The building gets blown up, which shakes loose several villains!

It's a foregone conclusion, really. You just can't move fast enough to get closer before that meddlesome asshole Photobomber clicks the detonator. You're starting to think he has it in for you personally.

You are **** to crouch down for safety as a string of explosions rips through the supports on the corner of the apartment. You brace yourself for the horror of hearing the screams of soon-to-be-crushed citizens. However, by some small miracle (or design?) this apartment building seems to be condemned and abandoned. That does make a certain kind of sense, as it wouldn't be a good hiding place for someone who didn't want to be found otherwise. But soon you detect that there is, indeed, someone in there; a few shouts of alarm, male and female, come from one of the upper floors.

Just as you rise to your feet, confident you won't be hit by any more flying debris, one of the upstairs windows shatters. Several figures come bursting out through it, just as the implosion begins and floor after floor start collapsing on one another. It looks to be three males and one female, all dressed in the outlandish style that makes it a sure bet they're supervillains.

The first one is a muscular, black-haired man with a moustache and a domino mask, dressed in a jumpsuit with a gyroscope symbol on it. He starts twirling around in circles in midair with his arms stretched out. It looks completely ridiculous, but somehow, it is actually working, keeping him lifted like a helicopter as he slowly descends towards street level at a safe speed. You are pretty sure you've heard of this guy: 'Mr. Gyro'. Bank robbery, hijacking, dozens of counts of attempted ****, the usual routine.

Next is a guy in a heavy body armor and goggles, flame decals covering his body. He has a combination jet pack and flamethrower, which makes it quite simple for him to make it down safely. He angles down and comes to a rest on the other side of you from Mr. Gyro. Yeah, you've heard of this guy, too: 'Fire Season'. Another pretty typical supervillain: ruthless and violent towards heroes but more focused on stealing as much as possible than causing grief to bystanders.

The others are coming down in a pair. A tall and very handsome man with long, strawberry blonde hair, wearing a silly green renaissance-faire reject tunic and tights complete with curly 'Peter Pan shoes' and a loose hood is the male. Contrary to the stereotype, he is actually being carried in the arms of a female much smaller and less bulky than he is.

The girl is rather curvy around the chest area, and her long, golden blonde hair flutters dramatically as the two of them start plunging straight down. She is wearing an amber-colored dress with fur trim around the cuffs, the knee-length hem, and the plunging cleavage. It looks like something you'd wear in winter, if it didn't leave most of her legs exposed. On her feet are... a pair of ice skates?! It seems there's a method to the madness as she starts skating along the side of the crumbling building, weaving back and forth along the concrete surface even as it cracks up around her. Somehow the skates are giving her traction, so she goes from side to side along the wall, bleeding off momentum and gradually slowing her descent until she gets close to ground level. She leaps to safety and goes gliding along the sidewalk just as the building collapses into a heap of debris and a huge dust cloud behind her. She stops close to you and stares at you from behind her amber-colored domino mask.

(Original panel art)

Mr. Gyro speaks first, his voice sounding like an amateur theatre actor and dripping with smugness: "Bringing down an entire building without warning just to try and get us? Perhaps we should take such a flagrant disposal of so-called superhero principles as a compliment? A bit like Mr. Barrow and Ms. Parker's gang? Though, of course, your little ambush was not nearly deadly enough, were that your intent."

It seems that the girl carrying the guy in green wasn't motivated by any feelings of romantic tenderness, because once they're on the ground, she unceremoniously dumps him on his ass. She squints at you and Red Balloon, who is floating a few feet behind you. "Who are you two bitches?" she says in a rather sharp tone. Since you and Red Balloon are... pretty far from modestly dressed, even compared to this villainess with her short skirt and cleavage, her eyes narrow with contempt. "Oh, I think I get it - you found out that I was waiting here for Green Streak to come and discuss things, and you're afraid that I'll have him wrapped around my finger once he does? Well, you should worry."

Mr. Gyro clenches his jaw irately and folds his arms, looking away as if what she said bothered him. The blonde with the magic ice skates continues. "You're going to have to find someone else to manipulate. Assuming, that is, that you survive today."

Red Balloon behind you gives a snotty sigh of frustration. "Ugh! MORE arrogant fools wanting to fight for no good reason. I've been on this team for almost 24 hours and it's just fight after fight. We JUST need to get our fourth member back so we can start getting media appearances and I've been awake sooooo long, can't you just give up for once?"

It seems that the four villains don't believe that she's being serious, and the female and Mr. Gyro look at one another to share a laugh, taking her complaints as irony.

"Hey, Goldie!" The long-haired man in the ren-faire robin hood/peter pan costume stands up and pulls a silver flute out. He twirls the instrument dextrously in his hands. "I know this is a deeply important matter to you, near and dear to your heart, my gracious and glamorous leader. Why don't you let my favorite fire-eater and I teach these silly girls a quick lesson for demolishing our hideout while you go on ahead and ring up Little Boy Green?"

"The fuck?" The burly Fire Season, whose expression is hard to see behind his hooded mask and goggles, growls at him in a raspy voice. "Did you just volunteer me, newbie? Sure, I'll take care of business, but keep your bright ideas to yourself."

"WAIT A SECOND!" you hold your hands up desperately. "Just listen! Yes, we," you gesture to R.B. and yourself, "are heroines, but we don't want to fight you! And we aren't the ones who destroyed your hideout, that was Photobomber being an asshole! Can't we all, uh, take shelter... from the storm..." you stumble hesitantly over an ill-fitting pun, "...and talk this out? All we want is to rescue Dr. Rainbow from those psychos, Hot-Cross Bunny and Queen of Hearts! We'll be way too busy with that to get in the way of whatever scheme you have in mind for Green Streak, okay?"

The blonde girl in the fur-trimmed dress and ice skates slides forward a few feet. "What is your name?"

"Uhhh... Thunderbird." you say hesitantly.

"Let me introduce myself." she says. "I'm Goldie Glider. I appreciate a hero who can be reasonable sometimes. Normally, I'd say alright. But that would be if it was business. Right now, it's personal." She snaps her fingers. "Fire Season, Magic Flute? You're up. Meet up at the usual place tomorrow. Gyro? Let's be off."

"Gladly, darling," the black-haired man next to her takes her hand, and Glider launches off, skating on the asphalt street as if it were the surface of a polished ice rink and pulling him with her... somehow he's skipping along the surface of the street, barely making contact and allowing her to pull him along. There is a tense moment as you and the remaining two bad guys size one another up.

Fire Season begins advancing towards you menacingly, leveling his flamethrower. "You made a big mistake coming here, bitches." he growls humorlessly. "I usually have to deal with capes who are too fast to hit with the flames or the ones like Star and Spangle who can just take it. Do you have any idea how much pain you're about to be in? You should really be running. I think you might have a harder time selling slutty pin-ups of yourselves to the papers after a few months in the burn ward. You've got 10 seconds before I turn you from 'Thunderbird' to 'Fried Chicken'."

Of course, you've been communicating with Red Balloon subvocally the entire time. "Wow," you say condescendingly. "You really walked right into this one. What puts an end to the yearly 'Fire Season', Red Balloon?"

Red Balloon giggles at the expense of somebody besides you for once. "Why, the rainy season, of course!" A small downpour and a cloud of mist and fog engulfs the scarred flamthrower-toting villain. He laughs derisively. "Are you shitting me? You gonna try and put out a blowtorch by spitting on it next? Whatever, don't say I didn't warn-" there's a click and a sputter from his weapon and he stops. "didn't... warn.... WHAT? What the fuck?!"

"Umm, YEAHHHHHHH," Red Balloon squeals excitably at him, "fires can burn in rain, but it was preeeeeeetty obvious that toy of yours needs a pilot light. Like, could you have possibly chosen a worse heroine to pick a fight with?"

All the while you have been walking steadily closer to him. He is still quite a bit bigger than you, so rather than being intimidated, he stows his flamethrower carbine and lunges towards you with a roar. Clearly he's not the type who is shy about hitting a woman.

Unfortunately for Fire Season, you're a woman who isn't shy about public property damage. You slam your sonic-power-fist-glove into the street, blasting open a two-meter-wide hole right in front of him. The gruff villain is too weighed down by his fuel tank/jetpack assembly to slow himself down and he loses his footing, plunging face-first down into the city sewer. His cursing is cut off by a loud splash. Fortunately for him, it rained recently.

'Magic Flute', the handsome guy in green, throws his head back and laughs at the sight. "That sure didn't take long! And here I was thinking I'd have time for a warm up first."

You stretch casually as you walk closer to him, Red Balloon floating around the side to cut off his retreat. "Come on, don't be stupid," you say. "My power lets me control sound. You clearly aren't the smartest criminal if you think that whatever your flute does is going to work on me. I just had a music-themed supervillain try to mess with me a couple of months ago, and she really, really regretted it."

There's a sudden flash of recognition in the strong-jawed, silly-dressed man's eyes. "Oh? Ohhhhhhh. So you had something to do with the Gloomy Sunday song! This really is my lucky day. Pity that Goldie took off so fast, I think she is going to want to have a few words with you after all. Good thing Fire Season is so bad at his job, or else I might've had to shut him down myself before he did something unfortunate to two such lovely heroines. Don't worry, girls, I don't want to hurt either of you at all. Why don't we just relax and get to know each other better?"

"Okay, sure. I'll start by introducing you to my foot." you smirk as you advance towards him. He raises the silver flute to his mouth and begins playing. And, of course, you open your mouth and wag your tongue, calling on your superhuman vocal cords to cancel out whatever he's trying.

But, using your power... doesn't feel quite right. It's like there's something stuck in your throat. "What the..." As you clear your throat to try again, you realize... the music he is playing is absolutely beautiful. Enchanting. You feel like you could listen to it for hours. Wow, what an incredibly gifted player this guy is! When you think about it, it would be a shame to fight him.

You shake your head. "D-damn it... I'm thinking weird things... Balloon!" you look over and see that she is getting a dreamy look on her face as well. She looks at you and seems a little guilty for the first time. "Um, ooooh, I should have mentioned, Thunderbird..." she actually sounds apologetic. "...I had to rapidly change the pressure and humidity, which I guess miiiiiight affect sound waves too? But... mmm... don't worry about it. I'll volunteer to interrogate Magic Flute myself. Can't you tell that he only wants to help us?"

A warm feeling is flooding your chest and you start feeling giddy and excited. But the sweet feeling is quickly compromised when you see that this absolutely gorgeous hunk of a man is staring at Red Balloon and her big fake (probably) tits instead of you in your skimpy yellow one-piece! "No way, Red Balloon! Get out of here, go back to base and give an update to Snowflake or whatever, he'll want to talk to the LEADER of the Weather Watch! Besides, I'm a fellow enthusiast of the power of sound. You've got nothing in common with him, so just drift off into the sky, already!"

"I don't think so! I can't let an oily, disgusting tramp like you get her hands on a nice guy like him!" Red Balloon says shrilly. "Bring it on, I've been wanting to do this all day! Let's see just how at home in a thunderstorm you really are!"

"Gladly!" You shout back, beckoning her and getting into one of your martial arts stances. "Just as long as you promise not to go crying to Mort when I slap you silly!" You look back to your new friend, Magic Flute. "Sorry, sorry...! My teammate is being difficult, please, just wait for a minute and I promise you'll have my undivided attention..."

Walking between the two of you, the beautiful man laughs melodiously and puts his hand on your shoulder. Just the slightest touch makes your heart start fluttering. "Please, please! There's no need to fight over me, ladies. I have plenty of time for a conversation with both of you, and I promise I'll play as many songs for you as you like. Let's just go inside that storm-chaser van of yours..." he wraps an arm around your waist and begins leading you towards it. Soon he grabs Red Balloon the same way, holding the both of you by your hips and maneuvering you back to the vehicle.

Damn... you've met someone so incredibly charming and Red Balloon just HAS to be here, getting in your way. And it's only a matter of time before that gangly non-binary slut, Snowflake, starts trying to barge her way in and steal Magic Flute's attention away from you. Well... you'll figure out a way to show him who he should focus on...