17. All Going NOT According to Plan (Rescuing a Heart)

The reinforcements for the Condor quickly arrived after receiving a distress signal from a minion, which already set off a red flag. They found the entire ship under attack from heroes almost everywhere. The main objective, alongside getting rid of the intruders, was to find Thrasher and why he hadn't been the one to send the distress signal. Becky took off down to the way towards the main halls while Crow went to search towards the lower decks.

Crow had just turned a corner in time to see his eldest hugging the entrance to a room like his life depended on it.

While wearing a tux.

Crow didn't have much time to think or ask on this before the attackers on the other side tried to deal damage at seeing him. He ducked behind the table blocking the doorway, managing to see Mack, Mayapple, Josephine, a hero in green he didn't recognize, and a girl in an almost white dress and red armored glove, all looking furious.

He hid behind the table, trying to process the whole situation before looking over at Thrasher to say something. Thrasher already beat him to explain what was going on.

"Alright, so, it turns out my new rival that Macro City was celebrating tonight is Mack Mulder's daughter, Maci."

"What?"

"I'm not done! And… I didn't remember that until after the rescue party came for her."

"You kidnapped the hero!? And why are you in a tux?!"

"Still note done! And I might have been trying to get her to marry me."

Crow stared at this idiot for a moment before dragging a hand down his own face. He made this kid. This idiot of a kid.

"Why were you trying to get her to marry you…"

"Because she's utter chaotic perfection," Thrasher answered back, a near predatory smirk on his face as he took a chance to look back at the attackers.

"Alright! Alright! Everyone stop!" Crow yelled out, holding a finger up. "I need to fully get this situation!"

"Like bolts I'll stop, that bastard just-" Mack yelled out before Mayapple held a hand.

"Crow, didn't you watch the gala tonight?" the pink armored princess asked, keeping a shield up as Crow stood up from the cover of the table and walls, holding onto one of his son's ears to force the other up as well.

"No, actually we were using the whole thing to our advantage and trying to rob a few places before we got the distress signal from here," Crow clarified. "So, just from what this birdbrain of a son told me, he kidnapped Mack's daughter and tried to get her to marry him?"

"On the very night she officially became the kingdom's main hero," Josephine added with a growl, gripping her scepter tightly in one hand as Maci and the hero in green both aimed their bomb wielding arms towards the villains.

Crow took a deep breath and chanced a glance at Thrasher. He ended up scowling at the younger villain's 'lovestruck' look towards the hero that Crow now knew was a wedding dress. 'Where did he even get that?' Of course, 'lovestruck' was a very loose term since Thrasher just ended up looking like he was a predator about to tear into prey.

He made this poor idiot. This poor, pitiful idiot that Crow knew was about to get sucked into the cycle all over again.

"Alright, so before anyone does anything irrational-"

"A little bit late for that!" The hero in green yelled.

"Shut it, Broccoli."

"It's Kells!"

"Shut it! Anyway, before this gets even further out of hand, how about we all just go and I'll deal with bashing in a few facts into my idiot of a son's head."

The rescue party stared at Crow for a moment, the sound of battle elsewhere on the ship echoing through the air.

"You… don't want to fight us?"

"Oh, trust me, Mack, I do. But right now, there is a more concerning matter that I do need to deal with that doesn't concern blowing you all off my ship. You have your daughter back, my son's only going to learn if I deal with teaching him this time, you get the idea."

An awkward moment of silence between the two groups before Mayapple was the first to relax and direct the others out, with a bit of protest from Maci, Josephine, and Mack all together.

"Oh, and Mack?"

The ex-hero in blue glared over at Crow, only to see the amber-eyed villain grin and stick his tongue out before saying in a sing-song tune.

"My kid's better than your kid. My kid did twice the work than yours did."

Thrasher quickly had to force his father to duck to avoid the high energy beam sent their way.

Later on, Crow would have Thrasher sit down in the kitchen once all the heroes had left the ship, both of them out of their armor and in regular civilian clothes as Becky nearby patted Ibis's back. The youngest child was busy laughing at being told the whole event.

"Thrashy, really? A hero?" the platinum blonde choked out between her laughs.

Thrasher meanwhile had rested his head against his hand, his arms resting on the countertop as he seemed to be daydreaming. Crow slammed his robotic hand against the counter to get the other blonde's attention.

"Listen, I get those other villains aren't your type, but this goes a bit too far. If you're really that desperate for a date, Thrash, I'm telling you right now that going fully for the hero team is a bad idea. Or did that Marie girl not teach you anything in how this is probably going to go?"

Thrasher sneered at the mention of the name before looking to the side to avoid the glare both Becky and Crow were sending his way.

"Cut it right now and avoid the inevitable heartbreak. This whole on the spot kidnapping you pulled on her will no doubt have her already hating you," Becky said. Ibis now had finally stopped laughing, looking with pity towards the tallest member of the family as he refused to look at any of them.

"If it counts for anything… if it wasn't for the hero bit, I thought it was rather romantic?"

"Ibis, that doesn't help anyone in this room," Crow said, pointing a finger at the teen.

"Sorry, Dad."

"Love and hate aren't that different.." Thrasher muttered.

"Thrasher."

"Fine... fine…"

Crow gave a short sigh of relief. Maybe this time there was a chance that they had spared his son an easily avoidable heartbreak.

Thrasher still proceeded to battle against Maci and the other hero Kells for the next week before he kidnapped Maci again for another attempt of marriage.

Well, Crow was always bad at being good. But no one could say he wasn't going to try and prevent what was going to be a disaster.