The trio of other heroes chanted, “Liam! Liam! Liam!” Their chanting got louder and faster with each passing second and the shade of red that colored Liam’s cheeks grew deeper and deeper. Eventually, as hesitant as he was, he had a job to do and had to endure this to get it done, even though he felt so stupid for doing this. He rolled his eyes, grabbing Ryan’s firmly like one would while greeting a bro. Using the support, Liam rose out of the couch and the room got filled with cheers and applause. He stood awkwardly looking off to the side and stuffing his hands in his black hoodie’s pockets. However, Ryan didn’t care for the aloof attitude and thrust the mic into his chest, which Liam blocked defensively as a reflex, in an attempt to almost keep it from coming any closer to his body.

Ryan grinned, “Hey, hey it’s okay. You’re one of us now,” gesturing to his friends that were seated all over the karaoke room, nodding or smiling in agreement. He let go of the mic to hold the nervous man’s shoulder reassuringly and said, “Our win is your win too, so no mopping and you got to celebrate with us.” Liam relaxed his posture a bit with eyes fixed on the mic. “It’s kinda like a solid rule around here.”

Seeing as he had no other choice, he got the mic up to his mouth and let out a soft groan of disapproval. The lights dimmed, the music began to play and the lyrics screen came to life. 

“You got this Liam! Whooo!”

“Shush! You’re ruining it Andrea,” chastised the leader quietly on his way off the stage, bringing a finger to his lips playfully to emphasize the command.

“…you,” Liam spoke softly, ending the song on an ironically dramatic note. Nothing but silence in the room. It was quiet enough to hear the crickets outside. He opened his light hazel brown eyes slowly, “Ah Crap! I got a little carried away,” thought Liam. The hero troupe on the sofa were speechless and gawked with wide eyes. Uncomfortable with all this attention, he fumbled to set the mic on the stand quickly. Once he was done shoving it in the grip with both hands grasping at the mic stand, he looked down and stood there sheepishly.

Ryan clapped once. Another clap. One by one all the heroes started a slow clap for him and eventually began cheering and hooting.

Liam wanted to put his hood on so badly to cover his red face. He wondered why they couldn’t just bash him into the ground like they used to before.

Those defeats felt so much easier to digest than playing hero with them and being attributed to such humiliation. He groaned in his mind, “Just kill me now.” A hand grabbed his shoulder, startling him out of his thoughts. He jumped back a little and his eyes shot up to find Ryan looking at him with excitement and admiration all over his face. 

“You never told us you had the voice of an actual, literal angel. Holy crap,” complimented Ryan with a double fist pump to release all that energy the performance had built up. The trio of other heroes also were out of their seats and surrounding him and Liam at this point. They were a little too close for Laim’s comfort. 

“Yeah Liam, that was awesome!”

“Glad you’re now on our side ‘cause we can finally have someone who actually knows how to sing, perform for birthdays and publicity events and stuff,” Andrea quipped, shouldering the shy man’s left side suggestively. Ryan, who stood on his right, grabbed his own strawberry blonde-streaked dark hair with one hand and did a stabbing motion towards his chest with the other. 

He flipped his head back and retorted, “How dare you insult my raw talent, right to my face too. You’re really hurting my feelings.” Liam isn’t the type of person to enjoy childish antics so his mood now shifted to slight irritation and he thought that Ryan had a very annoying way to show that he took offense but that’s typical again of the group leader. Or maybe that goofball was just playing around? Regardless, he didn’t really get what was going on. “Oooh, how about we go grab some food! All these amazing performances are making me hungry,” announced the leader. He questioned, “what do you say guys? Andrea’s treat for throwing shade at my singing.” 

“Hey! I never agreed to that! Your voice sucks man!” 

“Aw c’mon, humor me!”

“No! Absolutely not! I should’ve gotten paid for sitting through that.” The duo's bickering didn’t seem to phase the idle chatter of the other half of the hero group who were contemplating whether they were going to get food like their leader mentioned. However, it drove Liam deeper into his annoyed internal rambling, his inner voice just getting more irritated and vulgar in language. 

“Hmph, fine. Then it’s the newbie’s treat,” pouted Ryan, which made Liam snap into reality, literally as he abruptly switched from staring at the ground up to Ryan with utter surprise and confusion over his face. It was comical. He even let out a tiny squeak as he opened his mouth to protest but nothing came as he was basically rendered speechless. The young, enthusiastic leader continued, “For his first victory as part of the team, of course.” Andrea and Ryan smirked at the newbie and he had no choice but to hang his head in defeat. Then, a thought crossed Liam’s mind and he had a smirk of his own. Maybe this won’t be a total loss. After all, the man with the hoodie still had a mission to complete and this would be the perfect opportunity. 

Andrea swung open the karaoke booth’s door and yelled, “Alright! Let’s go get us some Ramen!” as she charged ahead. The other hero duo that was deliberating during the commotion raised their hands in unison. 

“We’ll pass this time,” they echoed together, which caused the group leader to let out an ‘awww’ of disappointment. The pair, which included the hero capable of super strength and the weapon’s master, walked towards the door, ignoring their leader’s silly noises of complaint.

Maddie, meekly apologized while rubbing the back of her head. She said, “Sorry, Ry. I got an assignment for class tomorrow so I gotta go” and headed out the booth, through the corridor to leave for home. The weapon’s master followed suit. 

He leaned back as the rest of his body disappeared behind the door as he continued to walk, him being only visible above the shoulders as he commented, “Yeah, and I got a big project I’m working on.” As his form completely disappeared into the hall he hollered, “Adios amigos!”

Liam thought that this was his shot. He swiveled with the intent to kill while drawing out the poison-filled syringe that hid in his jeans’ rear pocket. Only to be faced with the empty space where Ryan was a second ago and then he heard his target’s voice echo from the very corridor everyone used to exit the establishment.