It was late afternoon in meeple city. Traffic had slowed to a dull stop in most streets, people on the sidewalks, blue skies, clouds and birds in the sky.
And a very bright, menacing object standing on top of a tall, glass rooftop. She stood, her cape flowing in the nice spring breeze and her grin huge as she looked down to a lower rooftop, in which a taller object stood, taking up a fighting pose.
"Whatever you're up to this time, Lightbulb, I'm here to put a stop to it!" And with that, the taller objects hand lit on fire, them holding a constant flame now, ready to attack if necessary. Lightbulb cackled at this.
"Oh and you're going to shoot flames at me to stop this? You're no match for me!" She spoke with pride, and a hint of playfulness, as if this were all just a game to her. The taller object just frowned.
"Whatever you and your gang are taking, you're going to put it back before I. Put it back for you. Got it?" They retorted now, growing frustrated with her. Paintbrush had been dealing with Lightbulb and her gang trying to pull off various heists of seemingly such random and insignificant things, but Paintbrush figured none of it could be good, considering Lightbulb was a villain. She had to be planning something terrible.
"Ohh, and what if I don't?" Lightbulb smirked, holding her hands on her hips. Paintbrush noticed that seemed to be a common pose for her to take.
"Well, I'm going to come up there and fight you! That's what!"
Lightbulb laughed again.
"Maybe next time! This time, with me distracting you, well, we've got everything we needed! My gang is already on route back to base!" Her smirk turned to a huge, prideful grin.
Paintbrush facepalmed. Of course. This had not normally been a problem for them, they were hard to distract, but there was something about lightbulb and the way she talked that was just so easily distracting. Or it was just nice to talk to her-- well... no. She was a villain. It can't be nice to talk to her.
"Well then! Lovely seeing you paintbrush! You're always a pleasure! Not much of a threat to me, but maybe someday! It's funny really, I didn't even have to use my powers this time!" Lightbulb boasted, before twirling, and seeming to vanish, most likely having used her super speed. Paintbrush wondered how far she might've gotten... until that wasn't their immediate priority.
Shit.
They had just stood there, letting her get away with a heist. They looked down to the ground and sidewalks below the buildings they had both stood atop before noticing the camera man. Damnit. That guy had been following them around lately, always with his phone in their face. They could only hope his phone couldn't pick up their, and lightbulbs conversation. If the world didn't know, that'd be more than fine.
They sighed, taking in their conflict-less defeat, before realizing they'd definitely be getting an earful from their sidekick-- no. Testy would kill them if she ever heard them call her a sidekick. Work partner? That's better.
So they sighed, activating their hoverboard, before heading back to their base. They didn't find any trace of lightbulb on their way back.
~
Lightbulb hated using her super speed. Being naturally clumsy, and it not always working or just plain backfiring sometimes just did not make it a good power for her to use. This was an exception, though. Today she felt like being fast. She felt like being cocky to her nemesis, and getting out of there before they could even do anything. She had a lot to prepare for today anyways. Today was the day, once things were set up, was when Lightbulb planned to pull her nemesis closer for a date-- NO! Trap. yes. That's better. Nothing romantic in the slightest. She stopped by her base to make sure her gang was setting up properly with the things they had stolen, and went back out to find her nemesis again. She hoped it'd be easy to find them before they made their way back to their own base.
~
Being a superhero was annoying at times, but helping the citizens of the city was all Paintbrush really felt they were good at. So despite their powers not doing much, being more on a destructive side, they helped people. Along with their natural flame, they had the ability to fly, but didn't use it often. Despite being tall, they really weren't too fond of heights. So they were walking. This normally wouldn't be a problem on most days, surprisingly most civilians seemed to give superhero's space, not crowding, there would always be a few objects to come and ask for pictures or for them to sign stuff, but there was only one after them today. A smaller object... a red fan with rectangular glasses, and a meeple brand phone shoved in their face.
Paintbrush tried not to be rude to people, especially civilians, as they had to be an icon of goodwill and justice, but this one had always been... annoyingly persistent. The fan followed behind them, saying all sorts of things and asking... far too many questions, none of which Paintbrush wanted to answer at the moment. All they wanted now was to get back to base.
"So, what happened up there! You didn't even seem to do anything! Can you tell me EVERYTHING?" Okay that was enough of that. Paintbrush stopped in their tracks, causing the smaller object that had been following close behind to bump into them. He quickly scrambled back a bit, surprised. Paintbrush turned to face them with the nicest expression they could muster;
"Look. I get it, you've got a lot of questions, what, you run a blog or something, right? Well here's the thing... Fan? I don't want to answer any questions right now! Lightbulb got away again and I. need to keep looking for her!" They ended up sounding a lot more aggressive than intended, but hoped it wasn't too noticeable. But Fan got the hint.
"Oh... right," He sounded a bit let down by this. "I just thought-"
Paintbrush heard a buzz from their own phone. A call?
"I'm going to stop you there," Paintbrush turned back around, walking a bit away to answer their phone.
"What is it Testy? Can it wait? I'm trying to shake off a civilian," They lowered their voice a bit, glancing back at Fan who now stood there patiently with a grin.
"Oh this isn't Testy! It's uh-" The person on the other end paused to clear her throat. Paintbrush recognized the voice immediately and groaned. "It's the one and only! Lightbulb!"
"How did you get my number?" Paintbrush yelled out louder than they meant to.
"Oh that's not anything you need to know! What's important is how I'm planning something big! And if you want to stop me--" She paused, Paintbrush could hear typing in the background.
"You'll meet me at the exact coordinates I just texted you!" Lightbulb cackled, and sure enough, Paintbrush moved the phone away from their face to see an unknown number had texted them.
Paintbrush would just sigh again.
"I'm not an idiot you know, this is very clearly a trap."
"A trap!? No... not at all!" Lightbulb took up a coy tone.
"Right. And what is it exactly that you're planning?"
"THAT'S ALSO NOTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW!" Lightbulb yelled, now seeming playful. Paintbrush sighed, and hung up now. They glanced back at Fan again, hoping he hadn't heard any of the conversation they just had.
"So, are you going to go? Seems like you don't need to search anymore, she wants to be found! How easy!" Fan grinned, while paintbrush kept their mildly annoyed expression.
"Yes. I'm going to go. Fine. But don't follow me this time! Whatever this is I'm sure is no place for a civilian! So keep away." Paintbrush now focused, and activated their flying, launching up in the air to land on a rooftop. Now away from the fan, who had definitely recorded their take-off, Paintbrush texted the coordinates they had received to their work partner, Testy. Who replied seconds later with a solid location. Paintbrush was no good with coordinates, but their partner definitely was.
But.. this was odd, wasn't it? The location once put into their navigation app on their phone was... the middle of a forest on the outskirts of the city? What could that even mean? Was Lightbulb dull enough to send them the coordinates to her secret base? No.. that wouldn't make sense. Whatever the case, Paintbrush took off once more, headed to the location. If it was a trap, they were sure they'd be able to get out of it very easily... this was just Lightbulb after all...
~
And with Paintbrush taking off, of course followed the little nosey reporter. Anything for the vlog.
Fan ran up the streets of the city, struggling to keep up with the flying object, before finally running out of breath on the outskirts of the city itself. He had lost sight of them now, but if they were in the park, they shouldn't be... too hard to spot, right? So Fan caught his breath, collected himself, and ventured in casually, not noticing the two people watching him go in.
//
(PIECE TO ACCOMPANY PART)
HEY GUYS ALMOST 1600 WORDS SORRY THIS PART IS SO LONG I HAVE 18 PAGES SO FAR IN MY GOOGLE DOC AND AM STILL WRITING SO MOST OF THESE PARTS R EXPECTED TO BE DECENTLY SIZED JUST A WARNING. THIS FIC IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE LONG, WITH A LOT OF CHAPTERS TOO. I HOPE YOU GUYS R EXCITED FOR THIS BECAUSE I CERTAINLY AM!