Chapter Text
It was a fairly normal day in Miracle City. The sun was shining, birds cheering, people wandering the streets... oh, and a Supervillain was rampaging through the streets.
With a furious shout, a huge, heavily muscled man dressed in what could only be described as a crude approximation of a bear outfit in the form of a loincloth, boots, gloves, and a hat, slammed his arms against the ground, the concrete shattering beneath the force of his blows. Growling, he pulled himself upright, the glaring sun glinting off of his hulking muscles. With an animalistic roar, he charged the small target before him, clawed gloves bared to rip them to pieces.
Said figure gave an exaggerated tisk of disappointment. "El Oso, how many times we gotta go through this? The day you take me down, is the day I try out for ballet!"
The now-named El Oso snorted, slowly cracking his knuckles. "Then ya'll betta get ready to buy youself a new tutu, man!"
His opponent rolled his eyes, baring his steel claws. "Yeah yeah, let's get this over with, okay? I got to get to class!"
"Well fuck you too, man! I don't gotta take this shit!" El Oso roared, leaping forward in a surprising display of speed for someone as tall and thickly built as he was. In the space of an instant, nearly four hundred pounds of muscle slammed down into the spot the other individual had been just seconds before. "How yous like them moves, Kitty Boy!?"
"Firstly, it's El Tigre." The younger voice called out sharply, before a note of amusement entered his voice. "And secondly... my moves are better."
"Wah!?" Eyes widening in shock, El Oso whirled around, staring in shock at the sight of his opponent behind him, his brown and black Tiger-themed costume on full display in the bright sun, the short red scarf around his neck only highlighting the bold as brass smirk on his face. A prehensile tail twitched about from the costume, seemingly alive, similar to the slowly circling ear tufts on the upper mask. But what really caught El Oso's attention... was the ball of burning green flames clutched in the boy's clawed fists.
"Fuego Del Tigre!" The boy roared, heaving his hands forward, the flames shooting out as a tiger-head shaped fireball. Screaming in fear, El Oso took off on all fours, only for the flames to smash into him, blasting him into the sky. With a pained groan, he collapsed back onto the ground, lightly twitching from the burning sensation coating his limbs. "Had enough?"
It wasn't a question.
"Yeah..." El Oso sighed, groaned more like, as his whole body ached from the flames. "Jus make sure ma cell gets an Ice Pack or twenny, an I'll be good."
Grinning in triumph, El Tigre gave an exaggerated bow to the assembled crowd of eager onlookers, who had been gleefully watching the resulting smackdown, including a pair of cops munching on buckets of popcorn. "Well folks, looks like it's El Tigre: 35, El Oso: 0! Officers, if you'd take it from here."
"You got it, Mr. El Tigre!" The lead cop on the scene, a portly fellow with a glazed look in his eye, agreed, waddling over on his chubby legs. "Chief Suarez is gonna be so happy with us for bringing El Oso in again!"
As the officers awkwardly yanked El Oso to his feet and set him in cuffs, El Tigre puffed his chest out in pride, before giving a cheerful salute to the onlookers. "Welp, that's all the time I got for today!" He chipperly remarked, garnering a disappointed groan from the crowd, which he waved off. "Oh no, don't be sad. We all know he's just gonna break out in a few days and try again." This drew a laugh, causing his grin to shift into a smirk. "And as fun as pummeling idiots like him is, I do gotta life to live!" Giving another salute, he raised one of his clawed hands, the end shooting off into the air like a grappling hook. "Catch ya later, folks!"
"We love you El Tigre!"
"Sign my T-Shirt!"
"Sign my Churros!"
"Sign my Baby's forehead!"
As the crowd cheered his praises, El Tigre took to the air, leaping along the rooftops with a laugh. It was days like this that almost convinced him to fully commit to being a hero. And speaking of which, should he consider cancelling that heist with Cuervo later...?
...Nah! Too much fun to miss out on, and if he ditched her she'd be pouting for a week. Also, her mother would skin him alive. Enough playing around, he had to get back to class before Vice-Principal Chakal skinned him alive!!
Standing in front of their school, two girls frantically paced back and forth, making a significant effort not to look directly at each other. The gothic looking girl irritably brushed a strand of hair back from the wing currently covering her eye. "Ugh, where is he!? He's going to be late, and I do not want to burn another favor with Chakal to keep his butt out of the firing line."
The Blue-haired girl bit her lip as she checked her phone, before giving a sigh of relief. "Okay, it looks like he wrapped things up with El Oso, so he should be here any minute now."
"Ugh, I am going to KILL that Idiota if he's late!" The goth growled, roughly clawing her black-painted nails against the palm tree next to her, utterly uncaring of the gouge marks left behind.
"Get in line." A harsh, male voice echoed behind the two. As a chill went down their spines, the two whipped around, eyes going wide at the sight of the man behind them, his dark suit almost smoldering in the harsh light, dark red hair messily capped beneath a bowler hat, his face set in a harsh scowl. "Mister Rivera has less than five minutes remaining, or he, and the two of YOU, will be experiencing a nice, long, stay in detention."
"What!? That's not fair!" The blue-haired girl cried. Frustrated, she tugged on the bright-red goggles set on top of her head. "I haven't even broken any rules this week! I'm on a streak man, a streak!!"
"And I haven't been to detention since elementary school!" The goth ranted, a look of panic in her eyes. A haunted expression crossed her face. "If Mama found out, she'd kill me...!"
"And I don't see how either of those things are my problem." Chakal growled, idly scratching at the stubble on his face. He pointed to the clock on the wall. "Five. Minutes. A second later, and you all will be in detention. Understand!?"
"YES SIR!!" Two girls shouted, snapping into a salute. The two blinked, realizing what they had done, dropped the salute with an embarrassed flush, as Chakal laughed.
Meanwhile, across town, Manny Rivera, better known by his alias El Tigre, was currently wandering the rooftops, on his way back to school. "This is the life. Awesome friends, awesome fights, awesome everything! And I even managed to get that fight done with El Oso before it made me late! What could possibly go wrong!?"
And, of course, that was the moment everything started to go wrong. With a sky-shaking roar, the Miracle City Bank exploded in front of him, Manny pulling up short just before he could leap onto it, sparing himself the fate of being consumed in a fireball. "Ay! What the hell?!?"
"Dang it, we missed!" A thuggish voice shouted.
Eyes widening in shock, Manny whirled around, catching sight of a large, muscular man dressed in a fine Italian suit, alongside two others in similar dress. All in all, they looked like stereotypical mafia members. Well, aside from the incredibly large mustaches that seemed to be capable of acting as limbs and weapons, which were currently wrapped around a bulky rocket launcher. "The Mustache Mafia!?"
"Dat's right!" The skinniest of the bunch sneered, his mustache shifting into a pair of double-bladed axes. "Da boss is still real sore about yous leadin' da cops to our latest gambling ring, and now we're here to settle up."
The shortest one stepped forward, his mustache morphing into a massive pair of fists. "And we ain't talking about ya money."
Manny groaned, cupping his face in his hands. "Guys, can we not do this now? I'm gonna be late for school!"
"Oh, late for school are ya? That's changes everything!" Skinny sarcastically replied.
"Yeah! Educations important! Go on ahead, we can finish this up after ya get out." Hefty obliviously added, totally missing the sarcasm as his mustache morphed into a large arrow sign.
Manny blinked, before grinning. "Really? Thanks! See ya!"
"Buh-bye!" Hefty chuckled, cheerfully waving as Manny ran off. Skinny and Shorty stared, gobsmacked... and then both of them wacked their large-set idiot of a teammate across the head. "OW!! What was dat for!?"
"I was bein' sarcastic, you idiot!" Skinny snarled, using his mustache to yank Hefty down level with him, the hair tightening like a noose around the now subtly panicking Hefty's throat, his own mustache, as well as his burly arms, desperately working to pry the mustache away. Rolling his eyes, Skinny released him as he collapsed to the ground, before pointing in the direction El Tigre had gone. "Afta him!"
And with that, the trio took off after the fleeing Superhero(?), unaware of the small boy watching them through a pair of binoculars. Giggling sinisterly at a distance, a young boy by the name of Sergio felt a malevolent glee at the sight of his plan coming to fruition. By sending that tip to the police about that gambling den run by the Mustache Mafia while El Tigre had been playing cards, he had cleverly set the notoriously vindictive organization against his nemesis. Now all he had to do was sit back and enjoy the fireworks. "Soon, El Tigre, my vengeance will be... COMPLETE! NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!"