Broken Stride

Tests are for Nerds. . . and Villains Apparently

"Cass, dear, your jacket is crooked."

"You're such a mom, you know that?" Cassian huffed, though he stopped walking so the villainess could adjust the blue garment.

Being forced to spend a week at home with the other darkness villain had given him plenty of time to decide on a new villain outfit. After much debate (mostly from Crow) he settled on a cropped navy blue jacket with white and blue stripes down the front and bottom hem, a belt, and black pants. It wasn't too much different from what he'd had, but Crow had insisted on adding some color, and who was he to complain? The only real new addition was a bit of armor on his shins in a similar pattern to his gauntlets to 'spice things up' as Crow had said.

"I wouldn't have to be if you'd just take care of yourself like a normal person."

"I take care of myself!"

"Granola bars aren't meals, Cassian."

"Says you."

"I know like one person that would agree with you—"

"What's up fucker?!"

"Ah, speak of the devil, hello Driver." Crow smiled at the mechanic as they jumped down from the air to join them, pocketing their shrunken screwdriver.

"Oh, hello love, didn't realize you'd be here too," Driver grinned, waving to the taller villainess. Turning to Cassian, they added," Oh hey nice clothes kid!"

"Why do I feel like that's sarcasm?" Cassian rolled his eyes.

"From me? Never~!" Driver let out a fake offended gasp. "Anyways, are you ready for your test?"

"I get enough of them at school so yeah, let's get it over with."

"Oh, you're a student? Never would've guessed," Driver chuckled, fiddling with their goggles as they started walking further into the zone.

"Bitch I might be," Cassian replied, moving to follow the ginger, Crow close behind. "So where is this test?"

"We've got an arena set up for you—well, technically it's just an empty lot but it'll work—in any case, it's not too far."

Crow stepped closer to speak into his ear," You gonna be ok to walk that far?"

"Was spending a week pestering me at home not enough? I told you, I'm fine mo—Crow."

"Oh? Was that another 'mom' I heard?" Crow snickered.

"No!"

Crow ducked as Cassian attempted to swat at her; She stuck her tongue out at him briefly before skipping over to walk next to Driver a few paces ahead.

"You seem very against the idea for how often you seem to call her that," Moros mused with the aura of a smirk.

"Well yeah, 'cause she's a villain," Cassian hissed, eyeing the two lovebirds ahead of him for any reaction. He really didn't want to have to try and explain his personal demon to anyone.

"Yeah, but you're a villain too, you know."

"Shut up."

"Hey, kid, hurry up! We're burning daylight here!"

Cassian flinched at Driver's sudden call, looking over to find that the two villains had gotten way ahead of him at some point. Driver and Crow stared at him from where they stood at the end of the street.

"R-right, sorry!"

He sent one last glare toward Moros before running to catch up with the pair.

As Cassian rounded the corner with the two older villains, he suddenly found himself in quite a large open space. He could only assume it was the remains of some kind of park given the ground was dirt not concrete. He had to admit, it did seem like it would make a good arena given the whole square of land was surrounded by tall buildings on all sides.