Chapter Text
By the time he hit Denmark, Grant was tired of mugging and thieving as he went. Liying low wasn’t going to keep him any safer, so there was no reason for Damage to not execute a good old fashioned robbery. It was a beautiful day for it too - flurries of snow as fall habe way to winter giving Grant the perfect excuse to dramatically whip off a coat and scarf once he’d made his way through the doors.
“I’d say ‘no one move’, but if you get in my way I’ll just move through you!” Raising his hands in the air in a parody of the usual script, the only reaction the set of guards behind him got to their drawn pistols with his fists igniting. The usual panicked screams surrounded him as people lurched preemptively out of his way.
Damage took a single step forward before one of the guards - and wow, Buddy, you must really like your job to do something this stupid - attempted to tackle him from behind. Grant flipped him across the bank hall and into the teller’s booth.
He couldn’t be sure how much of the thud- crack was glass and how much was bone, but he was sure the news would tell him all about it later.
The teller himself quaked behind the splintered barrier, bleeding. Guess that glass wasn't so thick after all. That didn’t matter either, though. Grant had enough brains to do basic recon before he ransacked a place, and he had his eyes on the big vault in the back.
Easy as pie, when you could smash through walls like cardboard.Damage was shoveling stacks of cash into a sack in no time.
It wasn’t until he was stepping back out into the street that he met any real pushback. Parked right there on the street were a pair of dorks in what looked like helmless mech suits.
“Stop right there, Damage!” Probably a pair of goody two shoes then. He decide to mentally call them Purple and Not-Purple.
“Put down the money and come with us now, boy - easy or difficult, it makes no difference to us!” Purple hollered, pointing some sort of arm- canon in his general direction.
Yeah, no. Instead of doing any of that, Grant slung his sack of cash over one shoulder and ripped a chunk of brick from the nearest wall, charging it and hurling it center mass before either man could so much as say “whu-”.
One hit and Purple was out! Damage whooped, laughing even as Not-Purple growled and swing his own cannon towards him.
Admittedly, he wasn’t whooping with joy when a plasma burst flung him back into the bank wall with enough force to break through it, but that was mostly because he had to toss his cash to the side so it didn’t get either burned or shredded. He clambered to his feet -only for a crimson and gold blur to slam into Not-Purple full force, catapulting him down the street and decimating the armor.
He clambered back out into the chaos to try and figure out what what’s happening, and saw the saw blurr slam into Not-Purple’s now more exposed fleshy bits. After that, he was just a mess of red.
In the blink of an eye, Jesse Quick stood before him, snorting at his slack jawed expression.
“Don’t look so shocked, brat. Your ma hired me to watch your back. I’d grab your loot and book it if I were you.”
She disappeared in another red and gold blur before he could respond, second before the sound of sirens forced him to take her advice.
He had the feeling he’d be seeing a lot more of her.
“Hunting someone down for Dr. Latvia doesn’t mean I need you hovering over- who the hell is that?!”
At the unfortunately now familiar sound of a speedster appearing, Damage had turned around to face Jesse Quick. He had not been expecting some clown in purple with a clock motif to be with her.
“In English, they call me Hourglass.”
“He’s my boyfriend. Put up with it.”
For a moment, the teenager simply stared at the older two villains in disbelief. Then he picked Hourglass up by his shirt and hurled him off the roof.
Unfortunately, a speedster girlfriend meant he never actually hit the ground, and Grant was once more glaring at his dumb face seconds later. This time, he had the audacity to laugh.
“Jesse, I like this boy!”
“Great. My stalker not only calls herself my babysitter, now she’s bringing her looser cabana boy along.”
Begrudgingly, he returned to his stakeout. Damage was trying to build a reputation as a solo professional, after all.
Twenty minutes later, and the lovebirds were still flirting. Canoodling, even. Gag worthy.
“Will you two get a room before I jump?!”
“You’d survive the fall, kid.” Quick didn't look away from Hourglass’ eyes. Shaking his head, he gave up the ghost and started making his way to the fore escape.
“What, you are that squeamish?” Hourglass seemed amused.
“He’s long gone; I’m wasting my time standing here. You’re wasting my time hanging around.”
“Aw, don't be like that-”
“You just had to visit Mongolia,” Quick had arrived, taken one look at the situation Damage had gotten himself into, and had immediately sped off to snag Hourglass.
“That boy hospitalized my top enforcers, and destroyed my favorite mansion!”
Hourglass, who was currently soothing ruffled feathers of what was apparently one of the continents biggest non- supervillain crime bosses. “I know, I know - believe me when I say, was simply a misunderstanding! The boy had no idea!”
“No idea or not, who is going to pay for all the damage he did?!”
Slag- before he could dodge it, Hourglass reached back and slung an arm over his shoulders, pulling him closer. He hated every part of this.
“Bill the Blackguard Guild!”
Oh, wonderful. He totally needed another tie to those maniacs. Maybe he’d have better luck if he hopped an ocean.