It's not as if villains haven't teamed up before in the history of supers, but for the most part, it was every man for himself. If you robbed a bank or opened a portal to a hell dimension, you couldn't exactly expect any help from the villains of Neo Houston.Worse yet, if you had something they wanted, you could expect to be on the receiving end of the dastardly scheme for once.

This time, it seems Stygian and Razz have fallen into such a situation, dragging Jay and Pixamena into the mess. The double wide doors of the lavish hotel room open up with a bang, allowing a group of four burly hotel staff to charge in. Stygian scowls as they approach menacingly with heavy luggage held aloft as weapons.

"Are you serious? You saw the news right? Why would I participate in this dumb game? What makes you think I just won't destroy you!?"

Influentia giggles, taking more selfies. "Because, I know you wouldn't do that. You're too soft to be a threat to anyone but yourself. Plus—" Influentia make a motion of cutting her neck. "if you don't fight, I'll get rid of your little henchman."

Stygian's eyes widen as he directs his gaze at Razzmatazz. She's gone slack jawed, a glowing purple swirl in her eyes. To his horror, he realizes his companion has fallen under Influentia's control.

"Razz, are you kidding me? Are you really an Influentia fan!?"

"She does really hot yoga videos..." Razz responds

"Goddamn' it Razz!"

Stygian yelps as a burly bellhop charges at him suddenly. He ducks, just barely avoiding a smack directly to the cranium with a duffel bag.

"Witty, help me out here!"

The shadows around Jay slacken, allowing him to join the fray. Immediately, he disarms one of the nearby assailants with a swift punch to the gut, followed by a brutal knee to the chin. The man falls to the floor, abruptly removed from the mind-control by the pain of Jay's assault. Jay takes the opportunity to get to Razzmatazz's side.

"Razz, wake up Razz!"

Razzmatazz is totally out of it, a sliver of drool dripping down her chin as she watches "Top 10 Sexiest Yoga Poses (gone sexual)" on her phone.

"Razz, what the hell! You're better than this!"

"Easy for you to say, I'm single," Razz whines.

Before Jay has a chance to say more, another employee comes at him with fists raised. Jay blocks a hit with his forearms, grabbing the goon by the lapels and launching him at the creep holding Pixamena and Pixiepuff. The force of the hit weakens his grip enough to allow them to wriggle free. She falls to the ground and kicks her chunky mary jane heel into the poor soul's groin. He falls to his knees with a cry, falling out of the hypnosis.

Jay runs to Pixamena, picking her up off the floor. But she doesn't even take a moment to rest before materializing her bow and quiver and taking aim at Stygian. She lets loose three glittery pink arrows in rapid succession, fluttering into the air. Tendrils catch two, quick as lightning, but one hits its mark, landing with a meaty thunk into his thigh.

Stygian cries out in pain, coming to a kneel. He glares a Pixamena, eyes a deep carmine as he yanks out the arrow. "Are you kidding me?! We need to be working together against the common threat right now!"

"As if she'd ever work with you, cretin!" Pixiepuff barks.

Pixamena glares, nocking another arrow. "I think you're the bigger priority here. I'll take her in next."

"You can try!" Stygian rises from the ground, claws opening wide as dark shadows come at his beckoning. Pixamena delicately dodges each sharp-tipped tendril, flying into the air and jumping onto the chandelier. From her perch she goes on the offensive, focusing her attention on Stygian as Influentia films herself making exaggerated faces in the foreground.

Jay decides to attack Influentia. With all the goons down now, he charges across the room and vaults over a plush velvet couch, his foot aimed directly at her face. She yelps and jumps away in the nick of time, launching a throw pillow in her defense. Jay bats the pillow away with his staff, pointing it at her face.

"Influentia, lift your mind control right now!"

"Oh—chat wants to know, how many dates did you and Stygian go on? Did you ever suspect he was a villain?"

"I'm not here for your tea spell sesh, villain!"

Jay swipes again at Influentia, but she dodges once more. His staff instead strikes against a wall of waterbottles. For some reason beyond his ability to fathom, Influentia has a collection of over 30 of them, all pastel-colored. Jay can't help but feel irritated mid-fight. The point of a reusable water bottle was to consume less resources!

Destruction of overpriced hydration accessories aside, Influentia continues to babble into the camera. "Chat, if you want the real dirt on Stygian, you should watch my podcast. Here's a sneak peek, though. Four words: giant, creepy, sidekick shrine."

Stygian yells across the room, throwing Pixamena straight into the beanbag, sending her sliding on the hardwood. "Fuck you! Don't pretend I didn't see your Taylor Swift shrine! Old music is so lame!"

"You're supposed to be fighting my guys, not her! Stop paying attention to someone else!"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

The swirl in her eyes begins to turn rapidly as she turns back to her phone. Through the door four new enemies appear, charging this time at Pixamena. Still dazed from being launched by Stygian, she isn't able to block a rough blow from one of the grunts. She yells out as the burly man swings the luggage directly into her ribcage with bone-breaking force, knocking her out cold as a trickle of red drips from her mouth. Even poor Pixiepuff is caught by the swing, rendering unconscious imp at her side. The assailant still doesn't falter though, raising his weapon once more to attempt another brutal blow. However, before he's able, a blur of something rainbow tackles him directly in the chest.

Razzmatazz' has broken out of her trance, rage written all over her face as she pins the grunt down. Her face contorts into something beastly, all sharp teeth and canine-like, complete with an enraged snarl. "Don't fucking touch her, freak!"

Instantly, the man is cowering in fear, completely ripped from his hypnosis. Jay watches, astonished, as Razz goes full-on monster. She sprouts multiple heads, eyes, and clawed arms, before roaring with inhuman menace that shakes the walls. All at once, the swirl fades from the eyes of Influentia's victims. Thrall broken, they all begin to flee in fear.

Finally, Influentia looks up from her phone. "Hey! How did you all break out of your trance?!"

Taking the opening, Jay launches himself forward and uses his staff to bat her phone away. It hits dead on with a crack! Influentia gapes as her powers are rendered effectively useless without it. She looks between the three pissed supers rapidly before abruptly making a mad dash toward a lime-green laptop sitting on the counter. Before she gets anywhere close though, A shadow spears it straight through the screen.

"No!" she wails, "I had so much content to upload on there!"

She cries out in indignation as a tendril wraps around her, gagging her mouth and binding her hands to her sides.

"Thank God, she's finally quiet," Jay sighs.

Stygian runs to Pixamena, kneeling at her side. "Is she okay?!"

Razz slowly morphs into a humanoid form, joining Stygian. Gently, she tilts Pixamena's face to the side and lowers her ear to her lips.

"She's breathing, but she might have a punctured lung. She needs treatment."

"We need to go now, we need to get her to the hospital—"

"Razz, can you take her?" Jay says.

Razzmatazz nods solemnly, face serious for once. She tenderly lifts Pixamena and Pixiepuff into her arms, and heads towards the balcony. She exits, sprouting two fluffy pink wings and jumping off the ledge.

Stygian watches anxiously. "Shouldn't we go with them?"

"Heroes don't die. Especially not fighting someone like Influentia. Razz will take good care of her, don't worry. We still have business here."

Jay turns toward Influentia. Stygian grimaces, yanking her forward roughly with shadows. The tendril around her mouth shifts away, allowing her to speak.

"Let me go! Hey!"

"Be quiet," Stygian says, "we were supposed to make a deal today. Instead, you went behind my back and tried to trick me."

Influentia laughs. "What are you going to do? Hurt me?"

"I might. The Alliance is going to change things, and we don't have time for games. So are you going to help us, or do we have to make you?"

"Oh please, Gannet. We both know you're not man enough to do that. You would never hurt me—I was your first real friend, the first person to really help you!"

"That wasn't you at all. We were just both kids on the internet, obsessing over heroes and villains. Then you got famous and changed..."

"I changed and you stayed the same fucking hobo, getting high on the street and fucking people up with the powers you can't control! And somehow, you thought you could dump me!" Influentia turns to Jay, making swirly puppy eyes. "Oh, hero, please help me. He's hurting me so much!"

Jay's eye twitches. He reaches around his side and pulls out the dark black handgun he had hidden away in his utility belt. Influentia's jaw drops as Jay pushes the muzzle against her forehead.

"Is that a gun!?"

"Yep," Jay grunts, "Colt 1911."

"Where did you get that?" Stygian asks, similarly shocked.

"Babe, we live in Texas. Where can't you get a gun?"

"You can't use a gun, heroes don't—" Influentia starts.

"We need intel. If you aren't going to provide it, then we don't need you."

"...we?"

Stygian cackles, a coil of darkness coiling possessively around Jay's neck. Influentia's face only drops further as she watches Jay lean into the soft touch.

"But—the news—" she stutters.

"Fake news is so rampant these days. Shouldn't you know that when you love to spread it so much?" says Jay.

"So you're really working together now?"

"Yep. And since you promised us you'd provide something of worth if we helped you, it's time to pay up."

"You really think you can intimidate me with your little henchman, Gannet? He's not a villain, no matter what delusions you've told yourself—"

Influentia jolts, words cut off as Jay cocks the hammer back on the gun with a click. Stygian snickers with glee. "I think henchman isn't the right word here. He's the one calling the shots here, not me."

"That's not true, we're doing it together," says Jay. "you're the muscle. I'm the brains—and the one who finishes off the stubborn idiots who get in our way."

Seeing the edge of delirium in Jay's eyes, Influentia folds. "Okay! Okay! What do you want?!"

Jay grins maliciously. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he recognizes he should probably take it down a hair...

A voice filters into his mind.

...Jay should be proud he gets to be the MC...

MC? As in main character? Jay grins wider—now he's having delusions of grandeur, imagining himself the center of a story. He can't picture himself being a relatable protagonist, especially when he's taking such a twisted sense of satisfaction in putting his boyfriend's shitty ex in her place. At least Stygian doesn't seem too put off by the sudden possessive streak. In fact, he seems a little into it, his face flushed as he stares at Jay.

Jay clears his throat, suppressing the sudden influx of dirty thoughts to file them away for later use. "As you know, Echo and Frame have gone missing since their encounter with Alphaman. We need leads on them: if they survived, are hiding out, or captured."

"How am I supposed to do anything?"

"Use your influence, idiot. You have a captive audience all across Houston, some of them definitely know what happened. Get them to tell you."

"I can't do that! I can't just go digging into the Network's secrets, they'll bring Alphaman down on top of me!"

"Then don't use a Network branded phone and don't fucking post where you are every five minutes!"

"But—!"

Influentia cries out as Jay grips her by the jaw. "You have two choices here. You can risk upsetting the Network, or you can piss me off. Do you understand? I won't just end you, I'll livestream it for your fanboys to watch."

"I'll do it, Okay? I'll do it!"

"We'll be waiting."

Jay turns to leave, but Stygian remains.

"Hold on a moment."

Still kneeling, his shadows slide across her face. She struggles and cries out in indignation as her hair is mussed and makeup smeared. He grins smugly as he snaps a pic of Influentia with his phone.

"Just a little insurance."

"Asshole!" She yelps.

[https://img.wattpad.com/21a3a5d208b9bbad978854933d9c36550c62fec6/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6855596f335146613347307370513d3d2d313432333533343533372e313762343933386461333432336532373531393837373935343832302e706e67]