Tests are for Nerds. . . and Villains Apparently

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"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.

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From where they currently stood, he could see a gaggle of villains gathered on the opposite end of the space. His opponents, most likely. As the trio got closer, Cassian noted that he recognized most of the gathered villains, though not all by name. There was the doctor, the trio that had attacked him (well, it was more an attempted attack but whatever), and a red-haired chick that seemed vaguely familiar.

"Oh, goodie you're all here!" Driver grinned, hopping up on top of one of the nearby mangled benches so they were standing over the crowd, "Listen up fives—and Crow—a ten is speaking."

"Hey!" two of the younger-looking villains voiced their displeasure but were quickly silenced.

"Hush children, the adults are speaking—" Driver ignored the continued protests—" We all know the rules by now, right? K.O your opponent to win, no killing, no permanent maiming, and keep the property damage to a minimum if possible! Oh and kid, you gotta win three matches in order to challenge me!"

"Sure, easy enough," Cassian shrugged. Not that he wanted to challenge Driver anyways.

"Alright, Juac, ready?"

"Bitch I was born ready! You made me wait a whole fuckin' week for this, man," the woman with red hair spoke up, cracking her knuckles as she joined Cassian out in the field.

"Okay, kiddos, try not to hit anyone with stray shots. Ready, set, go!"

"I'll finish you off real quick, punk!"

"What I don't get any warning?! Driver you bitch!" Cassian yelped, stumbling backward slightly as he ducked out of the way of the red woman's wide swing.

"Quit squirming so I can crush you!"

Juac spun around, now wielding a large barrel of a weapon as she charged at him for a second time.

Cassian ducked under her swing, snagging the woman's feet with a myriad of shadow bindings as he slid around behind her. In one smooth motion, he twisted around, nailing the taller villain in the back of the neck with his left foot. The blow knocked her down and Juac rolled a short distance, clearly unconscious.

". . . oops?"

Cassian glanced between the unconscious form and the spirit hovering next to him, a silent question.

"She's probably fine. But maybe next time don't hit people in the head with 8 pounds of metal?"

"Good idea," he muttered. Turning to Driver, he added, "So I win this one, right?"

"Uh, yeah—yeah you win. Wow, that took less time than I thought." Driver pulled what looked to be a crumpled wad of paper from their pocket and handed it to Crow.

"So, who's next?"

"I am."

Cassian jumped out of the way as a bright red arrow came flying toward him, head whipping around to find the source. He quickly spotted the crimson-clad villain on a rooftop behind where Crow and the others were standing. Ah, he recognized this one too—Red Eye, if he remembered correctly.

"Let's play a game: Survive."

"Hah! I'm a bad bitch, you can't kill me!"

"Start running."

Cassian let out a squeak of surprise as another arrow landed dangerously close to his foot. That was all the motivation he needed; He quickly turned around and bolted down the street opposite the archer.

"I think he's gonna give you a head start," Moros piped up after a few moments.

"Good, his loss!" Cassian replied, ducking under a stack of metal beams.

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