This Ain't No Place For A Villain

Everyone was walking around the city, enjoying the sights and smells, completely forgetting they had a slowly dying harpy to help. They reached a giant swirling pure white tower in the centre of the city to find a map. Everyone collectively agreed to send Fox and Vinea off to find someway to find their doctor.

Senshi decided to tag along with the other two as the Rabbit's Foot Mercs observed the tower with an awe struck look. "Huh... Guess they remodelled it." Ven said with a laugh, holding his hood down so his rabbit ears didn't poke up. "Well, it's kinda the same?" Tika snickered, stretching slightly and chucking on her full cat mask on as Vex got weird glances from some humans, making her do the same. 

"So what exactly is this tower?" Vex asked bluntly, a bit confused as to why it holds some significance. "It's the Tower of Babel. You ever wondered why everyone speaks the same language? This is why, hun." Tika explained with a smile. Vex didn't seem to really understand, but nodded like she did. 

"So... Uh... Are heroes a common thing here?" Vex asked as she noticed quite a few statues and murals of heroic figures. Some looking more classical and fantastical to some looking more technological and augmented. There was even merchandise stands around them, which did confuse the mercs. "Who the hell is "Sun-Splitter"?" Moria laughed, checking out the new heroes of Melody.

"Do they even have Mercenary Stations? What about the guild? Is that still a thing?" Mementis mumbled, seeming a bit baffled how much their home had changed after 300 years. "Well, maybe Meri is still around then?" Ven joked, checking out a few of the stalls.

"And who's Meri?" Vex asked with a sigh, to which Tika just said flatly; "Ven's Sister. Simple. Keep up, bun." She smiled, patting Vex on the head, only to accidentally scrape against her antlers. "You really should cut those." Moria said with a laugh.

The 5 of them soon got bored of standing around and decided to sit on a bench, with Vex eating a warm biscuit she bought from a stall. "Is... Is there an event going on right now?" Tika said as she put Avis down on the bench. "I think so? I mean, they even have a stage..." Mementis shrugged.

"And a boxing ring." Moria smirked as she pointed to the boxing ring beneath the main stage in the centre. "Tika, I dare you to challenge whoever gets in the ring first." She said with a light nudge to Tika's shoulder. "I'm 424... I can't be doing stuff like that." 

Everyone began egging her on to do it, which she begrudgingly accepted as they all began making their way over to the stage, with Vex staying back to watch Avis. "Weird... You'd think this city has super heroes or something. Like, look at that Sun-Splitter chick." Ven laughed, pointing to a t-shirt with a golden haired woman in a bright red and gold leotard. 

As they began to wait, a massive crowd of people began to gather at the stage as the sky darkened before being cleared by a blinding, radiant light shooting down on to the stage. A human woman with golden hair and a beautiful face, wearing a red and gold leotard with a lion symbol on it, emerged. She soon approached the microphone, speaking in a colourful and pride filled tone as she raised a flaming sword to the air; "Hello Overcity Denizens! It is I, your faithful hero; Sun-Splitter!!"

"I already don't like her." Moria mumbled as Mementis snickered. 

Soon, a freezing wind began to below as a woman with cold, pale blue eyes and blue scaled dragon wings, wearing a fancy ice themed dress, landed on the stage with an air of arrogance to her. "And I, Ice Piercer, have emerged."

All the mercs snickered slightly at the name. "I-Is the next one gonna be fuckin' earth breaker?" Tika whispered, causing the other 3 to hold back their laughs in the silent and awe struck crowd.

The presumably last hero, a large, muscular woman with goat horns hidden between puffy white hair and wearing a casual street outfit, awkwardly walked on stage and grabbing the mic. "And yeah, I'm Goat. Just call me Goat." She said flatly, before standing next to the other two as they raised their hands up to the sky.

"And we're The Protectors of Paradise!" They yelled in unison. Everyone began clapping and applauding loudly, but was quickly silenced by Ven and Zamtika bursting into a fit of laughter, joined soon after by Mementis and Moria. As the applause died down, everyone stared at the four crying (well, only Tika could cry) with laughter. 

"What's so funny?" Sun-Splitter asked with a confused smile, pointing at them with her sword.

Everyone backed away so they could all clearly be seen as Ven spoke up; "It's.... I-It's your fucking names. Who a-actually calls themselves fuckin' Sun Splitter and Ice Piercer?! That is the funniest thing I've heard in a while." 

"W-What about Goat?" She asked, motioning to the Goat who had a stunned look at her friend for dragging her into this. "We already have a friend who's named after the Demi-Human their based on." Tika chuckled a bit as she spoke, causing Ice piercer to get a bit heated; "And what makes you so special? We're Heroes."

"And we... Don't care." They all said in unison, causing the crowd to gasp as whispers began to murmur about. Goat just rolled her eyes. "Look guys, can we just do the opening ceremony and go have fun?"

"No. They wanted to start this, we're going to finish this." Ice said with a smirk, spreading her wings before firing a snowball at Mementis, only for it to be sliced in half by Moria. "Ya really think you can hit my brother that easy?" 

Ice looked a bit stunned, quickly turning to the other two who didn't know what to do. Despite Moria looking more excited, everyone else knew she was furious. "Hey... Don't. I repeat, don't start a fight with heroes." Mementis whispered as Ven and Tika were trying to gauge how much of a shot they had a winning. 

"I think we could take them actually." Ven said as Tid-bit began scanning them. "Indeed. They are not as strong as they appear. They are at... They are weaker then Avis's heart power."

"Really?" Ven mumbled before motioning to Tika. "We can very easily take them. You wanna?" He whispered as Tika glanced over at Vex and the dying Avis. "We should probably deal with them after Avis."

"Fair enough." He mumbled. "Alright. The whatever's of Whatever, we ain't gonna start stuff and if you could point us in the direction of... What's the doctors name?" He asked Tika who quickly whispered it to him. "Direction of someone named Splice, we'll leave your fair city."

Everyone froze up at the name, as the trio of heroes looked a bit more serious. "How do you know of Splice?" Sun asked, jumping off stage and approaching the four cautiously. "Well, whole story but blah blah blah, we need them to help our friend after she got attacked by a demon."

"A Demon? Demons aren't real." She laughed, dismissing them as nothing more then pranksters. "Well, can you cure curses then?" Moria asked with a grin as she squared up to the taller woman. Sun crossed her arms with a confident smirk. "I dabble in healing. I suppose you guys could use a real hero. Where is this "Demon" cursed person?" Tika shrugged and lead them to Avis and Vex, causing her to let out a yelp of surprise.

"S-She's a h-harpy!?" She muttered, looking a bit frightened. "Uh, yeah? Well, former human. Now Harpy. She actually used to live here I think." Ven answered, causing Sun to look more frightened. "A-A human? L-Like she was n-normal before?" 

Mementis rolled his eyes. "Yes. Mollia, you guys don't leave this city often do you?" 

"Mollia?" Sun asked, even that seemed to confuse her. Ven decided just to get to the point of this whole thing. "Just heal her already. God, she is bleeding out... Very slowly. For losing a limb. Technology huh?" He snickered.

Sun took a deep breath and pointed her sword at Avis, channelling her heart to try and cure the curse, only to be met with violent chains shooting fourth from Avis's wounds, slashing Sun's cheek open. She fell back in surprise. "A-A demon did this?" 

"Yeah. Did this place get more inclusive or something? There are like, no other species of man here." Tika asked flatly, adjusting her mask as Goat came over to check everything out. "Woah... A harpy..."

"I-I w-want you guys out of the city!" Sun said with a scowl, her cheery demeanour fading. Goat quickly punched Sun over the head, standing next to Tika, who was just taller then her, and saying with a casual smile; "You're probably the leader, right? Big Strong woman like you must be." 

Tika scratched her mask a bit before Ven coughed for her attention. "Oh... Is it you little man?" She sounded genuinely surprised. "Well, hey. Just point us to Splice and we'll be gone." He said with a sigh, adjusting his face mask a bit as he held his hood down. 

"Splice is... A bizarre thing to bring up. I'm assuming you know them then? Why else would you seek them out?" 

"We ran a few jobs for em back in the day. Merc business and all." Tika explained, confusing Sun and Goat. "Mercenaries? Those haven't been a thing since like, 200 years back. Who are you?" Sun asked as Mementis and Moria awkwardly began grabbing Avis to move her out of the way in case anything bad happened. 

"Uhm... We're just really old." He said as he tried to sound like an old man, only to let out an electronic cough. The two began getting suspicious as Ice joined up with them, sniffing the air. "Something smells rotten. Like old flesh." She mumbled, glancing at the two. 

Goat pointed at Tika and Ven with a not so intimidating glance; "Take off your masks."

Tika rolled her eyes and took off her mask, surprising the three women upon seeing her horn. "An Oni..." Sun muttered. "An Oni." Ice answered with a cold, disgusted stare. "A big strong muscular woman comparable to myself... I mean, an Oni!" Goat corrected herself, though not before getting weird looks from the other two. 

"And you short stuff. You're not dating this fine lady, are you?" Goat said as she kissed Tika's hand, causing him to quickly slap Goat's face. "Don't kiss my girl!" 

Goat felt her cheek before laughing and furiously punching Ven in the ribs. But her face went from confident to scared when her hand went into his chest. She quickly pulled it out as Ven fell to the floor, limp. The 3 began panicking, thinking they just killed an innocent man over nothing.

"Ven, stop being a dick." Tika nudged him with her foot, causing him to get up, quickly scaring the three more. 

"What..."

"The..."

"Hells?" 

Ven laughed, his voice sounding more electronic as he adjusted himself. "Okay, okay. Hey Bit. What's the chance these three get scared? 100%? cool." He laughed before pulling down his hood and taking off his face mask. Terrifying the three as they stared at his decayed skin. 

"I'm Deaaaaad..." He said in a ghoulish tone, causing the three to scream and run off. The crowd quickly caught a glimpse of Ven's face, scaring them off as well. "Huh. Guess no one gave a shit about a dead guy walking the streets. I already miss that place."

"Shut up. Let's go find the others. I wanna be done with our adventure." Tika laughed, as the duo went and caught up with everyone else as Vinea, Fox and Senshi had figured out where to find Splice.