Corrupt

Chapter 11: Z

Two Days Later. . .

Usually, a normal workday consisted of Ranboo clocking into work, serving customers what they wanted, and then baking the deserts, pastries, and other goods they sold. Niki, a nice co-worker that Ranboo would consider a good friend, was working with him this day, both talking to one another as they worked the say away. Their boss, Mr. Halo, had come in earlier to see how business was going, but the man had already left to do something else that deserved his attention.

It's not like Ranboo was going to complain, since his boss had always intimidated him. Mr. Halo had an ability that would usually make others wary of him, the ability to control shadows and use them at his will. It was weird how he could make them as solid as any other object and made the man more intimidating to more than just Ranboo. Ranboo himself knew that people were wary of his kind, horror stories told about his kind to this day. Believe it or not, enderman are not as common to see nowadays, less than seven percent of the population of L'manburg being enderman. 

Besides the point, Ranboo had been working on the register when a man that looked familiar came up to order, or at least Ranboo thought that's what he was doing. "Hey, Ranboo, can we talk?" Ranboo blinked, looking up from the register with a shocked and dumbfounded expression on his face. 

"H-Huh?" He looked down at his uniform to see if he had his name tag on, something he didn't wear because of the fact strangers (like this one) would address him by it, making him uncomfortable. As expected, he wasn't wearing one. He looked up, miss-matched eyes blinking at the other before him.

Niki was now behind Ranboo, a serious look on her face ready to take over the register if the ender hybrid wanted her to. Ranboo though, took in the man before him. He was an ender hybrid himself, sour apple green eyes staring into Ranboos and he smiled showing off his fangs. His skin was black, his hair the same color as his skin, and pulled back into a hairtie. He looked happy, too happy for Ranboo's comfort. "How..." The man stuck his hand out before Ranboo would begin to speak. 

"Names Z!" Ranboo was going to speak, but 'Z' began to speak again. "I was a friend of your... mothers." A sorrowful look glistened in his eyes, yet Ranboo decided to ignore that and focus on what he had just said instead. Ranboo stood still, eyes blinking at them and before him owlishly as he thought. Was that why the man was so familiar to him? Niki, who had been behind him, decided to intervene. 

"Ran, I think you should go speak to him, I'll take over until you're back." She smiled sweetly before looking back at Z, who had let his arm rest at his side again. Ranboo nodded, making his way around to the counter to speak to the man. 

"C'mon, we can sit over here." Rambo said, pointing towards a table near a window. Z nodded, making his way over still with that same smile he walked in with. They sat down, Ranboo looking out towards the busy city before facing the other enderman. "So, you knew my mother?" Z's smile faltered a little, the first time it had since Ranboo had met him. 

"Yes, she was the best leader I could have followed under." Ranboo smiled at that, understanding exactly what the other meant. 

"Yeah, she was huh?" Z nodded, taking a deep breath. 

"I knew your mother, even before she became Nightcrawler, actually." Ranboo was intrigued by this. "I had met her in a foster home, and we had ran off together after we met up at a different foster home a few months later." He leaned back in his chair, looking dazed as he recalled the memory. "She came up with becoming a... villain, taking down the heroes. I was her right-hand man, always on missions giving orders she gave me, always informing her what I knew, digging up information I found on whatever she wanted." He paused. "That is until... I had to leave." Ah, that's how Ranboo found him familiar. He was the man that had been driven out of L'manburg, and threatened to be taken into prison. Ranboo had very few memories with the man, since he had been driven out when he was still a toddler.

But one he could recall was Z sitting with him in the living room, building a block tower with him with a huge smile. "I had to go, for your mother's sake. I knew if the heroes caught me they'd beat whatever information I had on you and her out of me, and I couldn't stand the thought of your mom getting hurt because of me..." He shook out of his state, his smile coming back to his face as he met eyes with Ranboo. "She was something, huh?" Ranboo smiled, a huff of laughter filling his lungs. 

"Yeah, she was the best." Z nodded in agreement. 

"I-...I've been keeping tabs on you." Z admitted, looking down as he folded his hands together, the tail behind him swishing side to side. "When I found out... she was killed... and you were still alive, I tried to keep tabs on you." He explained. "The thing was, I was a criminal at that point, and I couldn't just show up and take you home." He sighed. "Then I heard you had died in an explosion at the foster center you had been at... and I was very distraught and started working to be able to get back into L'manburg." Z shifted some in his chair.

"Then, I had seen a vigilante team on the News, and when I saw 'Void' I couldn't help but think it was you. So I started digging, and then I found your fake ID- and then I started really keeping track of your movements." Ranboo listened quietly, nodding as the other talked every other second. Z sighed, smiling sadly towards the other. "I'm sorry, I should have shown up sooner. I'm sure the foster system was not the best experience." Ranboo had to agree with that. He had hated every moment of it. 

"Yeah... it wasn't the best." Ranboo quietly said, a sympathetic look washing over the other enderman's face for a second. "But, thanks for trying to get me out of there." Z nodded, looking back towards the register where Niki was. 

"Well, I suppose you should get back to work, huh?" Ranboo looked back towards the counter himself. "Here." The half and half looked back, his eyes meeting a card Z held out for him. "My number, so we can keep in contact." Ranboo took it smiling as they stood up. Pocketing it as he stood. "Well, until we talk again." He said, smiling before turning towards the door. Ranboo stood ther for a moment, brows scrunched together as he watched the other leave. 

"Ranboo?" He snapped out of his thoughts, looking towards Niki. "Mind taking the muffins out of the oven for me?"

"Oh- yeah!" And onto a normal shift he went, the many questions he had in the back of his head. 

-^-^-

"What do you know about The Gambler?" Marionette asked Charlie again. The hero was leaning back in his seat, mask staring at him as he spoke. The whole time Charlie's been in here the hero had been too, this man was really determined to find him. "You were seen with The Gambler, now what do you know!" Charlie flinched away from the angry voice, green eyes looking down towards the metal table he was handcuffed to. He knew The Gambler, he knew him very well. But the heroes didn't need to know that. 

"I'm not telling you shit." He growled out, his fists balling as the room filled with silence. He heard the door open, revealing another masked hero. XD, the head hero and someone all vigilantes and villains alike feared. He was known as a cold-blooded killer amongst the villains, one of the things they all warned one another of. He was in a white cloak, the gold-trimmed hood pulled up, and XD mask staring at Charlie. He had a loose green shirt on under that, and black puffy pants covering his legs, his shoes being black as well with gold laces.

He had no armor on along with no weapons either, probably because he didn't need them at the moment. Usually, the man was seen with golden armor, a weaponry beal on his waist with a gun on his thigh. But today it seemed the hero didn't need those. Marionette himself looked over when the door was opened, the hero tensing up. He stood as XD entered the room. 

"XD, why are you here?" Xd walked over to the table, ignoring Dream as he looked at Charlie. Even with the mask, he could tell XD was giving the other a cold judgmental stare. The villain couldn't help but shrink back at it. 

"I heard that the interrogation was going slow, and we don't have the time to doddle." The smaller hero looked down at his feet at the other's words. "Now, Charlie Slime, what do you know?" His voice was cold as he spoke to the brownette, trying to back away as the man reached out for the other. 

"No, no no no-" He couldn't stop the other though, his world already going black.