#cocau

Fun things!

The drawing at the end is silly but Altoid genuinely got his tongue ripped out. And Andronicus got his eyes plucked out. :D They both are fine now, thanks to a very skilled healer. (Hanabi!!!) Hax went deaf but also got healed.

Deadass the moment these three escaped whatever they were dealing with and stepped back into civilization Infume was there ready for Hax. Gray came a bit later.

I wrote Hacking Noises in the thingy but he would've changed his name by this point.... Or maybe this is when he still had the creative mode power.

Altoid is a retired hero. Nothing happened, it just wasn't for him.

Reign!

It is very important to me that only one person knew Feinberg's past as a villain. Specifically for the fact that I needed it to be a tense interact between to people when Hax debuts as a villain. It's something that this one person holds over Feinberg. Why Reign specifically? My idea was that Reign is a retired hero by this point. He didn't have a long run as a hero but he's retired now. Reign had tracked down Feinberg after he retired. He has no obligation to report him anymore, especially since the dude is powerless now. Why does Reign track down Fein? Fein was originally the top villain before he stopped. I actually have no clue why he would do that lol. But the current idea his that Fein is the reason Reign had to retire so it's kinda revenge quest. The two of them are not friends in this au, they kinda coexist. So Reign retires as a hero, tracks down Feinberg, finds out Fein no longer has his powers, leaves him alone, tracks him down again after Hax happens.

Couriberg!

They do in fact live together. In fact when Reign tracked down Fein the first time they had been living together for a few months. Couri doesn't find out about Fein until much later. Much much later actually. They actually had almost had a reverse Haxfume situation in my version. This version of Couriway has wings, standard, but he can also set them on fire (ICARUS-). Fein (villain) saw Couri (Hero) at night in the air while his wings were ignited and started swooning. Fein stops villaining before they become roommates but the minute Fein clocks Couri as a hero he's like "Fuuuuuucccckkkkk-" his old crush is back. He's changed his ways by this point, he was a villain for survival, but he doesn't want gold hearted Couriway to find out about his past. This is why Reign is able to hold this secret over Fein for so long. So Feinberg is trying to hide his villain past and couriway is trying (and failing) to hide his job as a hero. They both technically fall in love with the civilian version of each other though!

When Couri does eventually find out about Fein he kinda has like this moral dilemma where he is dating a formal villain who for all intents and purposes is still classified as a villain in the HBG system. Fein is just worried what Couri will think of him. And rightfully so. Couri doesn't do anything, he ends up sorta compartmentalizing his feelings on Feinberg. Powered Fein is a villain, powerless Fein is a normal guy. Which works until Fein gets his original powers back. (He can produce/create lighting within his body but needs something to channel the lighting through). And now Couri's compartmentalizing doesn't work, and he's worried Fein is gonna go back to being a villain. (he doesn't know why Fein was a villain in the first place). And like, yeah the first thing Fein does after getting his powers back is threaten (civilain) Hax with a steel pipe. They probably have a fight before they talk it out. (And Fein totally rubs it in Reign's face that he no longer has a valuable secret)

Also silly thing. Anjou, who has a power I've called adrenaline. Where he get's stronger, faster, and more sturdy the more adrenaline he has running through him. Like to the point where he's jumping off of skyscrapers with no damage. The draw back is that once the adrenaline starts wearing off he experiences fatigue and will eventually crash. He can't feel any injuries he gets until the adrenaline wears off. ANYWAYS, he's a sorta vigilante who annoyed the hell out Fein when he was a villain. You can always tell when Anjou is near because he blasts music. (Helps with the adrenaline)

More silly (none of this is silly) things. Feinberg (normal civilian feinberg) goes to threaten or at least talk to Hax multiple times and the only time it goes well for him his when he's threaten Hax with an electrically charged steel pipe. Fein knows the experiments happened, he just doesn't remember what happened. He does eventually remember and it give him major insomnia. Couriway has a "I'm going to succeed every mission or die trying" mentality, meaning he never retreats even when told (no reset), which causes Fein so so much more worry.

The creative mode power words differently between Hax and Feinberg. They both are able to fly, summon certain objects out of nowhere, near invincibility, and both have incredible strength. Fein's power works almost exactly like that, he just gains super speed and slight, slight clairvoyance. Hax on the other hand has the ability to disrupt other people's power (Sabotages), it's a brief thing that only lasts 2 minutes but its something he can do. I mentioned this in the tags of my previous post, but Hax has a magical girl transformation to make his eyes and hair blue. The creative mode power is also why Hax's villain name is Hacking Noises in this au. Idk if I want him to change it after he gets his ice powers. It'd be cool. Like Hax just gets really close to Infume and is just like whispers "I go by *insert name here* now" And then Infume get's all blushy and has to be like "...He changed his name" when reporting.

I have an entire page doc of information about the other characters that aren't just Haxfume or Couriberg, which I'll probably talk about later.

HBG, they're the heroes. Everyone knows them, they're not the only hero agency but they're the most well know in the city. They have an internship program where you are taught by a already established Hero. There are two ways to get an internship, apply or have a hero approach you and offer. Ex. Couri's interns, Jumper - applied, Erik - approached. Also Nerdi snuck in. There's different departments and specializations that define a hero or a civilian worker. Infume has an attack and defense specialization. Poundy works in the interogation department. Fulham works in the information and dispatch department. Draconix has a specialization in support and recon. Couriway specializes in search and rescue and attack. And so on. They have an extensive information gather team that tries they're best. HBG goes through hell and back making sure that the heroes don't accidently reveal their identities to people. They've got NDAs for everything. Heroes employed are often given a "fake" job to tell people they have. They've got a big shiny HQ building that was recently destroyed so they're rebuilding that.

The Mores, villains. Consists of the top three villains. Hax, Rowl, and Mongey. Hax is more destructive, goes around destroying half the city for the fun of it. Rowl is more methodical, he targets places that he knows the heroes will have a hard time getting to. Hostage situations are his favorite thing, he wants to remind the heroes how much they fail. Mongey targets specific locations, he's after the people who experimented on them so that where he targets. They do all work together, but their powers actually clash horribly and it's not effective at all. Like mentioned earlier Hax is the most destructive with his powers, however Rowl is the one who attacks the most. Hes attacked more than the other two have combined. They're information is limited as the closest they have is Mongey and whatever Rowl can threaten out of people. Rowl takes very good care not to leak his identity, Hax tries his best, Mongey tries the least. They go through 50 bajillion burner phones every month.

Spoingus!!! "Hero-villain-vigilante all in one bundle™" - Altoid in my au. Sometimes they commit crimes, sometimes they save the day. The border more on silly villainy than actual villainy. ....They're kinda like team rocket lol. They're really good at what they do though. If they're villains they're a pain to deal with, if they're heroes they're super helpful. They're on everyone's good and bad sides, and HBG doesn't know what to do with them. It's not uncommon for one side of Spoingus to be villains and the other side of spoingus to be heroes trying to stop them. They don't have an hq and literately will just crash at someone's place. They also have the most information outa of any of the groups thanks to Naddy. Their only civilian member who has the power of technomancy. He's the reason Spoingus can post online willy nilly and not get tracked. It's a miracle their identities haven't been found out by the people. (SivSalad? BeefNox? Idk they have a wonderful side story)

CAR, vigilante group. They're more villainous than HBG but more hero than The Mores or Spoingus. Their main motivation is feeling like they need to take things into their own hands. They're on okay terms with HBG. They're more like lurkers who take care of more minor villains. Since only a few of their members are actually able to handle major villains. They're surprisingly good at keeping their identities a secret. They have one of the best recon squads out of all the groups. (I love love love what I did with Edcr in this au and Dravy got threatened by Spoingus at one point)

Mine mostly revolves around the idea that everyone who's been involved in cal (1 and 2) were experimented on. Experiments that were about shuffling people's powers around as well as enhancing and suppressing them. Ex. One of Dooglie's powers, light bridges :D, used to be Automatt's before it was taken. (Automatt is powerless now). Or Altoid's powers were human enhancements, super speed, strength, reflexes. However Altoid is just left with the speed part of his power since strength was given to Erik and reflexes was given to Darvy. Nemeralds get suppressed.

Infume specifically was given the power to create toxic fumes but his body slightly change how the power works and he got neutralizing fumes instead. Hax had his powers amplified before being sealed because they were amplified too much.

Feinberg and Hax both got a version of a man made power (the creative mode lol). Both of them escaped before anything could be studied about the power or have the power taken away. Feinberg was a villain for his teenage and early adult years (EX VILLAIN FEINBERG WOO) before he got a stable job and stopped. At some point a hero, I'm thinking Reign for very specific reasons, tracks down Feinberg and is like "Dude, you were a villain fight me" or something and Feinberg is like "I can't my powers disappeared." Because someone (Nerdi lol) took the man made power back from Feinberg because he was never supposed to have it for that long.

Then Hax becomes a villain. (Reign goes to Fein and is like "You wanna explain the new villain with your old power?" "Man, I don't fucking know" ) He starts his villainy years with the creative mode power but eventually they get taken away as well. And due to Hax's enhanced original powers they just kinda explode out. (Feinberg also has powers he doesn't know about because they weren't enhanced like Hax) So now you got an overpowered villain doing an elsa cosplay, who should we send? Oh, we have a hero who is 1. Immune to the cold and 2. Can cancel people's powers. Bada bing bada boom.

My version of this wonderful au has more focus on the rest of the cast(??) than just Haxfume. (I have a lovely side plot idea with Erik (semi villain) and Couri, and Fulham and Naddy, and an entire thing based on Andronicus's blind deaf mute speedrun.) But idk if I should fill the tag with those ideas since they're set in the same universe yes but mostly disconnected from haxfume.

(Like Spoingus have a whole side plot involving squad showdown, if you saw my previous post about hfhvau you know)

ALSO

"Get up."

Nerdi blinks up at the scientist standing above him, he can't remember this one's name. His wings ache, his tail hurts, and he thinks his other horn has snapped. 

"Nerdi, I said get up."

Shakily he tries to push himself off the ground. His wings are limp, dead weight against his weak arms. He manages to get to his knees before a foot smacks into his side, causing him to tumble back down.

"Useless." 

His vision is blurring again.  He's nearing another death. Good. Usually that means the pain stops. An inhuman screech leaves his mouth as a foot stomps down on his wing. He can feel the way the membrane tears and the bones crack. The scientist doesn't lift their feet, instead choosing to dig their foot into the tangled mess that is now his wing. 

He's learned that the more he's vocal about his pain the more likely they'll be quick. Something about discipline. He winces as the scientist lifts his head and twists his head by his hair, so his other horn did break. 

"When you respawn."

Nerdi's neck hurts from the angle he's being held at. He briefly wonders if he'll die from his neck snapping this time, would be a first.

"You're coming straight back here. Do you understand?" 

"Yes."

"That's not the correct answer. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

His throat hurts. Though he's unsure if that's from the screaming or because of something they did. He's mastered the art of not stuttering. If he stutters they make him repeat himself until he doesn't. 

He doesn't know why the scientist continues to hold him in this uncomfortable position. Mangled wing under their foot, hair in their hand. Maybe they're contemplating how to kill him, he hopes it isn't bleeding out again. That always leaves him light headed after respawn. Something that instantly kills him would be nice, but it’s always so jarring. 

“Nerdi.”

He tries not to tense up. There’s a sweetness in the scientist’s voice that always comes with commands. Commands that’ll keep him up a night after he follows them. Commands that got him into this situation in the first place. He wishes he didn’t have to follow them. 

“Snap your other wing.” 

He stares wide eyed at the scientist, who stares back before dropping his head. He doesn’t have the energy to catch his head before he lands on the ground. His body tenses in pain and he lays there for a few seconds. 

“Can you no longer do me a simple favor?”

Nerdi tries not to let the fear seep into his body language. He’s once again using his shaking body to sit up, wincing as he tugs on the wing still under the scientist’s foot. He’s still twisted in a weird way but he’s at least sitting up. There’s now a slight throbbing in his head that he’s choosing to ignore. Slowly he reaches over his back to grab his wing, he pauses there, hand on the upper arm on his wing. 

Deep breathes. This isn’t anything he hasn’t done before. 

He bites down his scream as he tugs, tugging it as hard as he can. He can’t fight back the small whimper as he fails to dislocate it from the wing root. He grips the upper arm harder, much harder than he would if he didn’t know he was going to respawn, and tugs. He accidentally throws himself to the ground with the motion, but successfully dislocates his wing. 

“Has sending you to those heroes made you forget?” 

Nerdi pulls himself to sit up again. He learned a while ago that dislocating his wing before doing anything to it made it easier to bring around in front of him, though he knew the scientists hated it but they never stopped him. He feels for the joints connecting the fingers to the wrist, closes his eyes, and snaps. Each finger of his wing. Eventually he moves to do the same on the elbow. It’s quick, it hurts. 

He lets go of his wing when the scientist grabs his hair again. 

“Good job Nerdi. I knew you could do it.”

He’s trying to keep his breathing steady through the pain. HIs vision is much blurrier than before, he’s having trouble making out shapes. 

“Open and drink.”

Poison. He hates dying to poison. This one is really bitter. Probably plant based then. Fast working too. There’s a shortness in his breath as he breathes. His body goes tense but he has no control over it, collapsing to the ground when the scientist lets go of his hair. He’s coughing but doesn’t have enough air. He’s going to pass out from lack of oxygen before the poison can kill him. They won’t like that. 

Nerdi stumbles out of his bed. He still feels like he's choking, like he doesn’t have enough air. His body feels weak as he sits hunched over on his hands and knees next to his bed. He hopes he doesn’t accidentally pass out again. His coughing and choking turns to gagging which turns into heaving. He’ll likely get scolded for that later. 

But he can at least breathe now. 

He blinks the wateriness out of his eyes before he stands up. There’s slight phantom pains in his wings and other limbs but he’s fine. His body completely resets after a respawn. He flexes his wings, stretching them out before stepping out of his room. 

The halls of the lab are a confusing labyrinth but Nerdi knows them by heart. He shuffles through the halls until he reaches the same room as before. Opening the door to be met with more scientists than he remembers there being in the room earlier. Then again he was really out of it and his respawn takes 5 minutes.  

“Nerdi.”

He tries not to flinch. That would be the head scientist. 

“My greatest creation and my biggest disappointment.” 

He lowers his head. 

“Not only has it taken you until now to take that power back, but you undid the power seal on H-13.” 

“I’m sorry-”

Something gets thrown at his head. He can’t tell what it is, maybe a book. 

“I’m sending you back, and you’re going to redo the seal. Understand?”

“I understand.”

“You’re dismissed.” 

Nerdi turns to leave. It’s not the worst thing that could’ve happened. At least he gets to go back to HBG and live in the fake apartment that the lab provided for him. He’ll have some freedom for a minimum of a week. 

“Wait.”

Nerdi stops, hand on the door handle.

“You broke a horn during the attack didn’t you?

He did. Rowl broke it when he slammed him into a wall.

He doesn’t have time to react as his head is suddenly being slammed into the door. There’s a pause as he’s held against the door before his head is being pulled back and slammed straight into it again. It happens a few more times before he hears his horn audibly snap. 

“Now get out of here.”

Nerdi doesn’t run out, he’s not allowed to, but he does try to get out as quickly as he can. He’s going to miss going outside when his mission is done.

Nerdi Sketch