy." Zeus scoffed, apparently hearing something Wraith hadn't. Wraith tugged Zeus', pulling the teen back as he lifted his axe, and aiming the flat side at Ignis' head, who suddenly tried to scramble out the way. He'd been unlucky though, as he quickly slumped down. Zeus giggled, and the older villain turned to him. "What?"

Zeus laughed louder, and he pointed downwards. "He lost a tooth! Ha! Show's how 'big and tough' they really are." Wraith glanced over to where the younger villain pointed, and sure enough, was a bloody tooth, laying just a few steps from the knocked-out hero. Wraith let out a low laugh, and even that sounded monotone. "Huh, I guess he did. C'mon, kid." Zeus nodded, and the two made their way out the door, the files in hand - singed and burnt - but in their hands.

-

Zeus and Wraith soon met up with the other two Guild members, who were still fighting off a hoard of guards. "Seriously - where do they come from?" Phantom asked, as his body become unseeable, and three guards all mysteriously got knocked down onto the ground. "Ya mum's house!" Zeus exclaimed loudly back, as he charged up his fists to punch a guard, only for the lightning to be ten times stronger, that bars of the gauntlets flashing. "Holy shit!" He yelled panickily as the guard fell to the ground, now a twitching mess. Zeus laughed, but the joy died out when two other heroes showed up, stood atop the roof of the building, looking all heroic and - in Zeus' very valid opinion - overwhelmingly stupid. Axolotl looked like an armored surfer, with a plain black and pink polyester suit, and Kevlar padding on all the vital areas and a deep blue fish tail plastered on her logo. The hero had knee high combat boots, a baby blue tone with white edges, and a plain white domino mask to rival her pastel pink hair. Her outfit wasn't anything special, but what was interesting was her literal fucking fish tail. Zeus had to admit; that was cool. It was long and thick, the scales a dark blue with a lighter blue on her fins... Or were they flippers? Zeus had never learnt fish anatomy, and he didn't plan to. Next to Axolotl, was Ogre. He looked even weirder than his partner, I'm how couldn't someone say he looked weird? He was 6'4 and looked like a rip-off Shrek. He only had a singular large shoulder pad, and a chest plate that covered almost his entire stomach, along with metal arm bands. But the truly worst part? The fact that he only had a robe to cover his crotch. Like one of those Romans - or Greek, he couldn't remember. He didn't like his history classes anyways - back when Raptor was born, which must've been just after the dinosaurs. Well, he had armor over that area, too, but he wasn't exactly all that fine and dandy with fighting someone half dressed.

"Oi, hands up!" Ogre yelled, pointing down at The Guild with a massive club, spikes pointing out from each end. "No, fuck off!" Zeus screamed in reply, flipping off the two heroes in the process, as he scurried over towards Phantom and Wraith, said villains fighting off more guards near the fence. Well, Wraith was mostly just shoving them away with his axe, and Phantom repeatedly disappeared and reappeared as more guards magically toppled over, throwing knives and shuriken's pierced their exposed limbs. "Y'know what, screw it." Wraith huffed, and let out a loud whistle, before yanking Zeus towards him and crouching a bit, palms down low but facing upwards. "C'mon kid. We don't exactly have all day!" the villain yelled at Zeus, who soon registered he was meant to use Wraith as a fucking booster. Like a child.

the youngest of the group groaned, but jumped high, and onto Wraith's hands, who pushed him over the fence. He landed on his ass onto the pile of crunchy autumn leaves. Not exactly comfortable, but better than in the mud, so a solid 6/10. Honestly would've been a 5, had it not been The Wraith. The familiar sounds of pitiful yelps bought him out of his train of thought, just in time to see Phantom absolutely tossed like a fucking ragdoll over the fence. Landing face first into the mud. The youngest burst into uncontrollable laughter, sticking out an obnoxious finger at the older villain, who looked positively ready to murder. Raptor had hurriedly flown Wraith other the fence, who promptly hoisted Zeus up by the back of his suit, before booking it like no fucking tomorrow.

----

The journey back to their district, away from all the government shithead areas was, to say the least, fucking. Shit. Wraith had gotten his ribs essentially demolished and the little adrenaline he'd had was gone now. Burns graced his already scarred skin and honestly looked all-round pathetic, but the four of them had finally arrived in their district and boy is Tommy hungry. He'd love a burger from Puffy's diner.

"Where's Prowler?" Phantom questioned with a brow raising as he snapped the teen out of his trance - rude, by the way. He held his twin up with one muscular arm slung over the brunette and was definitely struggling with the weight. To be fair, he looked like a twig next to Wraith, Tommy even more so.

"Well obviously not here," He scoffed. "He's pro'lly at our base. And it's really close, maybe a block away? I don't fuckin' know." smalls hums of acceptance were heard, and they continued their walk, attempting to stay as hidden as possible from literally everyone that they saw.

----

Tommy pushed the metal dumpster off to the side, wincing from the weight and the loud ass screeching. Couldn't it realize they're trying to be secretive? Inconsiderate piece of junk. behind the dumpster was a steel door with the graffitied symbol of Prowler & Zeus - messy black teeth, looking like a tiger's jaw opening up, the paint flaking at the sides. Still one of his best works, and anyone who believes otherwise can fucking fight him, see how they go against 9,000 volts of lightning running through their body.

Tommy banged on the door three times, waiting for a reply of two bangs, which he replied with one. the Steel door slid open, and there stood Sam in his Prowler gear. Well, minus his boots, replaced with dark blue slippers. He nodded to the three older villains, and ruffled Tommy's hair - An act of war, by the way - and led them all inside.

"Welcome to our humble evil lair!" Tommy grinned, giving the guest's overdramatic jazz hands.

"Huh. I would've thought it would've been more, let's go with... industrial." Phantom declared as he looked at the large room. Tommy squawked in indignation, crossing his arms as he fixed Phantom with a glare. "Excuse you? We're not sewer rats, if anything, you are. Look at your ugly, horrible hair. It looks like a- a- a hairless squirrel shat on it. Disgusting." Tommy nodded with a proud huff.

Phantom sputtered, looking at the teen with a confused, wide-eyed look and shook his head, before settling on an unsure glare. "What he means is that we didn't think it'd be this decked out with Tech, mate." the winged supervillain answered with a nervous chuckle, discreetly sending a glare at Phan tom. Tommy nodded, a smirk creeping onto his face. "Of course there's a shit ton of tech here, it's fucking Prowler's base!" He waved his arms wildly at his mentor.

"Alright, kid. We've gotta get to business." Sam chuckled and grabbed the file from his proteges hands. Tommy groaned loudly but nodded. Wraith grunted, swirving the attention to him, still being held up by his twin. Honestly he looked just as shit as he did two minutes ago. "Could we maybe let me not bleed out first?"

"Shit, yeah-!" Raptor exclaimed.

After one painfully awkward session of Sam stopping Wraith from dying, the group of villains sat at the couch, discussing the two stupid, idiot files Tommy was forced to retrieve.

"We needed these files for two particularly annoying Heroes, Seraphim and Rhinestone," Sam begun, as he idly flipped the pages back and forth of Seraphim's folder. "As of late, they've been targetting Zeus and I, and I have a hunch it's to do with the little stunt Zeus pulled last month, 23rd of September." Tommy looked away, attempting to play the oblivious innocent child, but he remembered what he'd done. To be fair though, it was only a a couple thousand volts in the city's power plant, and he'd decided they all had to ignore the bombs.

Wraith hummed gruffly, leaning in forward. "People do stuff like that all the time, what's so different about the two of you. And why Seraphim and Rhinestone of all people? Their powers aren't exactly equipped for a hyperactive todler and a man addicted to super-steroids."

"Ey? Todler?!" Tommy screeched indignantly, jumping out from where he sat, squashed between Sam's side and the edge of the couch. Nobody acknowledged Tommy's tantrum, as the continued their theorising, which, in Tommy's opinion, was extremely, utterly, unforgivablely rude.

"Well, they have been on field for a long time, so it could just be that the industry trust's their skills?" Raptor joined in. Sam hummed with a nod. "Possibly. But why send two heroes who rely on their eyes after Zeus? He can run faster than their eyes move, and with electricity constantly around him, I doubt it'd be easy to make eye contact."

Phantom raised his hand, like one of the bitchy teacher's pet's at his school. "They're probably focusing on you, then. They're all under the impression you're stronger than the gremlin. Undoubtedly true, though. He looks like a sad, sad twig."

"Can you not bully my pseudo son?" Sam sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. See? His dad was awesome... Awesamdad. Tommy is a genius.

Phantom nodded, looking sheepish. Serves the vomit hair man right, be scared of his dad. Be immensely scared. Cower in fear. Bitch.

Wraith coughed gruffly. "Listen," He shifted in his seat, hissing in pain as the bandages rubbed against his burns - ouch, by the way. "Just read the files, and hope they don't aim fire with their pupils or something, y'know? 'S not like the top hero is gonna come after you."

Yeah, Wraith was right. He was always right. He was the Wraith. What could go possibly wrong?