[WP] The heroes nearly won with the “Friendship is power” trope, but lost because the villains did that trope but better.

"So what's it like being behind bars?" "Square meals, roof hardly leaks. We even get to play kickball in the yard twice a week! Beds are a little stiff though." He breathed a sharp sigh, "You know Prankster, I only came here because in the last six months, I haven't heard even one bad thing about your behavior. No fights in the cafeteria, no prison riots to move lights out to 11 o'clock, not even a rude comment to a guard." "In here I'm just Irving Prankfürter, you know. But it's good to see my my good deeds aren't going unnoticed. Thank you, Gigaman, I don't suppose you came to recommend me for an early parole did you? Maybe I could qualify before the late twenty five hundreds..." "Cut the SHIT Prankster!" He dropped a fist on the counter, with audible splintering howling through the halls. "What're you up to!? Hypnotising the guards? Giggling Gas in the vents?" "Easy there Gigs, Easy. I'm not up to anything, pinky promise, ok?" "I doN'T Believe You!" "Listen, really, ok. So me, and the other members of the Flock of Fiends, we all realized something after you foiled our previous scheme to lay siege to Topeka's first national bank. Sitting in cuffs in the back of that armored truck, I think it was Grungy Salami, mentioned that even though we got caught, he was still having a lot of fun hanging out with us. The Puffin agreed. Before I knew it we were all sitting in a jail cell, laughing, telling jokes, sitting there on the bench." "You'Re LIEING! I've got too many other villains to stop! You're planning something, and I'm going to find out what!" "Oh, you are right. I guess nothing gets by you Gigaman." "Raaahhh!" "Alright. Here is our plan. See, we found something out back in Topeka. Something big. Something you or any of the other superheroes can't stop no matter what. A game changer." "Iiiiiiii knewww ittt!!" "You see, no matter how hard we tried, even after we stole The Louvre-" "I remember that! You carefully packed up all the art and sent it in a fleet of boxtrucks, post marked to be shipped to Canada! Then The Puffin had a giant mechanical puffin pick up the building and drop it next your underwater bubble hideout near Atlantis!" "..." He paused. "I know Gigaman. I was there. Flying a giant mechanical puffin, while The Puffin fired a tractor beam at The Louvre. But more importantly, we realized something. We realized we weren't doing it for the money. It wasn't even about the message. We all just really liked doing super-heists. Together, I should add. See, we were always teaming up to do these weirdly specific crimes, with strangely forced metaphors, when the real heist-" "Don't say it!"

"Was the friendships we made along the way."

/r/WritingPrompts Thread