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"The damage report of the latest hero and villain battle is only climbing as more of the true damage is examined. The outcome of this fight is having people question - What value do we place on the heroes? At which point do the costs become too high? How much collateral damage will be generated in the face of our beloved heroics industry? Later today, we will have an interview with the hero-"

It was sunny.

In hindsight, Grian would think it strange. Fights hardly ever happened when sunlight was still keeping darkness at bay. The villains were always hiding in the shadows, after all. What villain would have the courage to show themselves in the light of day?

He’d first heard on the radio as he was driving home. Hero fights always had a lot of coverage, but Grian had been too preoccupied with the traffic to truly pay attention. That had annoyed him a little, since he liked listening to the fights, but he could always look back online and find someone who had recorded it later. 

Traffic had been especially chaotic that day. It was as if people were driving with a death wish. Grian would admit that he wasn’t the safest driver, but on this road, he was practically a saint.

He was three blocks away from his apartment when he finally realised why traffic had been so horrible.

Grian got out of his car, copying the dozens of people around him doing the same thing. Half of them were staring ahead, the other half were running in the opposite direction. Grian was frozen. Not quite too afraid to move, no. It was something closer to interest, morbid curiosity in the way you couldn’t look away from a car crash that was about to happen.

There was a hero and a villain battling down the street. Grian knew, realistically, that heroes and villains fought everywhere. He just never thought that he’d get to see it in person. He almost wanted to get closer, but his curiosity wasn’t that bad. He still had some self-preservation.

It was a little hard to tell from so far away, but the hero’s signature colors narrowed down who he was looking at considerably. Grian couldn’t believe his luck. A real hero battle, with the #1 Hero, no less? While Grian thought HotGuy had a bit of a silly name, his results spoke for themselves.

Grian wasn’t as well educated on villains, but from what he could tell, it looked as though HotGuy was fighting the Doctor, who was something of a mad scientist if his outfit was anything to go off of. Man, Pearl and Jimmy would be so jealous once they found out what Grian got to see! Grian liked heroes well enough, sure, but Jim was a major fan. Grian was just reaching for his phone to take a video when he froze.

HotGuy and the Doctor were fighting down the street.

Grian’s apartment was down the street.

For the first time, fear spiked through Grian’s chest. Maybe he should have been afraid earlier, but he had been too concerned about how awesome it was.

Did he even have insurance against hero fights? He wasn’t sure if his apartment covered that, which was somehow more terrifying than the mortal peril quite literally in front of him.

Grian couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe because he had remembered one, important, crucial detail. He didn’t know why his brain had been running so slow that day. He’d look back on it later and be annoyed with himself, even if there had been nothing he could do. 

He couldn’t breathe because it was Wednesday. On Wednesdays, Pearl got home before Grian.

If it had been any other day of the week, Grian would be the first one home. Pearl and Jimmy were never far behind him, but Grian was always the first.

It wasn’t any other day of the week. It was Wednesday, and that meant that Pearl would be home already.

Grian’s feet moved before he could think clearly. He didn’t really know what he was planning on doing. It wasn’t as if little Grian Xelqua could do anything about a hero and villain fighting. They had powers and weapons and armor. Grian had his bag from work slung over his shoulders and had his glasses pushed into his hair because they always reflected the sunlight into his eyes.

Someone tried stopping him, Grian faintly remembered later on. He almost wished that he could have thanked that person for trying, at least. In the moment, however, he hardly even noticed them. He ran straight into the area that had been completely evacuated, either by police or simply common sense.

If Grian were thinking logically, he would have realized that Pearl would have evacuated with everyone else. If he had been thinking logically, he would have gone somewhere safe and waited until HotGuy and the Doctor had moved on.

Of course, Grian hadn’t been thinking logically the entire time. Maybe it was because he was tired from a long day. Maybe it was because he had stayed up too late playing Minecraft again. Maybe there was no reason. Maybe it didn’t matter, in the end, because what-ifs would never fix anything.

Grian didn’t run straight into the middle of the fight, obviously. He wasn’t that stupid. He ran along the sidewalks, praying to any god that would listen that no one paid him any attention. The villain could try to use him as a hostage and the hero would freak out about keeping a civilian safe.

Three blocks. He just had to run three blocks and he’d reach his apartment. Two hallways, the elevator- no, the stairs, you weren’t supposed to use an elevator in an emergency. Was this an emergency that counted? Grian’s mind was going a mile a minute and somehow still hitting every red light.

He turned the corner. His apartment building was just a few doors down. It was fine. Everything would be fine. It had to be.

Grian almost believed himself until his eyes landed on his apartment.

Or, perhaps, more accurately, where his apartment was supposed to be. 

Grian’s run slowed to something more like a stumble as he pulled in a choked gasp of a breath. 

Where his apartment was supposed to be was nothing. Worse than nothing, it was a crater that dug out his apartment and the buildings that surrounded it.

Grian didn’t notice it when he fell to his knees. He couldn’t hear anything other than the ringing in his ears. He couldn’t see anything other than the void in front of him where his home was supposed to be. 

He almost wanted to believe that he had made a wrong turn somehow. That in his rush, he had gotten messed up and that everything was still okay. He almost wished he could lie to himself like that, but he couldn’t. He knew these streets like the back of his hand. He’d lived in that same apartment with Pearl and Jimmy since they were teenagers. He could find his way home in his sleep.

And now it was gone.

He wasn’t even allowing himself to think about the fact that it was Wednesday, and Wednesdays meant that Pearl got home before him. Grian refused to think about it because Pearl would have gotten out. She had to have left. There was an evacuation order, Grian was sure of it. He’d heard it on the radio, even if he hadn’t been paying attention to where it was addressed. 

Grian had to believe that Pearl was fine. Because what was the other option?

He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. Even if he had been, it probably wouldn’t have saved him. After all, he was just a civilian. He was just little ol’ Grian. What was he supposed to do in the face of a villain and a hero? What was he supposed to do if a hero was yelling at him to run? What was he supposed to do when he saw something coming towards him from the villain? He wasn’t anything special. What was he supposed to do? 

Grian was yanked out of his thoughts when something exploded near him and a nasty smell filled his lungs. He gagged on reflex, that movement enough to wake up his brain enough to realize that things were happening around him and he needed to move. 

He tried to stand, but his legs were shaking. Was it the shock of seeing his apartment? Was it fear? He breathed in again, coughing on the smell. What could be causing it? Was it the explosion?

Grian blinked, and there were arms on his shoulders. He blearily looked up at a hero, at HotGuy, who was shaking him, saying something that Grain couldn’t make out over the ringing in his ears; this time from the explosion, instead of his own panic.

Jimmy would want an autograph, Grian thought bizarrely. Despite the fact that there were so many more important things he could be thinking about, that was the one thing his mind latched onto. Jimmy would kill him if he didn’t get an autograph for him.

Just as Grian opened his mouth to ask- and certainly embarrass himself in the process- he passed out. 

===

Beep. Beep. Beep.

A steady rhythm filled Grian’s ears as he slowly regained consciousness. He couldn’t quite remember why he’d been unconscious in the first place, really. He didn’t remember going to bed. Was it already time to go to work? He still felt exhausted. Maybe he’d passed out while playing Minecraft again, that could explain it.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

That didn’t sound like Grian’s alarm. Had Jimmy or Pearl left their phones in his room? It wouldn’t be the first time, but if they’d woken Grian up before he had to be awake, he was not going to be happy.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Then again, it didn’t really sound like either of their alarms. Had they changed the sound? Jimmy had been telling Grian that he could only wake up to a specific song. What was it, again?

Beep. Beep. Beep.

That wasn’t an alarm. It was something that Grian had heard before, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He knew that he should know what the sound was.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

It wasn’t a perfectly steady sound, which was odd. If it was perfectly steady, Grian might have imagined it was construction equipment outside or something similar, ignoring the fact that that didn’t quite make sense. 

Beep. Beep. Beep. 

Grian did know what that sound was. It had haunted his nightmares that time Jimmy had to go to the hospital last year because he got pneumonia. It was in the background of every medical drama Pearl liked watching.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

That’s what it must have been. Pearl had left the TV on some show. That was the reason Grian was hearing a heart monitor. He’d fallen asleep on the couch and everything was fine.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Everything was-

Grian’s eyes flew open as recent events flooded into his head. The beeping suddenly spiked with his panic. He was in a white room, lying on a bed. There was an IV in his arm.

Beepbeepbeepbeep

Grian’s apartment. It was Wednesday. Pearl was supposed to be home. There was a hero fight. Grian had seen the hero- HotGuy, he remembered vaguely- right before he passed out.

Before Grian had a chance to sort his thoughts, to even breathe, the door opened. A young woman with red hair and scrubs stepped into the room. A hospital, Grian’s unhelpful mind filled in. Grian was in a hospital.

“You’re safe,” was the first thing that the woman said as she approached his bed. “You’re in the hospital. Can you take a deep breath for me, Grian?”

Deep breaths. Yeah, that’s what Grian was supposed to do. Panicking wouldn’t help anything. He dragged in a ragged breath, holding it as best he could while the woman counted him through a breathing exercise.

It took Grian ten minutes to calm down, by his best guess. He was almost embarrassed that it had taken that long, but he had more important things on his mind.

“What happened?” Grian asked as soon as he could force it out.

“What do you remember?” the woman countered. Grian frowned, but recounted the series of events to the best of his ability. He realized belatedly that he could get in trouble for running straight into a battle, but that was really the least of his concerns at the moment.

“Well,” the woman said once Grian had finished explaining everything. “My name is Gem. You’re in the Hero Commission’s medical ward right now. You’ve been unconscious for about two days. 

Grian blanched. Two days? That was way too long. Jimmy and Pearl had to be worried sick.

“HotGuy believes that you were hit by a chemical weapon, but upon monitoring your vitals, our scientists haven’t been able to determine any lasting negative effects,” Gem said. “Regardless, you’ll be here for a little while longer for observation.”

“Does my sister know that I’m here?” Grian asked. Pearl and Jimmy were both his emergency contacts, but the Hero Commission always seemed to do its own thing. Maybe they wouldn’t have contacted them.

Gem’s face tipped to a frown. She picked up a clipboard from a table next to Grian’s bed.

“Pearl Moon?” Gem asked. Grian nodded. “I’m sorry… the reports say that she’s been declared missing.”

Grian’s breath hitched. “What?”

“You said that your apartment building had been destroyed,” Gem said. “Was it possible that she was already home?”

Grian blinked rapidly, forcing himself to give a stiff nod. Gem didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Grian could come to his own conclusions easily enough.

“My roommate,” Grian blurted. “He’s- has he been contacted?”

Gem’s expression wasn’t reassuring. “He has been reported missing as well.”

Grian couldn’t breathe. That was pathetic, an annoying little voice in the back of his mind told him. He had just been panicking, and now he was doing it again. He had known something might have happened to them the moment he saw the fight was happening so close to their house. It shouldn’t be a surprise. He shouldn’t be panicking.

“Can I-” Grian choked out. “Can I see the report?”

Gem handed the clipboard to Grian. “I’m so sorry. Is there anyone else we can call for you?” 

Grian didn’t look at the papers for a minute. Who else was there to call other than Pearl or Jimmy? Eventually, his brain remembered the fact that he did have other people in his life. He gave Gem Mumbo’s contact information. The nurse left the room before Grian mustered up enough courage to look at the clipboard.

Pearl Moon

DOB: XX/XX/XXXX

Registered Ability: None

CIVILIAN

Current Status: MISSING [as of XX/XX/XXXX]

Suspected Collateral Damage of case 00162915

Collateral damage. The words made Grian want to throw up. Pearl was missing, probably dead, and all that she got on her report was that she was collateral damage.

He turned the page and ignored the way his hand was trembling.

Jimmy Solidarity

DOB: XX/XX/XXXX

Registered Ability: None

CIVILIAN

Current Status: MISSING [as of XX/XX/XXXX]

Suspected Collateral Damage of case 00162915

Grian threw the clipboard across the room. Childish, he knew, but he didn’t particularly care. Those were his friends, his family, and they were nothing more than collateral damage of a hero fight.

If it had been any other day than Wednesday. If the hero and villain had been fighting a couple more blocks over. If Pearl had stayed late that day, or if Jimmy’s schedule had changed last minute again. They could both be alive, laughing at the fact Grian had landed himself in the hospital.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, staring blankly forward. He didn’t feel tired or hungry. He didn’t feel much of anything, other than white-hot anger dripping through his veins. Was this what shock felt like? He was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to feel this mad.

It wasn’t fair. Pearl and Jimmy hadn’t deserved to die for nothing. They hadn’t deserved to be relegated to nothing more than a couple lines of ink on some pieces of paper. And Grian couldn’t fix any of it.

Grian didn’t move an inch until some doctor came in, asking him questions about the gas and pain he was feeling and if he’d had dreams and a dozen other things and they wrote Grian’s response on a clipboard that Grian wanted to snap in half.

They couldn’t have stayed for longer than an hour, but Grian felt like it took ages. From what he could tell, nothing had happened to him. He’d been knocked out for a couple of days, but there wasn’t even any lingering pain in his body.

That was unfair, too. Grian had gotten off practically scot-free while Pearl and Jimmy were gone.

Grian hardly even noticed when the doctor left.

===

“Grian, you have a visitor, if you’re feeling up to it,” Gem said as she knocked on Grian’s door. Her voice was a welcome one, somehow. Grian sat up.

It hadn’t been all that long since he’d woken up, but his anger had faded away to something dim, still pounding in his blood without an outlet, which he forced himself to ignore because there was nothing he could do about it. 

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Grian said. Gem opened the door. A tall man practically ran past her, nearly running straight into Grian’s hospital bed.

“Grian!” Mumbo cried. “I was so worried about you! What happened? Out of the blue I got a call that you were in the hospital- that you got caught up in a villain fight!”

Grian winced at Mumbo’s volume, but still offered him a weak smile. “I’m alright. They were fighting by my apartment. I ran into everything when I was going home.”

“I heard what happened to your building,” Mumbo said. “Are Pearl and Jimmy okay? I haven’t heard anything from them, either.”

Grian’s fingers tightened around the edge of his blanket. “They’re… No, they’re not.”

Mumbo’s face fell. “No…”

“They were both home, when…” Grian trailed off, something empty in his tone.

“Oh, Grian,” Mumbo said. “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

No, there wasn’t, because Mumbo couldn’t bring people back from the dead. There wasn’t a thing that Mumbo could do to fix this, just like Grian, but he didn’t say that because the grief and anger simmering beneath his skin didn’t deserve to be directed at Mumbo, who had come running as soon as he heard where Grian had gone.

“Just… stay with me? When you can?” Grian asked. Gem still hadn’t told Grian when he could leave, and sitting in a hospital room all alone was surprisingly dull.

“Of course!” Mumbo readily agreed. He filled the painful quiet with talks of his newest projects at work. Grian had the next few days off, apparently, which was a good thing, since he hadn’t even thought about work since he had woken up. 

Mumbo had been his closest friend and coworker ever since Grian had started out there. Grian could never properly communicate how grateful he was that Mumbo had come, even though he didn’t have to. Grian hadn’t thought about it when he’d given Gem Mumbo’s contact information. He was lucky that Mumbo was such a good friend.

Mumbo kept talking, despite Grian’s silence. Grian wasn’t quite processing the words, but he was grateful for the noise, regardless. Mumbo stayed until Gem returned to escort him out. She returned afterwards to give Grian some food and a change of clothes. Grian had no appetite, and the clothes still completely belonged in a hospital, but they were a little nicer than the hospital gown, and he appreciated the sentiment.

Still, that appreciation would not go far enough to get him to actually eat the food. Gem didn’t say anything about it when she came in later to collect the tray.

===

Three days.

It had been three days since Grian woke up. That meant he’d been in the Hero Commission’s hospital for five days. Grian was sick of it.

Mumbo came by every day after work and stayed with him until visitor hours were over, which was a lifesaver. Grian wouldn’t know what he’d do if he was left on his own for the entire time.

Strangely enough, Gem had also quickly become a constant. According to her, since heroes most often were injured at night and they didn’t have many long-term patients at the moment, her day shifts were slow. Grian found that she was surprisingly pleasant to talk to. It helped ease some of the fog of shock and anger from clouding his brain.

It was the morning on the third day when Gem shocked Grian. She had dropped off his breakfast like usual, but when she came around half an hour later, she looked distinctly annoyed.

“Do you want to get out of here or not?” Gem glared at him as she marched into the room.

“What?” Grian asked.

Gem pointed to the tray on the side table. “You haven’t eaten a thing since you woke up. If you don’t suck it up and change that right this instant, I’m telling the doctors to stab you with an IV.”

Grian blinked at her. He knew well enough that he hadn’t been eating. It had to have been a part of Gem’s job to notice that, too. He just hadn’t been expecting her to do anything about it.

“Five,” Gem said. “Four.”

“I’m not a child,” Grian said, but he reached for the tray regardless. Gem watched him with narrowed eyes until Grian had forced down a few bites. Then, like nothing had happened, her expression cleared to something perfectly cheery and kind.

“You’re a little terrifying, you know,” Grian said around the food in his mouth.

Gem laughed. “Aw, thank you!”

Maybe more than a little terrifying. Grian took a few more bites. It didn’t look like Gem was going to leave until he had eaten more.He still didn’t feel particularly hungry, but at least he didn’t immediately throw up. 

“Do the doctors know when I can get out of here?” Grian asked.

“They’re running a few more tests on your bloodwork at the moment,” Gem said. “Something with the results was coming back inconsistently. If you’re still clean, then you could be out of here in another three or four days. If something comes back wrong, it’s going to be a while longer.”

Grian hummed. He wanted to get out of this place yesterday. He felt fine. If something else cropped up, they could always just call him back. He knew it wasn’t Gem’s fault, though, so he kept that to himself and changed the subject.

“If heroes fight at night, why do you work during the day?” Grian asked. Gem didn’t seem surprised by the question, even if it had been out of the blue. 

“Injuries don’t heal in a matter of hours. Most of the doctors and healers have overnight shifts, but if it’s bad enough, it can’t be fixed quickly enough for a hero to return home. Someone has to take care of them,” Gem said. “Civilian cases are rare, but you’re evidence that they happen. They’ve got to have people for that, too. Day shifts are better, anyways.”

“Because it’s easier?” Grian guessed.

Gem grinned, a little sheepish, but with something sharper underneath. “That might be part of it. I like keeping my nights free, though. A girl’s got hobbies.”

Grian nodded. He’d spent many late nights playing video games for far longer than could strictly be considered healthy.

He set aside the tray once he was certain he couldn’t eat anything else. He’d only managed about half of the breakfast, but Gem looked satisfied enough. She bid him farewell, leaving him alone in the quiet room again.

Visiting hours couldn’t come soon enough. At least he could be assured of Mumbo’s company later.

===

Grian glanced at the door as it opened. It was still too early for Mumbo to make an appearance, so he was expecting to see Gem, or maybe another doctor there to check his vitals or ask him more questions. However, to his surprise, the person standing in the doorway was a tall, colorfully-clad hero.

There wasn’t a single person in the city who wouldn’t recognize the top hero, even if Grian had only seen him briefly during the entire event.

“Hey there,” HotGuy said, offering Grian a wave. “I heard that all of your vitals are doing well.”

Grian stared at the hero. Surely he had something better to be doing than visiting a nobody in the medical ward. Was he there to berate Grian for recklessly running into the fight? Was this just something that HotGuy did? Why was he in his full hero costume in the middle of the day? Didn’t he work at night?

“Yeah,” Grian responded lamely. “I’m fine.”

“I was worried, with how fast that gas knocked you out.” HotGuy stepped further into the room, apparently taking Grian’s words as permission to enter. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to get a sample of it to make sure it isn’t going to have any lasting effects.”

Grian blinked. That had to be the most ridiculous thing for him to apologize for.

“Well… I assume you’re the one who got me out of the way of danger, so…” Grian fidgeted with the edge of the blanket. What was he supposed to say?

“Just doing my job!” HotGuy said, a wide smile on his face. Grian stared at the hero for a long minute. 

“Is your job to save people, or to fight villains?” Grian asked slowly.

HotGuy faltered. “What?” 

“You heard me.” Grian’s expression hardened. “Is your job to save people, or to fight villains?”

“Civilian safety is always my top priority,” HotGuy said. There was a little less of the pompous self-righteousness in his voice than before.

“Liar,” Grian snapped. 

HotGuy looked taken aback. The part of his face that Grian could see, at least. “What are you talking about?”

Grian shoved the blanket off of himself, pushing himself to shaky feet. He was still much shorter than the hero, but that didn’t matter to him. 

“My sister and my best friend were home,” Grian said. “They were home when your stupid fight blew it up!”

HotGuy’s expression fell. “I’m so sorry-”

“No you’re not,” Grian snapped. “You don’t care! Dozens of civilians die every day! All you care about is stopping those villains!”

“If we don’t fight the villains, they’ll only do worse,” HotGuy said, having the audacity to sound gentle, as though Grian were some sort of scared animal. “There was an evacuation order-”

“Do you think that means it's not your fault!?” Grian demanded.

“The villain-”

“Get out.”

HotGuy’s mouth opened and shut a couple of times without speaking. Grian took a step closer. The hero didn’t look all big and mighty now.

“Get. Out.” Grian ordered. HotGuy lowered his head, turning towards the door.

“For what it’s worth.” The hero hesitated at the door. “I am sorry.”

“Gee, thanks,” Grian said sarcastically. “You’re sorry. That’ll fix everything.”

HotGuy shut the door after himself. It took a long time for the rage to filter out of Grian’s blood.

He practically collapsed on the bed once it had. He wasn’t sure if his tears were out of sadness or anger, and he didn’t particularly care.

Grian had never been that into heroes- Jimmy was the real fan- but he had believed in them. He had thought they were necessary. After all, without heroes, who would stop the villains? 

He had never considered the collateral damage before. Sure, he knew that buildings got destroyed. He knew that civilians could get hurt. He knew that villains were evil and heroes did their best to save people.

But their best wasn’t enough, and now Grian’s sister and his best friend were dead. Because they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because a hero and a villain had decided to fight each other right there. They hadn’t even been targets.

They were just collateral damage.

Grian wanted to scream. He wanted to break something. He wanted the heroes to fix their mistakes. He wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

Grian would not get what he wanted. When did things ever go his way?

===

“Did you get up?” Gem didn’t wait to ask as she stepped into the room. 

“I got a visitor,” Grian muttered. He hadn’t moved from his position, laying horizontally across the bed instead of how he was supposed to.

Gem’s brows furrowed. “A visitor? The log didn’t say that anyone came in, and visitor hours haven’t started yet.”

Grian huffed. Leave it to HotGuy to ignore stuff like that. “It was a hero.”

“The one who saved you?” Gem asked. “HotGuy? You don’t seem very enthusiastic.”

Grian propped himself up on his elbows. “He’s also the one who got my sister killed.”

Something shifted in Gem’s eyes. “Heroes can’t save everyone, you know.”

“If they want to pretend like they’re perfect, they should act like it.” Maybe Grian shouldn’t be saying this to a nurse who worked within the Hero Commission. Surely she had to believe in heroes even more than most civilians.

Gem hummed, a little too close to agreement to be a dismissal, but nothing concrete. It wasn’t as though Grian was really expecting for her to listen to him. He just needed to talk. 

“They’re not all sunshine and rainbows, even if they act like it.” 

Grian’s eyes flicked back to the nurse. She was writing on a clipboard, but there was something distant in her eyes.

“I bet you’d see a lot of that, if you work here,” Grian said, waving a hand at their surroundings. 

“You wouldn’t believe,” Gem said, too flatly to entirely be a joke. “You should see how some of them act outside of costume.”

Grian’s face twisted into something close to a smile, but not quite. “Are you even allowed to tell me something like that?”

“I’m not supposed to, but I’m sure you’re not going to go spreading a smear campaign based on something you heard one person say.” Gem glanced at Grian, something a little like mischief in her eyes. “And if you try, I’ll deny everything.”

Grian shook his head. “I don’t want a thing to do with heroes. Not anymore.”

The mood in the room sombered. Gem finished up whatever she was doing, pausing just before she left the room. 

“If a hero bothers you again, you can call any doctor or nurse to kick him out,” Gem offered. “We’re just about the only people those idiots will listen to.”

“I appreciate it,” Grian said sincerely. “I doubt he’ll be coming back, though. I kinda yelled at him.”

Gem laughed. “Between you and me, he probably deserved it.”

Grian raised an eyebrow. “Are you allowed to say that, too?”

Gem shrugged. “Not really. Are you going to snitch on me to the heroes?”

Grian snorted. Not a laugh, but it was something. “Touche.”

===

Mumbo was glad to hear that Grian finally had a time when he was getting out of the hospital. Grian didn’t mention HotGuy’s appearance to his friend. They hadn’t talked about the heroes yet, and Grian didn’t want to.

He was certain that Mumbo would laugh with him about how ridiculous the hero had acted. He was sure that Mumbo would at the very least try to see things from Grian’s perspective. And yet, some nagging part in the back of his mind didn’t want to risk what that conversation might lead to. 

“I don’t even know what I’m going to do when I get out of here,” Grian said, running a hand over his face. “My apartment is just. Gone.”

“You could come stay at my place,” Mumbo offered immediately.

“I wouldn’t want to-”

“Grian, you’re my best friend,” Mumbo said. “You’re not going to be a burden or whatever stupid thing you were going to say.”

Grian grinned sheepishly. “Actually, I was going to say I don’t want to impose-”

“That’s it, you’re staying at my place,” Mumbo decided.

“Do I get a choice in this?” Grian asked.

“Nope,” Mumbo said. Grian sighed, but there was still a smile on his face. It felt good to smile again, so long as he ignored the guilt tearing at his chest.

“Well, if I have no other choice,” Grian said. “I better not tell those heroes that you’re holding me hostage.”

“You would not,” Mumbo said, dramatically lowering his voice, pointedly looking at the door. “Have you met any of them?”

“Not really.” Grian did not want to have this conversation. “Just the nurses and doctors, you know. You’d have a higher chance of seeing a hero than me, to be honest. I only get out of this room to go to the bathroom.”

“It’s still pretty brilliant. Not you getting hurt, of course!” Mumbo rushed to add. “Just that you get to see this place.”

“It just looks like a normal hospital to me,” Grian said.

“Yeah, but it’s a hero hospital, Mumbo said, as though the emphasis was supposed to give it meaning.

“Whatever you say, Mumbo,” Grian said, expertly dodging the topic. Heroics was a conversation they could have when Grian wasn’t in the hospital, and when he could think of them without white-hot rage boiling his blood. “Whatever you say.”

===

It felt like Grian had been in the hospital for a long time, but it had really only been a little over a week, including the time he had been unconscious. It had only been a little more than a week since his world had all but exploded. 

Grian didn’t know how he was supposed to begin putting his life back together, but his bloodwork had come back clean and he didn’t seem to have any lingering symptoms, so at least he could leave.

“Well, Grian, it looks like you’re all set to get out of here,” Gem said. She handed Grian a bag. “These are your personal items. They’ve been properly sanitized from the gas you were hit with.”

“Thank you,” Grian said, accepting the bag from her. He tried not to think about how it contained everything he owned, since the rest of his stuff had been destroyed with his apartment.

Gem walked him out the door, navigating through the hallways of the Commission’s medical floor for him. Gem had mentioned that it wasn’t often they had civilians in here. HotGuy had insisted since Grian had gotten hit by the Doctor’s chemical agent, and apparently, the Hero Commission gave their number one anything they asked. Grian wondered if he was supposed to feel grateful, because he definitely didn’t.

Gem swiped her keycard to call the elevator. Grian stepped in once the doors opened, but Gem stayed behind.

“This’ll take you down to the lobby,” Gem said. “Your friend is waiting for you there.”

“Thank you,” Grian said genuinely. Out of everyone he had met at the Commission, she was the person he had seen most often, and he was glad for that. She was kind.

“Of course,” Gem said, smiling at him. Just as the elevator doors started closing, she added one more thing, so quiet that it was almost lost over the sound of the mechanisms. “Read the note when you’re alone.”

Grian blinked, looking down at the bag. Before he could ask what she meant, the doors were already shut and the elevator was moving down.

He almost reached for the note, before considering the fact that there could be cameras in the elevator. The Hero Commission seemed like the people to do that. He didn’t know what had made him so paranoid so quickly, but he kept the bag shut. He’d have chances to look at it later.

Mumbo was waiting for him in the lobby. Grian couldn’t help the relieved grin that broke out on his face when he spotted his friend.

“You ready to get out of here?” Mumbo asked as Grian approached.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Grian said, beelining for the front door. The moment they were clear of the building, Grian took a deep breath that finally didn’t smell like cleaning supplies and medical equipment.

Grian was eternally grateful that Mumbo was letting Grian stay at his place for the foreseeable future. The thought of having to go to some hotel otherwise made him feel sick. At least he was comfortable at and familiar with Mumbo’s place. 

They stopped on the way at their favorite fast food joint. Mumbo pretended like he hated the place, but Grian knew he liked it just as much as Grian did. 

Grian hadn’t walked this far in one day since before the incident, but he was feeling fine. Mumbo felt the need to check in every five minutes to make sure he was doing alright, but Grian wasn’t having any problems. Like the doctors said, the gas didn’t have any ill effects on him. He had come out of that day perfectly fine.

Grian’s mind went to a conversation he and Gem had about something called ‘Survivors Guilt’. Grian hadn’t wanted to hear it, so he had mostly tuned her out. Enough of it had snuck through to make Grian associate the word with the twisted feeling in his gut.

“Home sweet home,” Mumbo said as he unlocked the door to his apartment.

“Thank you again for letting me stay,” Grian said for what had to be the hundredth time that day.

“This is the least I could do for you, after what happened,” Mumbo said.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Grian said. “You didn’t need to help me, but you did, so I’m saying thank you. Just accept it.”

“I accepted it the first thirty times,” Mumbo said. “You don’t have to keep saying it.”

Grian grinned a little. “Thank you, Mumbo.”

“One more thank you and I’m kicking you out,” Mumbo said. Grian’s grin grew a little wider. Mumbo narrowed his eyes, but Grian ultimately chose the smart option of keeping his mouth shut. He didn’t really have any other places to sleep.

It was late by the time Grian actually got to bed, which was a bit of a relief. When he was in the hospital, there had been nothing to do when it got late. Gem was off work and visiting hours were over, so all Grian could do was lie there and wait to fall asleep. Now, after getting some exercise and talking to Mumbo for hours, Grian was finally actually tired when he went to go to sleep in Mumbo’s spare bedroom.

It wasn’t until Grian was taking his clothes out of the bag Gem had given him when he spotted the note. It was a small thing, just a folded up piece of paper. Grian glanced back at the door. Mumbo had already gone to sleep himself. He usually kept a strict sleep schedule, but he’d made an exception for Grian today. He was, again, grateful for that too, but Grian was also pretty sure Mumbo had been sticking around to distract Grian.

Which was fine. Grian wouldn’t have known how to handle a grieving Mumbo if their roles were reversed. 

Speaking of distractions, Grian had been handed a lovely one right in front of him to derail this train of thought immediately. 

Grian,

There was something in your lab results that was kept quiet.

If you meant what you said about heroes,

ADDRESS--DATE--TIME

That was… not quite what Grian had been expecting. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but a cryptic message about his bloodwork and anger at the heroes wasn’t quite what he imagined.

That date was two days away, which meant more waiting. At least Grian wasn’t stuck in a hospital this time.

Grian set the note aside, though it lingered in his mind as he got ready for bed. The pair of pajamas he was borrowing from Mumbo was too big. He was going to have to go clothes shopping the next day. Grian set his phone down next to the note. He hadn’t powered it on yet, and was frankly terrified to see the onslaught of messages he’d received once he did. He already knew he had to have dozens from Mumbo, let alone any other coworker or friend who noticed that he’d disappeared for more than a week.

So yeah, another tomorrow problem.

Despite how tired he was, it took Grian a long time to fall asleep.

Being out of the hospital made it more real. Grian hated that.

===

Mumbo had asked Grian a dozen times if he wanted him to stay home that day, but Grian had insisted that he go to work. Mumbo had already taken enough time off to visit Grian, and Grian was really trying not to completely ruin Mumbo’s life just because his own was a mess. Mumbo had seemed reluctant, but eventually went off to work. Grian didn’t allow himself to sit with his thoughts. He finally powered his phone back on, and instantly regretted that he did.

Hundreds of messages piled in, from his own friends, as well as Pearl’s and Jimmy’s. Grian’s breath caught when he noticed one notification.

JimBirb: Hey man i saw on the news

JimBirb: our apartment I’m almost home

JimBirb: r u and perl ok?/

Grian resisted the urge to throw his phone across the room.  He swallowed hard and swiped the notification away. He was tempted to get rid of the rest of them, too, but he knew he couldn’t ignore literally everything else. The world would keep turning, even if it felt like it had stopped for Grian.

He spent the next hour sending off texts to people, letting them know what happened. He hadn't even realized that he knew that many people who cared enough about him to ask. He didn’t respond to follow up questions or condolences. He didn’t have the energy for that.

Once he was finally done with the messages, he shoved his phone in his pocket and headed out. He was wearing some clothes from Mumbo that were too big because the only clothes he still owned were from the day of the incident and Grian had almost thrown up when he tried to put them on. 

He had received a stipend from the government as an ‘apology’, or whatever (blood money, a nasty little voice said in the back of his mind) which he put to good use. He was going to have to contact someone to check on the insurance for his apartment. Would the heroes cover that too, or was that a plain old insurance thing? The answer was a long way outside of Grian’s area of knowledge, so he let it be a later problem. One issue at a time.

Grian was home before Mumbo, having successfully obtained new clothes. He set them on the ground of Mumbo’s guest bedroom and sat on the bed, staring at the wall for a long time.

He wasn’t really sure how he was coping. He wasn’t sure what was giving him the energy to stand up and walk and speak and act as though everything was fine.

It wasn’t fine. Grian knew, deep down, that it wasn’t fine and nothing would ever be fine again.

His sister was dead. His best friend was dead. That wasn’t something that you just moved on from, but Grian didn’t know how he was supposed to grieve.

When Mumbo got home, Grian stood up and acted as though he knew how to be a person again, because that was easier than breaking down.

===

Maybe listening to a mysterious note from a nurse you didn’t really know all that well wasn’t the best idea, but it wasn’t as though it could really be that dangerous. He was sure that the heroes had to run background checks, especially for people in such potentially dangerous positions as doctors and nurses. 

Besides, Grian was bored.

“You know, I wasn’t sure if you were actually going to show up.”

Grian jumped, slapping a hand over his mouth to stifle a scream. There was a figure in the trees above him, swinging their legs as though this was a casual conversation.

The figure laughed. “I didn’t mean to scare you! Mostly, at least.” They hopped down, landing lightly on the ground. They were wearing a mask over the bottom half of their face and an elaborate costume with flowy fabric that almost looked like leaves. They didn’t look like any hero Grian knew.

“It’s me, by the way.” The figure lowered their mask and winked.

“Gem?” Grian asked, confused. Of course, he had come because of a note that she left, but why was she hiding her identity and wearing an outfit?

“Yes, but don’t go spreading that around,” Gem said, fixing her mask. “I’m giving you a lot of trust here.”

“I don’t understand.”

Gem held up two fingers. “I have a piece of information and an offer for you.”

“An offer?” Grian asked.

“You’re upset with the heroes,” Gem said. “Aren’t you?”

“Is it that obvious?” Grian asked dryly. He narrowed his eyes. “You work for the heroes.”

“That doesn’t mean I agree with their methods,” Gem said. “Quite the contrary, really.”

“Then why are you dressed like one?”

Gem looked down at her outfit. “Excuse you, this is clearly not a hero costume.”

“I’m afraid I’m not too familiar with costume fashion,” Grian said. “But you look like a hero to me.”

Gem sighed. “I’m a villain, Grian. My offer is for you to join me.”

Grian froze. A villain?

“But you’re so nice,” Grian blurted out without thinking.

Gem laughed. “That is the funniest reaction I’ve gotten so far.”

“I don’t believe you,” Grian said. “There’s no way.”

“I go by Flowerfall.”

“I’ve never heard of you.”

“Okay, rude.” Gem crossed her arms, scoffing.

“You work for the heroes!” Grian said. “What are you talking about?”

“I work at the Hero Commission to gather information,” Gem said. “Plus, it’s really good cover. No one’s going to think that a nurse at the Hero Commission is secretly a villain.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Grian asked. 

“Like I said, I want you to join me,” Gem said. “If heroes want to be the perfect idols, they should act accordingly. I fight the heroes because I don’t believe that they uphold their own standards. Sometimes that makes me a bad person. Sometimes that gets me hurt. Sometimes that hurts innocent people. I’m not going to pretend like I’m secretly some noble person who’s in the right. But I believe that we have similar ideals.”

Grian frowned. He couldn’t say that he didn’t have a grudge against the heroes after what had happened, but being a villain… was that too extreme of a reaction? Pearl and Jimmy would never- well. Pearl might encourage it, just a little. Jimmy would just be afraid for him.

“I don’t… I don’t think you have the right person,” Grian said. “I can’t fight or anything. I don’t have powers.”

Gem snapped her fingers. “That’s where my piece of information comes in.”

“What?”

“I doctored your lab results for you,” Gem said. “Your bloodwork did come back affected by the gas.”

“Why would you do that?” Grian asked, blinking. He hadn’t even met Gem by the time his lab results were back. Why would she risk something like that for someone she didn’t know?

“The results said that you had powers,” Gem said. “Which I believe you previously didn’t have.”

“I think I would know if I had powers,” Grian said. Powers were a rare thing. Just about everyone who had them either became a villain or was recruited into the Hero Commission.

“If the Commission found out that you had suddenly gained powers, they wouldn’t have let you go so easily,” Gem said. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Grian asked.

Gem tapped her chin. “Let’s just say… The Commission isn’t exactly always what it seems.”

Grian ran a hand down his face. This all seemed so crazy, but the rest of his life had been thrown upside down in the past few weeks. Why not just add more to the pile?

The Hero Commission was corrupt, Grian had powers, and Jimmy and Pearl were dead. The only thing that could get worse was if someone at the office suddenly turned out to be an alien. 

“Even if you don’t want to join me, I can always help you train your powers,” Gem offered.

“I don’t want powers,” Grian said, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t want anything to do with all of this.”

Gem shrugged a shoulder. “Then you can go home. I’m not going to force you to do anything.”

“You’re not sounding very villainous,” Grian pointed out.

Gem chuckled. “I’m a villain because I don’t like heroes. I’m not a villain because I enjoy being mean to people.”

Grian was just a normal person. He was just a normal guy who went to work and stayed up too late playing video games and went to the gym once a month when he remembered Pearl had gotten him a yearly membership for Christmas as a joke. He didn’t have powers and he didn’t want to hurt people.

But Pearl was dead. Jimmy was dead. Apparently, he had superpowers, and nothing else made sense.

If that wasn’t a villain origin story, Grian didn’t know what was.

In the end, what tipped the scales on his decision was remembering the visitor he had gotten in the hospital. HotGuy hadn’t stayed for long and hadn’t said anything particularly notable. But just thinking of the hero, imagining how he had the nerve to stand in front of Grian and act as though he had saved him, even though he was the reason Pearl and Jimmy were dead.

That wasn’t fair. Grian knew that it wasn’t fair. He knew that it was the villain’s fault just as much as the hero’s. He knew that the hero had saved him, as loathe Grian was to admit it.

It wasn’t fair that Grian blamed HotGuy, but it wasn’t fair that Grian’s life had been torn apart. At this point, Grian didn’t particularly care about what was ‘fair’ or not.

Grian rolled his shoulders, offering Gem a weak smile.

“What’s there to lose?”

===

Apparently, becoming a villain was a lot more work than just putting on a mask and fighting some heroes. If Grian had been warned about this ahead of time, maybe he would have just gone home. 

He didn’t even get to work on his costume first. No, Gem said that he had to start actually working out so his body could handle the extra strain from his powers. She was the expert, despite all of Grian’s grumbling, so Grian’s trips to the gym went from once a month to just about every day.

Mumbo was quick to notice, of course, but he believed Grian’s excuse of needing something to do. He still had cut hours at work, since he had some sort of villain related sick days or insurance or something. Grian didn’t really care about the details. The less time he spent at work, the less people would stare at him with pity. 

At least the gas he’d been hit with hadn’t poisoned him or made him sick. That would have made his improvement even worse. Grian had to admit, he was a little curious about the optics of such a weapon from the Doctor. It knocked people out for a few days, then they woke up with powers. How was that supposed to help a villain? Was it supposed to overload the heroes with uncontrollable powered individuals? Was Grian supposed to be some sort of test subject, or had it been an accident?

Gem didn’t have any answers for him, so Grian was left to speculate. He had a lot of time alone, now. Mumbo had always been quieter than Jimmy and Pearl. The long stretches of silence made his ears ring. There was no yelling in the background as Jimmy died in a video game again. No sound of Pearl tending to her dog or cultivating the little garden that sat on their windowsill. The lack of noise made him feel sick.

Two weeks after they had gone missing, Grian had received notice that they were legally declared dead. Collateral damage from a villain. Grian had almost thrown up when he got the letter. 

Avoiding his grief was probably the closest explanation as to what he was doing. He didn’t think about it, because if he let himself think about it, he would notice all the parts of his life that had changed and were missing. And Grian didn’t know if he could handle that.

So he pretended it didn’t exist and trained a little harder and acted as though that would fix the fact that Pearl and Jimmy were gone. He practiced sneaking out of his window and lied to a concerned looking Mumbo that he was just fine and went back to work. That part, at least, had been a bit of a relief.

It was something normal, other than the pitying glances he got every few minutes. Even those died down after the first few days, and everyone was just glad that Grian was back. Mostly because he could finally solve some of their problems for them.

Grian and Mumbo worked in a development lab, so there was a lot of freedom and inventing, but not a lot of direction if one got stuck. Grian was usually where the others would go if they hit a dead end, but he’d been unavailable for the past three weeks, so they had come up with some… creative solutions in his absence.

The more distractions the better, in Grian’s opinion. Mumbo had to drag Grian away from his desk each day to get him to stop working. Then he’d go to the gym or meet up with Gem to work on becoming a villain.

His days were packed, which left little thought for worrying about grieving. It still jumped to Grian’s mind when he saw those little, concerned looks that Mumbo gave him, or when the office would fall silent at the mention of Pearl or Jimmy, but he was busy enough that those were rarities.

It was unhealthy, he knew. 

And yet, Grian kept pushing.

===

It took a month and a half of physical training before Gem finally cleared Grian to work with his powers.

“Finally!” Grian exclaimed. Their meeting place was an old parking lot, this time. They always switched it up, deciding on the location at the end of each meetup. Gem said that was the best way to avoid leaving a paper trail. She was the expert, so Grian just followed along.

“I thought you didn’t want to have powers,” Gem said smugly.

“You hyped them up so much, I’ve got to have them now,” Grian said. He mostly wasn’t joking. It still freaked him out that one small event had entirely changed his DNA, but from what Gem said, powers didn’t seem all that bad.

Gem was in her villain outfit. Grian was wearing all black with a cloth mask over the bottom of his face. Gem pulled a pair of wooden staffs from the back of her cloak, tossing one to Grian, who failed to catch it.

“This is the best way I know of to draw out powers,” Gem said. “It’s not the most efficient, I’m sure, but it’ll get the job done.”

“What way?” Grian said, looking down at the staff in his hand. Gem pounced instead of giving an answer. Grian let out a shout, wildly bringing up his staff just in time to stop Gem’s from hitting him.

“Your body needs to think it needs the powers to survive,” Gem said, only taking a single step back before striking again.

“You could have at least given me a warning!” Grian said, failing to stop the second hit. The staff didn’t land all that hard, but Grian still suspected that it was going to bruise. 

“The shock’s an important factor,” Gem said. “It’ll give you a boost.”

Grian could tell that Gem was grinning under her mask. He suspected that wasn’t entirely the reason she had scared him so badly.

It took Grian a few more tries to get into the rhythm of stopping Gem’s strikes. He wasn’t good at it by any means, but it at least stopped him from leaving entirely covered in bruises. 

Two hours in, Grian was completely exhausted, mentally and physically, as well as annoyed that his powers hadn’t made any appearance.

“It’s going to take more than one shot,” Gem offered. “Even if you have the genetic code for them, not everyone’s powers manifest.”

“Why did you tell me that after we did all this?” Grian asked incredulously.

“We also don’t entirely know how your powers are going to react or how they might be activated.” Gem tapped her chin. “Hmm. I’ll work on that. We’ll figure something out.”

“That’s very reassuring,” Grian said sarcastically.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you fighting heroes in no time!” Gem said, patting Grian’s shoulder. Grian passed her the staff back.

“You made the news yesterday,” Grian said. “Congrats.”

Gem beamed. “I try.”

“A bank’s a little stereotypical, isn’t it?” Grian asked.

“Well, sure,” Gem said. “But they had been falsifying their records for months. Now, they’ll have to take a close look at all the numbers and be forced to prosecute whoever’s been doing that.”

“How’d you find that out?”

“Perks of working with the heroes.” Gem grinned.

“How come you’re a villain instead of a vigilante?” Grian asked. “It sounds like you do a lot more good than crime.”

Gem’s expression looked pained. “The heroes will come after you either way. Being a villain is easier.”

Grian knew when to stop pushing. They arranged their next meeting and Grian left, a buzzing curiosity under his skin about what had caused Gem to think that way. 

===

“New work order came in,” Impulse announced, sliding a stack of papers over to Grian.

“Description?” Grian asked, clicking a pen as he looked to the top page. He paused, narrowing his eyes. It was an NDA, which wasn’t unusual for their line of work, but the contractor name was what drew Grian’s attention. “Hey, is this the real deal?”

“I was surprised too, but their credentials all checked out,” Impulse said, shrugging.

“What’s the Hero Commission hiring a little firm like us for?” Grian asked, furrowing his brows. There was absolutely no way they were targeting Grian. He hadn’t even started being an actual villain yet, and Gem would have been arrested a long time before they actually got around to tracking him down.

“Something off the books was what the representative said,” Impulse recalled. “Not sure why, but they’ve got their reasons. Maybe they don’t want a villain breaking in and being able to find all the blueprints to their devices, you know?”

“A villain?” Grian murmured. Maybe the heroes suspected that they had a mole. 

Grian scribbled his signature on the first page of NDAs, finding several more after it. He just signed them to get them out of the way. He wasn’t an idiot, obviously he skimmed them for anything shady, but nothing jumped out as out of the ordinary, so Grian kept reading.

“They want us to make trackers?” Grian finally landed on, looking up at Impulse.

“Makes sense, if you think about it,” Impulse said, tapping the side of his head. “If they can follow the villains, they can’t actually get away. Especially if the villains don’t know that the heroes have the trackers.”

“Smart,” Grian said, because normal civilians weren’t concerned if heroes had trackers that could get a villain arrested.

At another time, Grian might have taken that moment to rethink his moral code. He was concerned about villains being arrested. Pearl and Jimmy dying shouldn’t have completely every moral he had. Then again, it wasn’t as though he or Gem were going out and doing horrible things. They were just doing slightly unethical things that mostly harmed the heroes. So his morals couldn’t be that bad, right?

But Grian had gotten used to pushing thoughts down, so he ignored that and continued flipping through the papers. They had a few design proposals which Grian could already see how to make better.

He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. “Is there a reason you brought this straight to me?”

“They asked for our best on the project,” Impulse said.

Grian smiled weakly. “I’m not above you guys.”

“But you are the best,” Impulse pointed out. “Whatever you make is unstoppable. Since this is, you know, literally a contract with the government, I figured it would be best to have our most capable mind on it.”

The most capable mind that was currently absolutely falling apart while Grian pretended he was fine.

“I’ve got it,” Grian confirmed. After all, it wasn’t as though he was just going to ignore the chance placed in front of him. If Gem wasn’t going to let Grian be a villain yet, he’d find other ways to fill his time.

===

“Today, you’re going to follow me around,” Gem instructed.

They had met up once more with the moon as their witness, though tonight, the night was young.

“I still don’t have my powers,” Grian reminded her.

“You won’t be getting into fights,” Gem said. “But watching the heroes in action could help you see how to use your own powers!”

“This is why I should’ve made my costume first,” Grian muttered. His plain black outfit was very lame for a villain, but it got the job done.

Gem smacked his arm. “I told you! You’ve got to wait for your power first so you can make it all work.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Grian said. He received the same lecture every time he mentioned costumes. 

“My vines let me get around really fast, so you’re going to have to keep up,” Gem instructed. “I won’t be waiting around for you!”

Grian grinned. “Bring it.”

Grian quickly regretted his words. Gem had given him some sort of grappling hook device to try to keep up, but he hadn’t had a chance to practice with it at all, so he had to learn on the fly.

Gem, on the other hand, was an expert with her vines. Grian had seen her use her powers plenty of times before, but he never grew bored of it. Her flowers always seemed to carry some sort of special quality that set them apart from normal plants. Grian wondered if she had some sort of secondary mesmerizing ability, then cursed himself for getting distracted.

It didn’t look as though Gem was planning any major crimes for the night. She had either neglected to tell Grian her plans on purpose, or had simply forgotten. Either way, Grian was really left playing catch-up.

After what Grian guessed to be an hour and a half, give or take, Grian finally caught up with Gem on a rooftop. Close enough, at least, though he was still technically a few buildings away. 

He had assumed that she was waiting for him, but was shocked to see that she was actually locked in combat with a hero dressed in red gear. Grian could remember that they had some sort of speed powers, but their name wasn’t coming to mind.

“Flowerfall!” Grian yelped at the sight, perhaps unwisely. He didn’t want to distract her, but he also hadn’t been expecting to see a fight that night. Realistically, he knew that Gem was perfectly capable, but that didn’t stop him from worrying. 

Grian started forward, unsure of what his own plan was. He’d hardly started hand to hand training. He didn’t have his powers. He wasn’t even in a fancy costume. There was hardly a thing he could do for Gem, but he couldn’t just watch her get arrested, or worse. 

Unfortunately for him, Grian forgot that he was standing on top of a roof.

Rollercosters didn’t really get the fall right. You were always safe there, even if it didn’t quite feel that way. There wasn’t a real, serious, chance of death. Perhaps it was the closest you were supposed to get.

Grian fell in flashes. He was breathing too fast, his heart beating too hard. The building wasn’t that tall, but Grian knew there was no way to survive a fall like this.

It was a stupid way to go out, really. A small mistake, a slip. Grian wasn’t even properly a villain yet.

The ground was getting close. It was getting far too close. Landing on your back was supposed to help, some part of Grian’s brain told him. Or was he supposed to break his legs to absorb the impact? He really should have done some more research before letting Gem drag him into the rooftops.

Grian was yanked to a sharp, sudden stop. He let out a strangled gasp. He was only a few feet away from the ground. Another second and he would have been a goner.

He dropped the rest of the way to the floor. He looked up, expecting to see that Gem had somehow caught him, or maybe (ew) a hero. But no one was there.

It was only then Grian noticed the weight on his back. He tried looking behind himself, bizarre thoughts running through his mind- a teleporting jetpack?- before he was met with feathers. A lot of feathers.

Had a giant bird grabbed him to keep him safe? That didn’t really make any sense, but why else-

Oh. Oh. 

Grian had wings. That was his power. He had wings. Giant wings that started red at the top and faded to a yellow that almost glowed at the bottom. 

“Woo!” Grian cheered, his voice echoing off the buildings surrounding him. He’d done it. He’d found his power, so he could finally get to becoming an actual villain. Gem was right about making a costume. Grian would have never thought to customize it in case he suddenly had wings.

Shoot- Gem!

Grian tried to lift his wings, willing them to lift him back up to the rooftops. At the very least, he could help distract the hero long enough for Gem to get away. Unfortunately, the limbs hardly responded. He could shift them a little, but not nearly enough to fly. 

Maybe he just needed a running boost. Upon his attempt to follow through on that train of thought, he found that suddenly running with a lot more weight on his back slowed him down considerably. He tripped, rolling twice before winding up on his back.

Grian sat up, looking behind himself. The wings had disappeared. Grian was fairly certain that he hadn’t imagined them, since he would be dead on the pavement if he had.

That must mean that his wings were retractable, which was even better. He had no idea how he would have explained them to Mumbo otherwise, or kept a secret identity in general. For once, it seemed as though luck was on his side.

He hurried back to where Gem had been fighting the hero. Grian couldn’t see them from the ground, but he managed to catch a glimpse of Gem escaping around the corner of another building. Grian hurried after her, hoping that a hero wasn’t chasing her.

It took him a while to catch up, but eventually, Gem slowed to a stop. She hadn’t been joking when she said Grian was going to have to keep up. 

“Gem! My power! It came in, just now, while you were fighting!” Grian exclaimed the moment he was close enough for her to hear. Gem looked at him blearily for a moment before her face broke out in a grin.

“Really? That’s awesome! What is it?”

“Watch this.” Grian walked to the edge of the roof. With a lot more confidence than he felt, he smiled at Gem before he stepped off.

That was quite possibly the most stupid decision he had ever made. And yet, somehow, he couldn’t find it in himself to feel remorse as he felt feathery limbs extend from behind him, stopping his descent a little gentler than the last time.

“Grian!” Gem screamed from above him. Grian tried to fly back up to where she was, but his wings only succeeded in bringing him to the ground with a harsh landing.

“I’m fine!” Grian called, waving up at her. Gem used a vine to swing down to the ground.

“You could’ve given me a little warning, you know,” Gem said, but Grian could tell she wasn’t actually angry.

“It was funny,” Grian said, not quite in defense of himself.

Gem snickered. “Seriously, Grian, that’s so cool! Those wings, they just pop out like that?”

“Still working on that part,” Grian said, glancing at his back. “This is only the second time I’ve done it.”

“And you just trusted that they would work like that?” Gem asked, placing her hands on her hips.

“Well…” Grian grinned sheepishly.

“You could’ve died!” Gem yelled.

“But I didn’t!”

“That is not an excuse!” Gem poked Grian. “Never again. Not without proper training, got it?”

“I was going to ask you about that.” Grian’s eyes lit up. “Now that I’ve got my powers, how do I make them better? I can’t properly fly with them yet.”

“It’s like any other kind of working out,” Gem said. “It’ll be slow going at first, though. We’ve got to work on your muscles and-”

“So what you’re saying is that I need to jump off more buildings,” Grian said, clasping his hands in front of him.

“That is not at all what I just said-”

“Too late!” Grian started running with Gem hot on his tail. His wings were already retreating, to the best of his knowledge, but that just meant he could make them come out again.

“Grian, get back here!” 

“You can’t make me!”

She could, in fact, make him. By the time Gem actually caught Grian, his wings were gone again, but she made him promise to not do anything reckless on his own until they could get together again.

Becoming a villain took a lot more training than Grian had imagined. Apparently, people didn’t just go ‘Hm. I’m going to be evil’ one day and did it. 

Regardless, Grian had his powers. He was that much closer.

===

Learning how to use his wings was, as Gem predicted, a slow process. The major difficulty was actually forcing the feathery appendages to show themselves. Gem had discouraged building jumping on his own, but allowed him to try it if she was ready to catch him with her vines.

After wasting almost an entire night without success through that, Grian put together the pieces of why it hadn’t worked. Grian knew that he wasn’t actually in danger because Gem was there to catch him. The two times his wings came out was because he thought he was actually going to die.

So, if Grian maybe jumped off the building before Gem was ready, well… It may have earned him a lecture, but at least it got his wings out.

Every time they grew, they stayed for longer before disappearing. Gem’s stretches helped strengthen  the muscles to the point that after a week, Grian could glide for several blocks before landing. Two weeks after that, he could flap strongly enough to actually get some air.

At that point, Grian had become closely acquainted enough with the feeling of his wings that he could call and dismiss them at will. That was immensely helpful, since it meant he could quit jumping off buildings, and he didn’t have to sit around and hope Mumbo didn’t notice he was missing until his wings went away in the morning.

In the downtime he had between work, acting normal to Mumbo, and training with his wings, Grian worked on his costume design. 

It was something dark, the grey almost leaning green to match with Gem. The back had large cutouts to accommodate his wings, but at least he didn’t have to worry about getting it on with his wings out. His boots were tall and reinforced to absorb the impact of hard landings, and red to match his wings. Stitches and other accents along the fabric followed the rest of the coloring of his wings. His mask covered his eyes and tilted into a pointed beak, like a bird’s. Gem had made fun of that part, but Grian insisted on it.

Once his costume was made (with Gem’s help, thankfully, Grian had no idea how he would’ve hidden that from Mumbo) and he was steady enough on his wings to manage a full night of training, Gem finally cleared Grian for villain work. 

It felt a little ironic, to be told that he was finally allowed to commit crimes. But he knew he owed everything to Gem. He didn’t want to think what might have happened to him without her, either at the hands of the Hero Commission or his own breakdown.

This time, he and Gem worked together to come up with a patrol plan. They weren’t going to jump straight into the crimes. They’d start with patrolling around, get the public wondering about Grian. It was only when they were curious that they would strike.

“Another bank? Really?” Grian asked.

“It’s a classic! It’s a great way to debut,” Gem said.

“I don’t want to be known for robbing banks,” Grian said. “I want to do something that says ‘Screw the heroes.’”

“Hm.” Gem drummed her fingers on the table. This meetup was taking place at her house, since they needed the secrecy to plan, but Gem said they were burning all the papers once they were done. Grian still wasn’t sure if she had been serious. “Well, robbing a store and taking only the hero merch would make you seem petty. Or like a superfan.”

Grian shuddered. “Both are bad. Both are very bad.”

“While I could get you into some of the Commission’s weak spots, starting straight out at the headquarters of the heroes might make them come after you pretty hard,” Gem said. “We’d want to wait until you’re a bit more established for that.”

“Fine.” Grian would like to make a big impression, but he could admit that he wasn’t quite at the skill level of defending against dozens of heroes.

Gem snapped her fingers. “Offsite storage!”

“I’m going to rob a storage unit?” Grian asked.

“The hero’s storage unit,” Gem said, a sharp grin on her face.

“You know where that is?” Grian asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I’ve known for ages. Plus, they frequent it often enough in costume that you could have found it without having inside help.” Gem jotted down the idea.

“If you’ve known about this sort of stuff for so long, why didn’t you ever do this yourself?” Grian asked. It wasn’t an accusation and Gem didn’t take it as such. Still, her fingers tightened around the pen in her hand.

“Some things are easier with a partner in crime,” Gem answered. “I couldn’t do everything on my own, but now I’ve got you.”

“Yeah,” Grian said. “You’ve got me.”

Grian was set to join Gem on a casual villain outing the next day. They’d start plotting their heist for the hero’s storage the next week.

He probably shouldn’t feel this excited to go commit crimes, but he’d left his morals behind a while ago. It wasn’t as though things could get worse.

===

Now, Grian hadn’t exactly been expecting to see the top hero on his first night as a villain. Grian had assumed it would take weeks, maybe even months to catch that exact hero’s attention. After all, he had to be a busy guy, and Grian wasn’t intending on immediately committing mass murder or anything highly noteworthy like that. Even if HotGuy noticed him after their planned heist, that was after.

And yet, the hero stood ahead of him. Gem had split off to scope out the security of a building next to the hero’s storage, leaving him alone. She obviously hadn’t been expecting an encounter with a hero, either.

“Who are you supposed to be?” HotGuy regarded Grian suspiciously, sounding much different than he had when he visited him in the hospital. Of course, they were in a much different situation now. Instead of an injured civilian, Grian was something unknown, a potential threat.

Grian tucked his wings behind his back. “You can call me Pesky, hero.”

“State your purpose,” HotGuy said.

“So serious. That’s boring,” Grian said, shaking his head. He didn’t know where he found the words. His voice sounded shaky to himself. He hoped the hero wouldn’t notice. “Come on, you’re the top hero! Aren’t you supposed to be a little more fun than this?” 

“I would choose my words a little more carefully, if I were you.” HotGuy crossed his arms. “It isn’t often that innocent civilians are found on the rooftops in ridiculous getups, you know?”

“That honor is usually reserved for heroes, isn’t it?” Grian asked, a sharp grin covering his features. “It’s a good thing my outfit is reserved, rather than something gaudy like yours, huh?” 

“My outfit is not gaudy!” HotGuy yelped, the suspicion falling away for a moment as his offense took front stage. “It is colorful and tasteful!”

“It looks like a child was let loose in a store full of highlighters,” Grian  said flatly. He’d thought as much even before everything had gone down. Pearl had agreed with him, but Jimmy always argued that the hero’s costumes were cool.

“Alright, just tell me if you’re a villain or not.”

Grian was surprised how quickly he had gotten under the hero’s skin. Or maybe he was just having a bad day. That wouldn’t stop Grian from pushing. 

“Who really needs all those labels at the end of the day, you know?” Grian stepped along the edge of the rooftop, confident enough that he didn’t teeter, even when uneven brick cracked beneath his feet.

“The law,” HotGuy said.

“Boring.” Grian rolled his shoulders. “You really let all those politics boss you around? Dictate your moral code?”

“If you’re asking if I follow the rules that are in place to keep everyone- especially people like you- safe, then yes, I do.”

“People like me?” Grian asked. “Are you generalizing me? Are you making assumptions? Are you discriminating? I’m insulted. Offended. What kind of person do you think I am?”

“Well, you’re acting an awful lot like a villain,” HotGuy said pointedly.

“Wow.” Grian placed a hand on his chest. “I can’t believe you would say something like that to me. I’ve never even committed any crimes!”

HotGuy raised an eyebrow. “Obstructing justice is a crime, you know?”

Grian faltered for a second, his fingers twitching. “Last I checked, you’re the one who approached me. And you have no evidence.”

“That would be where you’re wrong,” HotGuy said. He didn’t even need to explain himself. Everyone knew that heroes had bodycams. They put the footage all over the news every chance they could.

“I’m going to give you another chance to explain yourself… Pesky, wasn’t it?” HotGuy said coolly. Grian stopped walking at the very corner of the building.

He wondered if the hero had spotted his wings before they started talking. He met the hero’s eyes. HotGuy’s gaze flickered to the side for a split second, off the edge of the building just long enough for Grian to decide on his plan.

“I don’t need to explain myself to you.” Grian stepped off the ledge. The hero let out a shout, footsteps hitting the roof as he ran after Grian, but there was no hope of him catching up in time.

When HotGuy looked over the edge of the building, nothing was there. Grian landed lightly behind him, tucking his wings away before he spoke.

“You should work on that reaction speed.”

The hero startled. “You’re an annoying one, aren’t you?” HotGuy slowly turned around. His smile was hostile.

“I live to serve,” Grian said, offering a bow. 

“How did you get over there?” HotGuy asked.

“Magic.” He technically wasn’t lying, but it wouldn’t matter if he was. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe you’ve wasted enough of my time.”

“I wasted your time!?” HotGuy exclaimed. “You just-”

Grian vaulted himself off the opposite end of the building, snapping his wings open to race around the next corner. He didn’t particularly mind if the hero got a glimpse, considering the fact that Grian was going to become a regular (annoying) fixture in his routine, but it was funnier if he couldn’t tell how Grian got away.

He’d flown for nearly a mile before he finally came to a stop, ducking into an alleyway and letting his wings disappear. As the darkness and silence encroached, he was left with swirling thoughts.

Grian suddenly regretted every life decision that had led him to that point. What was he doing? Throwing a fit because Pearl and Jimmy were gone? Bothering someone whose job it was to save someone? What was Grian thinking?

Even through the fresh regret, something bitter gathered at the back of his throat when he thought about Pearl, Jimmy, and HotGuy in the same sentence. Just because the hero was supposed to save people didn’t mean that he succeeded. Just because he acted like he was a good person didn’t mean that he actually was.

Grian straightened his spine, running a hand through his hair. He swallowed thickly, trying to force down the bile of memories and conviction.

He had made his choice. It was too late to turn back now. There was no point in regretting something like that.

===

“Etho, do we have any records of a new vigilante or villain cropping up recently?” Scar asked as he walked into the room, setting his weapons down on the lab table. He’d hardly had to use them that night, but Etho always had to check over them.

“Could you possibly be any more specific?” Etho asked, spinning around in his chair to face Scar.

Scar sat down on a bench, unlacing his boots. “Male, light brown hair, maybe dirty blond? Possibly some sort of special ability, too. Most of his outfit was grey, but his shoes were firetruck red.”

“Interesting costume.” Etho glanced back at his computer. “I don’t remember anyone new like that being reported lately. When did you spot them?”

“Earlier tonight,” Scar said. “I was trying to figure out if he was a vigilante or a villain, but he wouldn’t give me a straightforward answer.”

“You know that you’re supposed to arrest them regardless,” Etho said, only the slightest touch of judgement in his voice. They’d had this conversation dozens of times. 

“He didn’t even technically do anything criminal,” Scar said, half a defense for someone he didn’t know or like. “I can’t arrest someone for wearing a silly outfit.”

“You’d certainly be one to talk,” Etho said.

“Hey, not you too,” Scar said. 

Etho raised his eyebrows. “Did someone else insult your costume tonight?”

“Yeah, the guy I ran into,” Scar said. He was staring at the laces of his boots intertwined with his fingers. “He must have had powers. I don’t know how else he could’ve gotten away so quickly.”

“He outran you?” Etho asked. “Speed enhancement?”

“Maybe,” Scar said. “But I didn’t even see him activate it. I was leaning more towards teleportation.”

“I’ll keep an eye out, but I haven’t heard of anything like that recently,” Etho said, drumming his fingers on the desk. “Think it’s something to worry about?”

Scar tilted his head. “I hope not.”

“That’s not very reassuring, you know,” Etho said.

“Like I said, he technically didn’t do anything wrong,” Scar said. “It just felt… off.”

“That’s never a great sign,” Etho said. “You should get some sleep. They want you on the Doctor’s case again.”

“Is there actually any new information this time, or are they just trying to look good to the public?” Scar asked, setting his boots aside. 

“Don’t say that out loud,” Etho advised.

“What? They can’t do anything to me.” Scar grinned. Being the top hero had some perks, even if it was most often outweighed by negatives.

“Keep telling yourself that until they fire you,” Etho said, turning back to his computer. Scar grabbed his cane, bidding Etho goodbye as he headed towards his quarters.

Despite his words might make it seem, Scar did love being a hero. He didn’t always agree with the Hero Commission, but he didn’t let that get in the way of him doing his job. At the end of the day, they all just wanted to save people.

Sleep always came easy for Scar. He always pushed himself and his powers a touch too far and had no plans to change that. It left him exhausted, but it was worth it. And yet, for some reason, that night, he laid awake, thinking about the person he had run into.

How strange.

===

Gem was, expectedly, not happy that she had missed Grian’s first meeting with a hero.

“You didn’t even try to call for backup!” Gem exclaimed.

“He would’ve tried fighting me if I did!” Grian said, though he hadn’t actually been considering that possibility at the time. He had been too preoccupied with speaking to the hero to even remember that he could call for Gem’s assistance.

“What if you had gotten arrested right there?” Gem challenged.

“It would’ve been funny?” Grian tried.

“For me, maybe,” Gem huffed. “He didn’t fight you, then?”

“I didn’t give him the chance,” Grian said. “I ran off after a minute, because I’m responsible like that.”

Gem smacked Grian’s arm. “Because you’re a coward, you mean.”

“Hey!” Grian said defensively. “Would a coward be a villain?”

“You’re not a villain yet, you haven’t even committed any crimes,” Gem said, rolling her eyes.

“HotGuy said that obstructing justice was a crime, and I obstructed it by distracting him!” Grian said.

“So we’re listening to heroes now?” Gem raised her eyebrows.

“Come on,” Grian said. “You’re just upset you didn’t get to see the look on his face when I jumped off the building.”

That finally got Gem to crack a smile. “You didn’t.”

“I did,” Grian confirmed. “His expression was hilarious.”

“I can’t believe you pulled that trick on the top hero.” Gem pulled off her hood, running a hand through her hair. “Admittedly, a little bit funny. I still wish you had called for backup, though.”

“I’ll figure out a way for us to just keep our comms open so we don’t have to switch between on and off.” Grian tapped on the earbud in his ear. Their new comms were still prototypes, finicky things that weren’t quite done, but couldn’t quite be finished without being stress-tested.

“That sounds much better,” Gem said. “So, how do you feel? Your first night as an official villain!”

“It feels like I’ve been a villain for a long time,” Grian said.

“It has been a few months,” Gem agreed. “Way more training than I did.”

“Which was unnecessary. HotGuy didn’t even try to fight me,” Grian said jokingly.

“Hey!” Gem swatted at Grian’s arm. “You’ll thank me when you get caught in a situation all alone and need to fight for your life!”

“Maybe then,” Grian said. “Maybe.”

Gem scoffed. “You’ll see. Just you wait. Come on, the sun’s going to come up soon. You better get home.”

Grian stretched out his wings, waving at Gem. “The park, next time?”

Gem nodded, vines growing beneath her feet. “Til the park, Pesky.”

===

Going out on patrol with Gem and actually being a villain quickly became a regular event in Grian’s schedule. He still hadn’t fought a hero, but he had spotted HotGuy once or twice more.

He had been a villain for almost two weeks, and everything was going well. As well as it could for a villain, at least.

“Right, then, if that’s everything,” Gem nodded at Grian, turning to make her way back home. They had just finished another successful night of crime when Grian spotted something.

“Wait!” Grian caught the edge of her cape. Gem glanced back at him.

“What’s up?”

Grian pulled a small device from the edge of the fabric. Gem narrowed her eyes.

“What is that?”

“A tracker.” Grian dropped it on the ground, stomping on it.

“How could you tell it was there?” Gem asked, tilting her head. “That thing was tiny.”

“I built them,” Grian said.

Gem stared at Grian.

“You’re not the only one who can work with the heroes,” Grian said; not really an excuse, but not that far from one, either.

“Were you going to mention this to me?” Gem asked, placing her hands on her hips.

“Yes,” Grian said. “At some point.”

“There’s not that many people who know these exist, I assume?” Gem asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Just a few people at my firm. And the heroes,” Grian said. “They’re still prototypes.”

“If you know too much about them, that could get tracked back to you,” Gem said. “Pun… kind of intended.”

“I’ll be careful about it!” Grian said. “You could get caught for literally working at the Hero Commission, too, you know.”

“I know,” Gem said. “I just don’t want you getting in trouble. Not after everything.”

“Don’t want your efforts to go to waste?” Grian asked, raising an eyebrow. He couldn’t exactly blame her for that, but he wouldn’t pretend that it didn’t sting, just a little.

“It’s not that.” Gem pressed a hand over her mask, taking a deep breath. “We’re friends. I don’t want to see you get caught because of something I dragged you into.”

“I chose to join you,” Grian said. “You gave me plenty of chances to walk away. I was never going to, you know. I was in too deep as soon as the people I love got killed.”

“Normal people’s reactions to that happening wouldn’t be becoming a villain,” Gem said.

“I thought we established that neither of us are exactly normal.”

“Touche,” Gem said. She sighed. “Sorry. I’ve been paranoid. Things have been strange lately.”

“Strange?” Grian asked. 

“Something’s off with the heroes. Or maybe it’s the other villains.” Gem shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling. I hope it’s nothing, but I can’t shake the feeling.”

Grian frowned. “Is there something we should do about that?”

Gem pursed her lips. “There’s not much we can do. It’ll be the hero’s responsibility, at the end of the day. Just be careful, Grian.”

“I always am.”

They both knew he was lying. No one called him out on it.

===

“Hey.”

It was a cold day. The wind bit through Grian’s thin jacket. He hadn’t bothered picking up anything warmer since he’d moved in with Mumbo. He didn’t entirely mind, though. The cold brought a mix of clarity with the numbness. 

The green grass was dying. The flowers were wilting. It was that shade of fall where the leaves hadn’t begun to turn yet, but everything else was getting ready to hibernate or die. 

Grian had expected to see more people there, considering the fact that it was a Saturday morning. Maybe most people preferred to not spend their weekends grieving.

Pearl and Jimmy did not have graves. There were no bodies to bury. There would have been no meaning to it. There hadn’t even been a real funeral. Grian would have been the one to organize it if there had been, and he’d never been able to bring himself to do it.

He and Pearl were the only family each other had left, save for some distant cousins Grian couldn’t even name. Despite having known Jimmy since high school, he had never met or even heard of any family. Grian figured if there had been, the police could contact them instead.

They both had friends, of course. Grian had been invited to several small get-togethers in their memory. He hadn’t gone to any of them.

“Sorry it took me so long. Traffic was bad, you know?”

Their names weren’t listed together. Pearl was several lines above Jimmy’s, separated alphabetically by a half a dozen faceless strangers who just so happened to die on the same day to the same issue as them.

Civilians who were killed in fights between heroes and villains were named ‘honorary heroes’ with their names listed on long plaques that surrounded the edge of the Hero Commission’s graveyard. It would have taken Grian a long time to find Pearl and Jimmy’s names if they hadn’t died only a few months ago. It had still taken him searching what felt like hundreds of names before he found theirs.

These people were not honorary heroes. They were not those who valiantly chose to put their lives on the line. They were people in the wrong place at the wrong time. People who died because of the whims of others more powerful than them. Nothing more than collateral damage.

“You’d both just tell me to get over it, already, if you were here,” Grian mused. At least the lack of people around meant less people were there to stare at him strangely. Then again, was it really that strange to speak to a sorry excuse for a grave?

“Well, Pearl would tell me that, at least,” Grian said. “Jimmy’d be disappointed I never did anything more. I think you’d understand, though.”

Grian touched the cold metal. His fingers were so numb that he could barely feel it. 

He almost wanted to apologize to them. He wanted to tell them he was sorry that they didn’t have real graves. He wanted to tell them he was sorry that he didn’t know how to properly grieve for them. He wanted to tell them he was sorry that he had taken so long to visit them.

Grian didn’t say a thing, because he knew how little sorries meant. He didn’t say a thing because he knew that speaking to something that the heroes had created in remembrance of people they had gotten killed didn’t really mean a thing.

Walking away was hard, but he wasn’t really moving on. Moving on would have meant facing their deaths. Moving on would have meant he did something healthy, rather than becoming a villain.

He didn’t look back. He was stuck in the past regardless of whether or not he acknowledged it. 

===

Grian had wanted his first big heist to go well.

If he were a normal person, that would be a strange thing to want. It was a good thing that Grian wasn’t anywhere close to normal, and he hadn’t been for a long time.

It had taken him and Gem about two weeks to completely case the storage unit and make their plans. Grian had identified everywhere that should have silent alarms or would trigger an emergency system. It wasn’t certain that he’d caught everything, since he didn’t know the exact security system the heroes used, but he’d worked on developing similar systems once or twice, so he was hoping that knowledge would be enough to lean on.

Finally, they were all set to go. It was a cloudy night. No moonlight lit the way for the two villains as they converged on the location; Grian from above and Gem from the streets.

The plan was simple, in theory. Grian would get in through the ventilation system on the roof. Gem would exploit a gap in the cameras and use her plants to dig into the walls. Once Grian got to the top floor, he would grab the most important looking thing that caught his eye. Gem would do the same, hopefully targeting any computer systems for extra information if possible.

In theory, everything should go well. 

In practice, it did not. Despite all of their careful planning, everything immediately went south.

Grian had to tuck his wings away when he dropped into the vents. It was a good thing he was already rather small, otherwise the squeeze would be even more difficult. 

He hadn’t gone all that far before he heard a creaking sound. At first, he pushed forward and tried to ignore it. It wasn’t as though these vents were designed for someone to be crawling in them, after all.

That fact was made very apparent when they violently lurched underneath Grian. He bit his tongue to cut back a yelp, helpless to stop sliding down to the lowpoint. He held his breath, frozen in place as he waited for something else to happen.

Nothing moved. Grian breathed. Everything stayed in place. Slowly, Grian shifted so he could start moving again.

Falling was a feeling Grian had become intimately familiar with a long time ago. The drop in the back of his stomach, the shot of adrenaline through his blood, the way his breath caught in his chest. No matter how long he flew, he never quite lost that feeling.

Usually, it wasn’t bad. At this point, it was almost a comfort.

It wasn’t quite as comforting when that feeling started when he was in the middle of sneaking into a secret hero warehouse.

The vent crashed down. The metal was thin, which meant it wasn’t too difficult for Grian to extract himself. It also meant that it hadn’t been enough to hold Grian up in the first place, so he wasn’t all that grateful.

Grian had landed in the middle of a room filled with low light and glass boxes. There were a few old books he spotted, and some old pieces of parchment that didn’t look like they were written in English.

Whatever was in the room wasn’t what they were looking for. Worst of all was what Grian found when he moved his feet.

Glass crunched beneath the sole of his foot. His breathing quickened as he looked down, spotting the destroyed remains of a glass container beneath him.

The vent had come down on top of one of the displays. If the heroes were as paranoid as Grian was certain they were, each of these things would have a silent alarm built into them. Which Grian had just absolutely shattered.

“Flowerfall?” Grian pressed a hand to his ear, where a comm sat. He’d designed it himself so he wouldn’t have to worry about the heroes being able to tap in. “We might have a problem.”

“Make that two.” Gem’s voice came in quietly. “The camera gap is a lot smaller than we thought it was. I can’t move without being spotted.”

“I think I set off an alarm.” Grian picked up a shard of glass. “Should we try to get out of here?”

“We can’t ruin your first heist!” Gem exclaimed. “It’ll take the heroes a while to get here, even if they’re watching the alarms. Just keep moving like we planned. Keeping a cool head is the most important thing in these situations.”

Grian nodded, more for his own benefit than hers. “Got it. Check in if something goes wrong.”

Gem confirmed. Grian dropped the glass shard. It broke into three pieces on the ground.

Sneaking around wasn’t much of a priority anymore, since the heroes certainly knew that he, at least, was there. Instead of heading for the flimsy vents, he went straight for the door. It was locked tight, but a small explosive fixed that easily. 

After a few rooms, Grian finally found his target. Hero weapons. Half of the room was filled with industrial bins, but the other half was glass displays similar to the first place Grian had seen. His fingers ghosted over the glass of one in particular. It was an electrical staff that one of the first heroes had owned. It had been in a museum for a long time, but it was moved here after a villain tried to steal it. 

Temptation got to Grian. He carefully looked left and right, as though someone was going to catch him. The glass broke with a punch. Grian had reinforced his gloves with spikes that curled over his knuckles like talons. If he had a built-in brand, he might as well use it. 

No alarms went off, but Grian wasn’t fooled. Even if every case in the other room didn’t have security on it, this one had to.

He didn’t regret a thing as he reached into the case to take his prize. He spun the staff in his hands, finding it surprisingly light. Flying with it would be a breeze. Pun intended.

“I would put that down, if I were you.”

Grian felt his blood run cold as a voice interrupted the silence of the storage room. His grip tightened on the staff. Gem had said it would take much longer for the heroes to get there. They must have been nearby. Rotten luck.

“Don’t you know that sharing is caring?” Grian dared a glance behind himself. HotGuy was standing with his crossbow aimed straight at Grian’s back. 

“How did you discover this location?” HotGuy asked instead of answering. His voice was cold, nothing like the mild confusion or terseness of their previous interactions.

“You heroes really aren’t as secretive as you think you are,” Grian said, careful to cover Gem’s tracks. “For people with secret identities, you’d think you’d be better at hiding things.”

“Drop the weapon, Pesky,” HotGuy commanded.

“Aw, you remembered my name.” Grian grinned, something sharp and violent. “Now, why don’t we put down the pointy things and have a civil conversation?”

HotGuy raised an eyebrow. Obviously, getting out of this wasn’t going to be that easy, but Grian could try. He sighed, rolling his shoulders.

Grian’s goal was to get out of that room alive and not arrested. Even if the heist ended up being a bust, getting himself caught could get Mumbo, and even Gem into trouble.

Had Gem run into a hero as well? Grian couldn’t warn her without giving away the fact that he had an accomplice to HotGuy. If they didn’t know Gem was there, he could tip them off by accident.

“Fine, I guess we’ll do things the hard way,” Grian muttered. He lowered the hero’s staff first. HotGuy didn’t let his guard down, but the tension in his arms eased ever so slightly.

Grian pounced, leaping forward. With the staff, he shoved HotGuy’s arm holding the crossbow away, kneeing the hero in the stomach in the same movement. HotGuy didn’t completely double over, but Grian took the slight hesitation as a chance to grab the arrows sticking out of the quiver at HotGuy’s back, throwing them the opposite direction as he took off running.

The distraction didn’t work quite as well as he had hoped. HotGuy was still hot on Grian’s trail, and Grian didn’t have much space to run. Most of the doors were still locked, other than the ones Grian had exploded.

And… the ones that HotGuy had gotten through. HotGuy had to have been more worried about catching a villain than locking the door behind him. It was pure luck that Grian spotted one door lock turned green instead of an angry red as he ran past. He turned, using his size to his advantage. Since he was smaller than HotGuy, he could spin much faster. The hero went a little ways past him while Grian made it to the door.

Grian slammed the door shut behind him, slapping the code box to turn the light red. HotGuy certainly had a way to unlock it, but any amount of a lead Grian could get was desperately needed.

He reached the next open door just as he heard HotGuy unlock the previous one. This door got locked behind Grian, as well.

The storage building was large, but Grian was lucky enough that HotGuy didn’t seem to have taken the long way. It only took a few rooms to find the stairwell that he must have come up. Grian clambered up on the railing, not bothering to even try the stairs.

It turned out that he’d made the right decision, since the door behind him slammed open before he even had the chance to jump.

“Pesky-” HotGuy tried, but Grian had already opened his wings, looking back just long enough to make eye contact with the hero and wink at him before he fell.

HotGuy reached after him, but the effort was futile. Grian was long gone.

The stairwell wasn’t wide enough for Grian to glide, but he could catch himself a floor above the bottom. He walked the last flight of stairs, thanking whatever deities above that this door, too, was an unlocked green.

As he stepped into the room, vines erupted from the floor around him. Grian yelped, slapping at his comms. “Me, it’s me!”

“I thought you were a hero.” Grian couldn’t hear Gem’s real voice, which meant that she must have been on the other side of the building. “Keep moving. I’ll meet up with you.”

The vines shrank back, keeping a cover over the door while allowing Grian through. He really hoped that there weren’t other heroes around.

He was most of the way through the large room when he spotted another figure running through the tall stacks of computer servers. They had been right that the bottom floor contained information, but that was hardly Grian’s focus at the moment.

“Flowerfall!” Grian called, waving her over. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Gem said, breathing hard. “Got… info… Let’s get out of here.”

“Agreed.” Grian glanced behind them. He didn’t see any movement in the room, but that didn’t mean they were in the clear. “Quickly.”

“Why do you think I’ve been running?” Gem demanded. She straightened up, taking a deep breath. “Here we go.”

They had reached a gap in the wall that still had vines crawling over the bricks.

“You know,” Grian said. “You make a really good villain.”

“Really?” Gem asked. “Why, thank you!”

They ran past the security cameras without a care this time. The heroes knew they were there. It was more about the spectacle than the secrecy at this point.

It was a long time before they both felt comfortable enough to stop. Once they finally did, they took stock of their situation.

Grian had gotten the old staff from the heroes. He hadn’t even noticed that he was still holding it. He didn’t know how he hadn’t dropped it in all the commotion.

Gem, on the other hand, had recovered a USB stick with some important files. She didn’t know what was inside yet, but it was the quickest thing she could decrypt before Grian set off the alarms. 

“You know, for your first heist, that wasn’t that bad,” Gem said.

“If that didn’t go bad, I don’t want to see what bad actually is,” Grian said, pretending to shiver.

“Well, bad bad would mean someone gets arrested or dies,” Gem said. “So we typically try to avoid that.”

Grian nodded. “Avoid dying and getting arrested. I like that plan.”

“Heroes showing up like that is unlucky, but not that uncommon,” Gem said. “Espiecally for places like this. They like to have secret security systems.”

“I don’t know how much their secret security systems helped when I’m the one who crashed into several secured glass cases,” Grian said sheepishly.

“There’s a learning curve,” Gem said, patting Grian’s shoulder. “You’ll get to my level, one day.”

“One day,” Grian echoed, a smile on his face. Even though the entire thing felt like a mess, it really hadn’t been terrible. It could have gone so much worse.

“Make sure you hide that securely,” Gem said, pointing at the weapon in Grian’s hand. “The heroes are going to search for it.”

“Right,” Grian said, nodding.

“Until next time, then.” Gem saluted at Grian. Grian hurried off home, exhausted and still filled with adrenaline.

The next morning, Grian got several excited and cryptic texts from Gem about the news. Their robbery was the talk of the day, with HotGuy himself addressing the event.

Pride swelled in Grian’s chest. Being a villain was kind of awesome.

===

“Etho!” Scar called as he made his way into Etho’s room. He dropped his weapons on the table as an afterthought. “I figured it out! That guy I was asking you about a while ago, he doesn’t have teleportation powers, he’s got wings!”

“Scar, the hero’s storage unit was broken into,” Etho said, slowly spinning in his chair. “Priorities.”

“Right, right, yeah, but he barely got away with anything,” Scar said, waving a hand.

“Why did he get away with anything at all?” Etho raised an eyebrow.

“Like I told you, he’s a bird!” Scar said, gesturing with his hands. “When we got to the stairs, he just went like- woosh. All the way down.”

“So much for him being a vigilante, right?” Etho asked dryly. “This is going to make the public freak out.”

“It was just one villain,” Scar said, dismissive on purpose. It wasn’t as though he didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, but he knew it was easier to act as though mistakes weren’t as bad as they could be.

“The cameras show two people running away,” Etho said, waving at the computer screens behind him. “Even one villain finding that storage unit is terrible. We’re going to have to move everything now, and increase security.”

“Right,” Scar said, wincing. “I’ll get that handled. And I’ll do a press address tomorrow.”

“Good,” Etho said, nodding stiffly. Scar left the room, pushing a hand through his hair.

What trouble was that annoying little bird going to bring?

Scar could tell this wasn’t going to be the last time he saw that villain. In fact, it was only the beginning.

===

Grian’s first heist made it to the news the next morning. He put on a face of concern in front of Mumbo, but he texted Gem something much different.

He held onto the staff from the heroes, training with it whenever he and Gem weren’t bothering heroes or planning something. It was easy to fall into a routine. They’d stir up some problems, draw the attention of heroes, ruin their day, and run off before they could get caught.

Grian was mostly in it to annoy HotGuy, of course, but getting a rise out of other heroes here and there proved to have its own merits.

It was easy to forget just how dangerous Grian’s little hobby could be until he was in the middle of a situation with no way to get out of it.

“Tell me, birdie,” HotGuy said as he started reloading his crossbow. His last arrow had narrowly missed Grian’s wing. It wasn’t vital, so it wouldn’t kill him, but it would greatly hinder his ability to evade capture. “What are you expecting to get out of this? Why are you a villain?”

“Does that actually get anyone to spill their deep, dark secrets?” Grian asked, raising his eyebrows at the nickname. Birdie, really? Yes, he had wings, and yes, he had leaned into the aesthetic, but the nickname was going a little far.

“You’d be surprised.” HotGuy fired his crossbow without warning. Grian sprang out of the way, feathers flashing.

“Maybe sometimes, a villain’s just a bad person.” Grian spun his katana, poising for a slash at the hero’s legs.

“I don’t buy that,” HotGuy said, stepping back. “I don’t believe that anyone’s a bad person.”

“Real ironic, coming from someone who fights bad people for a job,” Grian quipped. He cursed himself for letting the hero distract him long enough to get out of range. 

“I fight people who do bad things,” HotGuy said. “No one is born evil.”

“Are you trying to appeal to my innate goodness or something like that?” Grian asked sarcastically. “Because it’s not going to work.”

“No,” HotGuy said. “I was just buying time.”

Something barreled into Grian’s side. He rolled a few times, flaring his wings to bring himself to a stop. He shook his head to rid himself of the dizziness, searching to find the cause.

A second hero had arrived. Shadow was her name, Grian brain filled in. He didn’t remember the specifics of her powers, but he could hazard a guess, based on her name. Maybe Gem was right about all that studying, after all. Grian should really start taking her advice at some point.

“You don’t think you can take me all on your own?” Grian asked, rising. “I’m flattered, really. I’m not that strong, you know.”

“You’ve evaded capture for the past few weeks,” Shadow said. “It’s at least something for us to take note of.”

Grian flapped his wings, hopping into the air. “Little ol’ me? I would never cause anyone any problems. I’m offended you would say such a thing!”

“You’ve interrupted at least five of my cases in the past three weeks,” HotGuy said. “Not to mention the storage unit you robbed.”

“That doesn’t sound like me,” Grian said. “Do you think that sounds like me, Shadow? I think that HotGuy might be losing it.”

“I can see what you were saying about this guy being insufferable, HG,” Shadow said, reaching for the bags strapped to her side. Grian didn’t know what kind of weapon she carried, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to learn. Obviously, that wasn’t going to stop him from continuing to antagonize them.

“HG might be a worse name than HotGuy, honestly. What sort of hero name is that?” Grian asked.

“It’s a great hero name!” HotGuy piped up. Grian tilted his head. 

“If you’re five, maybe.”

“That’s it!” HotGuy shot at Grian again, barely catching a few feathers as he dived out of the way. Shadow popped up behind him, emerging from, obviously, the shadows. She had a twin pair of quarterstaffs already swinging towards him. Grian grabbed the staff he’d stolen from the heroes from its place strapped between his wings. He spun around, blocking Shadow. He pulled his wings in as HotGuy shot again, tucking them safely out of the way.

Now, this wasn’t a great situation. Grian jumped as Shadow swiped for his legs. He rarely got involved in hand to hand in the first place, and against two heroes? Grian was in a bit of trouble here.

His wing snapped out and he threw himself into the air, sharply turning to avoid HotGuy’s fired response. He landed on the opposite side from HotGuy. His reasoning had been to get away from Shadow, but the maneuver was all for naught when she popped out of the shadows beside him, barely giving Grian enough time to respond to stop himself from receiving a concussion. Really, they should give heroes safer weapons than this.

“A two v one? Coming from heroes, that’s real disgusting, isn’t it?” A new voice joined them. Grian grinned, something sharp. The hero might have backup, but so did Grian. 

“You weren’t the only one stalling for time.” Grian threw himself back into the air. Gem didn’t waste any time heading towards Shadow. Grian turned to HotGuy, ducking out of the way of an arrow.

“Don’t you have any other attacks?” Grian called.

“Archery is kinda my thing,” HotGuy said.

“It’s the 21st century, pick up a gun!”

“Says the man literally holding a relic weapon,” HotGuy shot back.

“This is stolen, which means it has cool points.” Grian spun the staff and did not almost drop it at all which means he didn’t have to hurry to pick it up and HotGuy did not laugh at him. “Yours is just old.”

Grian used his wings to push himself forward enough so it was impractical for HotGuy to use his crossbow, leaving him with no weapons other than his hands. Unfortunately, the hero was actually quite proficient at hand to hand. He blocked or dodged nearly all of Grian’s blows, and landed several punches of his own that Grian could tell was going to bruise.

He had just begun regretting his decision when Gem called his name. Grian pretended to trip backwards, but caught himself with his wings.

Gem had somehow managed to knock out Shadow, which effectively meant that they had won. HotGuy had an obligation to help his teammate and had no way to detain both villains.

“Shadow!” Hotguy noticed his fallen coworker. Grian and Gem pitched off the side of the building, vines catching Gem while Grian’s wings held him aloft.

“Good work, tonight,” Gem said over comms. “It’s a good thing you got that issue with the earbuds fixed.”

“Tell me about it. I could’ve been caught if that didn’t work out.” Grian shivered, only exaggerating a little. He never allowed himself to truly consider the ramifications of getting caught. As long as his actions didn’t have consequences, he didn’t have to worry about it.

===

“Grian, you remember that USB I got from the hero’s storage?” Gem asked, opening her laptop. They were meeting at her house this time. Grian hadn’t asked why, but he had a sinking suspicion that whatever Gem wanted to show him was the reason.

“Sure,” Grian said. They’d both almost gotten arrested for the sparse spoils of information and a weapon.

“I wasn’t able to get much before I had to run, so this is just the most recently accessed stuff, but it tells a story.” Gem handed the laptop to Grian. He skimmed through the files on the USB, brows pinching.

The Doctor was a familiar name that made Grian’s blood boil. The heroes had been filing more reports of him of late. Grian had never tried to go after the villain who was half responsible for Pearl and Jimmy’s deaths. It was mostly because he was a coward, he could acknowledge. A hero couldn’t kill a villain. A villain, especially one like the Doctor, had no such qualms about murder.

“He’s planning something,” Grian muttered, passing the computer back to Gem. The heroes had come to the same conclusion. There were more reports of the gas Grian had been hit with. No one had said anything about sudden powers yet, but it was only a matter of time.

“Grian, I know this is personal for you,” Gem said. “I don’t want you getting involved.” 

“What am I supposed to do against a villain like that?” Grian asked, shoulders slumping. “Even the heroes can’t arrest him. It’s not like I could do a thing.”

“You became a villain the last time you got angry at an organization,” Gem said. “I don’t want you doing something that you’re going to regret.”

“I’m not going to do anything.” Grian shut the laptop for her. “Promise.”

Gem’s mouth was pressed into a line. She nodded, but it didn’t look as though she believed Grian.

“I need- I need to go.” Grian pushed himself to his feet. Gem didn’t try to stop him.

===

“Hey there, birdie.”

Grian shifted his wings, but he didn’t move from his perch. The hero’s footsteps stopped a few meters away.

“No banter today?” HotGuy asked.

Grian didn’t say anything. HotGuy took a few steps closer. Grian shot him a glance out of the corner of his eye, but HotGuy was walking towards the edge of the building. He sat down, staying a fair distance away. It wasn’t far, but he couldn’t grab Grian without getting up. A strange offer of peace. It made Grian’s skin itch.

“I always wonder if the villains get sick of all the back and forth as much as we do,” HotGuy said, conversationally, easily, as though he was talking to a friend rather than a dangerous criminal.

“Heroes get the short end of the stick,” Grian muttered. He trained his eyes on something above the horizon, something impossibly distant. Something he could never reach again. “You’re always in a reactionary role. You have to win, every single time. A villain wins every time a civilian gets hurt. A villain wins every time a building is destroyed. What I wonder is how crazy you have to be to keep doing it.”

HotGuy chuckled, but it wasn’t the type of laugh that he would let out triumphantly on TV. There was a hint of sadness to it, which made it feel more real, somehow.

“We’re all a bit mad, I suppose. If you’re not, you quit the first time you watch someone die.”

“You keep throwing yourself into it,” Grian said. “You’ve watched people die before. It’s been your fault, before. Why do you keep doing it?”

HotGuy was silent for a long time. Grian wasn’t even sure if he wanted an answer. It wasn’t going to fix anything. It wasn’t going to make Grian quit being a villain. It wasn’t going to bring Pearl or Jimmy back. And yet, Grian stayed and listened.

“I have to make up for it, every time I fail,” HotGuy eventually said, quietly enough that the wind nearly carried his words away. “If I watch someone die, I need to save two people in their place. If it’s my fault, I need to save ten.”

“That’s a stupid moral code,” Grian said. “Your stats can’t be anywhere close to balanced.”

“They’re not,” HotGuy said. “That’s why I keep going. You asked.”

Grian didn’t respond. He expected for the hero to turn the question around on him. Instead, the silence stretched between them for long enough that Grian finally glanced at HotGuy. He wasn’t looking at Grian. He was looking somewhere far away, as though he had his own regrets that were all too close to Grian’s.

“You’re tired of this game of cat and mouse?” Grian was the one who finally broke the silence.

“You looked like you were,” HotGuy said.

Grian tilted his head. “Last I checked, heroes were a little more concerned about getting villains arrested than caring about our emotions.”

“That’s the difference between us, birdie.” HotGuy snapped his fingers. An alarm buzzed from his wrist. The hero stood up, stretching. “Until next time, huh?”

“Yeah,” Grian responded distantly. He still expected for the hero to pull some kind of trick. For his backup to jump out of nowhere and grab Grian while he was least expecting it. For this to be all some ploy to get Grian to lower his guard.

HotGuy walked to the other side of the roof before using his grappling hook to swing away. Grian watched until he couldn’t see the hero anymore, and then he watched for a while longer.

Grian ruffled his feathers. He’d been sitting for far too long. He gently pushed himself over the edge, catching himself with practised ease.

Those heroes were strange, weren’t they?

===

“Grian.”

Grian stiffened, spinning around. He was relieved that he’d already changed back into civilian clothes, but that didn’t hide the fact that he’d just climbed in through the window. How long had Mumbo been watching? Did he see Grian fly up there?

“Hey, Mumbo,” Grian said, trying for something casual, but his voice came out squeaky. “You’re up early.”

“I was about to call the police because you were missing.” Mumbo was staring at him as though he was a ghost. His hair was a mess and he was still in his pajamas.

“I just needed some fresh air,” Grian said, patting the window.

“Grian,” Mumbo said. “I’m not that gullible.”

Grian thought, perhaps unfairly, that wasn’t quite the case. Mumbo hadn’t caught Grian sneaking out for the past three months. It was unfortunately easy to move around without Mumbo’s knowledge. The man was out cold before 10 each night, and rarely woke up before 6. It had been plenty safe for Grian to spend all of his time doing illegal things.

“Have you been going somewhere at night?” Mumbo said, eyes shifting between the window and the bag in Grian’s hand. “I noticed you hadn’t been sleeping, but I assumed…”

Mumbo trailed off. He’d never been comfortable bringing up Pearl and Jimmy’s deaths. While he hadn’t been as close to them as he was with Grian, he had still known them well. Though, to Grian, it had always seemed as though Mumbo didn’t know how to deal with Grian’s grief, rather than his own.

Grian swallowed, debating how much of the truth he should tell Mumbo. As much as he wanted to deny everything, he owed Mumbo something. 

“I can’t sleep.” was not what Grian had intended to say, but that’s what came out of his mouth. “I’ve hardly been able to since that day. Staying here just makes me overthink, so I go out.”

Mumbo still looked wary. Grian couldn’t tell how much he believed him. “You should have at least told me. I almost had a panic attack!”

Grian smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I didn’t want to make you worry.”

“We’re friends, Grian,” Mumbo said, expression falling. “I want to be able to help.”

“There’s nothing you can do to help with this,” Grian said, an unfortunate amount of honesty bleeding into his voice. He knew that Mumbo only had the best intentions, but he didn’t think he was ever going to stop being sensitive about Pearl and Jimmy.

“Grian-”

“I can’t talk about this with you,” Grian said. “Just- leave it alone, okay?” 

“Grian, you’re scaring me,” Mumbo said, brows furrowed. “Are you really okay?”

“Yeah,” Grian said without feeling. “I’m fine. It’s just… everything that happened, you know?”

“You don’t have to be okay, you know,” Mumbo said. “No one would blame you for it. You lost-”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Grian interrupted, unfairly. He owed Mumbo so much more than this, but he couldn’t afford to let Mumbo find out anything about his nightly hobby, let alone the emotions he’d buried months ago.

“Pushing everything down isn’t going to help.”

“When did you become a therapist?” Grian said, snappy and he wished he could take it back as soon as he saw Mumbo’s expression shift, but he kept his mouth shut. 

“Fine,” Mumbo said tersely. “But when you’re ready to talk, I’ll still be here.”

===

Grian shouldn’t be out.

Other than the fact that it was highly illegal to be a villain. He knew he shouldn’t be there.

An alarm had gone out. A hero and a villain fight. It was in the afternoon again, which gave Grian some nasty deja vu. This time, instead of helplessly running towards a home that no longer existed, Grian had put on an outfit that had become like a suit of armor and spread his wings.

It wasn’t as though he had meant to go looking for trouble. Not really. He had intended on keeping his promise to Gem when he made it. Even though he was angry, he knew that Pearl and Jimmy wouldn’t want Grian to get killed on their account. 

Grian wasn’t trying to get killed. He wasn’t even trying to get involved in anything. He just needed some air, and opening his wings had been the next natural step.

He was already regretting that decision.

Grian had gotten stuck on a rooftop, observing the fight between HotGuy and the Doctor. That also brought back unpleasant memories, but Grian couldn’t afford to dwell on that at the moment. He was watching for a way out, an opportunity to escape without either noticing him. 

He was so distracted by looking for an escape route that he didn’t notice another person had joined them on the battlefield. Grian squinted, a frown spreading over his face.

The newcomer was standing by the Doctor. They had yellow wings on their back. Grian shifted his own wings. Despite all of the heroes and the villains in the city, he hadn’t ever seen anyone else with wings.

Quietly, Grian glided to the next building over. None of the fighters noticed him. He was too far away to hear the conversation, but it was easy to see when the fight broke out again. The villain with wings darted towards HotGuy, narrowly avoiding an arrow. The Doctor shot with some sort of explosive weapon. None of the explosions hit HotGuy, but it was a near thing.

Grian needed to get out of there. He had no horse in this race. He hated both of the people in front of him. Sticking around to watch them fight wasn’t his idea of fun.

He scaled down his building, figuring it’d be easier to escape on ground than be spotted by the sky. He’d just reached the concrete when something slammed into the brickwork next to him. Grian pulled his wings in and ducked into a roll in one smooth roll, coming up facing the disturbance.

The new villain had been thrown into the alleyway, one wing pinned to the wall behind them. Red stained the yellow feathers as they struggled.

Grian was frozen, half hidden by the shadows. He didn’t want to get involved in this fight, but he was still clearly dressed in a costume. Even if the newcomer didn’t know who Grian was, he could most likely guess that Grian was a hero or a villain. Either way, if he was allied with the Doctor, he would probably attack.

Except, the newcomer wasn’t looking at Grian. They were staring out at the fight as they wrenched at their wing. They didn’t have pupils; their eyes were entirely purple.

Grian narrowed his eyes. There was something familiar about the person in front of him. The shade of their hair, their build, something about them was screaming for Grian to take note, but what was it?

“Hello?” Grian tried, quietly, stupidly. They didn’t look at him. They didn’t appear to have heard him at all.

“Are you okay?” Grian tried again, but he still didn’t get a response. He stepped closer. The villain’s head didn’t turn.

Grian waved his hand in front of the villain’s eyes. They didn’t flinch, only straining to get back into the fight.

Even for villains, that wasn’t normal behavior. Grian’s brow furrowed. What could make this guy so desperate to get back into a fight against the top hero? So much that he didn’t even appear to register the fact that there was a threat right in front of them?

Unpleasant memories of a gas filed in from the back of his mind. He glanced at the Doctor. If he could create a gas that could give people powers, he could make something to force people to do stuff.

Then, Grian made a very, very stupid decision.

The villain had a mask tied over the bottom half of their face. It wasn’t very secure or high-tech, but it got the job done. The villain didn’t move back as Grian’s hand got closer. They didn’t try to stop him when Grian grabbed the fabric. They never looked at him once, not even when Grian pulled the mask off.

And the world stopped.

Grian had to be dreaming. He’d hit his head. It was a gas leak, it was an illusion, it was something that made sense, because what Grian was seeing was absolutely impossible.

Finally, the figure freed their wing from the arrow. Grian reached after them as they darted back into the fight, intending to do- what, exactly? Grian had no idea. He stayed in the alleyway, watching weakly as the villain continued fighting HotGuy, despite a clearly injured wing.

Grian didn’t move. It felt as though his feet were rooted to the concrete.

Because he had recognized the person underneath the mask. There were two things wrong with that.

That person was not supposed to have powers. And that person was supposed to be dead.

===

The fight hadn’t lasted for long after the other villain had rejoined HotGuy and the Doctor, which was probably a good thing. It was more than an hour before Grian could force himself to move, to retreat, to return home and try to gather his scattered thoughts. 

There had to have been some mistake. Grian had gotten it wrong, somehow. That was the only possible explanation.

Jimmy Solidarity was dead. He had been dead for months. Grian would have known if he wasn’t dead, and Grian would have known if he had powers.

The uncomfortable truth was that Grian hadn’t always had powers. It was perfectly possible that Jimmy didn’t have powers before, but he did now. The Doctor was the one who had caused Grian to get powers in the first place. It wasn’t much of a stretch to assume the same thing had happened to Jimmy. Maybe they had such similar powers because they were related.

No, no! That was ridiculous. It couldn’t be Jimmy. Grian shouldn’t even be considering it as a possibility. It had just been dark, and Grian was jumping to assumptions. That was clearly what had happened.

And yet, Grian couldn’t shake the thought. He talked to Mumbo, he made it to work, he went through the motions, but he wasn’t fully there. He was thinking over the alleyway over and over again, trying to prove himself wrong.

He had known Jimmy for years. They had one class together in high school, and somehow clicked. It didn’t really make sense that they’d be friends. Grian was a nerd in the most advanced classes with the highest grades. Jimmy’s weren’t awful, but it was clear that he dedicated more of his time to soccer. 

What had truly brought them together was their shared silent talent for trouble. Grian couldn’t count how many late nights they’d pulled coming up with pranks ranging from stupid to impossible. 

Grian knew that he had never come to terms with Jimmy’s death, and even less so Pearl’s. He wasn’t coping, he was drowning and he knew that. He just refused to do anything about it. 

That was why Grian had seen Jimmy in that alleyway. He was going crazy. He was genuinely losing his mind. Honestly, it was amazing that it had taken this long. Then again, did a perfectly sane person become a villain?

Yes, that was the problem. Grian was insane. Of course.

As much as Grian wanted to accept that answer (which was concerning in itself) he couldn’t help the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that told him that wasn’t the correct conclusion. Not out of any sense of self preservation. He knew what he had seen.

Grian leaned back in his chair. It was approaching the end of his shift.

Okay, fine, brain. Pretend for a second that it was actually Jimmy, under that mask. Explain the rest of it. The powers could make enough sense, considering Grian’s own wings, but what about being a villain? That mindless urge to run back into the fight, despite an injury and someone else standing right behind him? How did that make sense?

An unpleasant thought drifted in. There was an easy enough explanation why someone would be acting so strange and out of the ordinary. As though they didn’t have control.

Mind control wasn’t too strange a concept in a world where superpowers existed. Grian had never heard of anyone with the ability, but it certainly wasn’t impossible. If the Doctor had created something that gave people powers, he could definitely make something to put people under mind control.

Ignoring how concerning that statement was on its own, it explained a lot about the night’s events. Why Jimmy hadn’t acknowledged or recognized him. Why he had been trying so hard to get back into the fight. Why he would be helping a villain in the first place.

“Grian? You okay?”

Grian glanced back at Mumbo who had concern blanketed over his face.

“Just thinking over a project.” Lying had become easy to him. Grian wondered if he should feel guilt for that.

“Let me know if you need help,” Mumbo said, not looking pacified at all.

“Yeah, ‘course,” Grian said, with no intention of following him up on that offer. Mumbo left Grian with his thoughts. Grian almost wished that he hadn’t. 

Alright, fine. Jimmy was alive. He was alive, had powers and was being mind controlled by the most powerful and dangerous villain in the entire city.

What was Grian supposed to do about it?

Yes, he had powers. Yes, he was a villain. But he was nowhere on the level of the Doctor. He didn’t know how he would even begin facing a problem like this.

He couldn’t bring it to Gem. She would try to talk him down. She would understand, but she would tell him not to get involved. She would pity him, but she would warn him of dangers he was already well aware of.

Grian couldn’t take this problem on alone, but if he didn’t go to Gem, then who could he?

He hated how easily his mind wandered to a certain person whose entire job just so happened to be fighting villains.

Asking HotGuy for help would not only be a major strike to Grian’s pride, but also wildly impractical. Grian was a villain, too. Why would HotGuy trust him? Why wouldn’t HotGuy arrest him on the spot?

For Jimmy, Grian could swallow his pride. But he couldn’t do a thing if he got arrested.

He reviewed his history with HotGuy. They’d seen each other on and off for the past few months, with Grian being a problematic nuisance and HotGuy doing his best to arrest him without getting either of them killed.

There was one night they hadn’t fought. Grian couldn’t remember what had been wrong that day, but he hadn’t been able to muster up the energy to fly away, even when HotGuy got too close. And yet, HotGuy didn’t arrest him, even when he could have done so easily.

Grian hated heroes. That wasn’t going to change, not even if HotGuy helped him here. Even if Jimmy was alive, whatever he’d gone through the past few months was at least somewhat HotGuy’s fault.

And yet, even as stubborn as Grian was, he could admit when he had no other options.

He groaned. This was a stupid plan that could get him arrested or killed. 

Then again, that had never stopped him before.

===

Finding HotGuy hadn’t been as difficult as Grian thought it would be. That was a pattern Grian had noticed a long time ago. Despite how big the city was, it always seemed as though HotGuy was nearby.

“HotGuy.” Grian put his hands up as the hero arrived on his rooftop, bow drawn. “I just want to talk.”

HotGuy raised an eyebrow, but didn’t shoot. Grian tucked his wings in.

“I need your help.” Grian forced the words out. They burned in his throat.

HotGuy’s brows furrowed as his arrow drifted towards the rooftop. “You? Need my help?”

“It’s shocking, I know.” Grian gritted his teeth. “But I don’t know how to fix this and you’re the only person who might know what’s going on.”

HotGuy still looked hesitant, which was fair. Grian could entirely be setting up some kind of trap for him. Grian was banking on the fact that he’d never directly driven the hero into danger to earn a little bit of trust.

“What’s going on?” HotGuy asked.

“The last time you fought the Doctor, he had backup,” Grian said before he could change his mind. “Right?”

“You were there?” HotGuy asked. “I didn’t see you.”

“I wasn’t trying to get involved. That’s not the important part,” Grian pushed. “The man with wings. What do you know about him?”

“I’m not going to help you with some rivalry-”

“It’s not because the Doctor’s another villain,” Grian said. “I’m not an idiot, I couldn’t go after him.”

“Then what?” HotGuy asked, crossing his arms. “Did you really expect me to just feed you private information because you asked nicely?”

Grian clenched his fists. “I’m just trying to protect someone that I care about.”

HotGuy’s face almost softened. Almost. “That’s not really an explanation, birdie.”

“I think I know who that is, alright?” Grian snapped. Dancing around the issue was never going to get them anywhere. Grian was going to have to be as honest as possible without giving up his identity.

HotGuy’s stance shifted. “You do?”

“He- He’s supposed to be dead.” Too late to back out. Too late to run away. He wasn’t a coward, and Jimmy could need his help. “He was reported dead from a confrontation between you and the Doctor months ago, and he isn’t supposed to have powers.”

“He could have faked his death,” HotGuy pointed out. “And people can always hide their powers.”

Grian’s blood boiled. His wings snapped out, feathers ruffled.  “I’ve seen his papers a hundred times! I know for a fact he didn’t have powers, and there was no reason to fake his death!”

“Just how close were you to him?” HotGuy eyed the wings at Grian’s back. He didn’t bother putting them away.

“I’ve known him for a long time,” Grian said. “Don’t try to figure out my identity or something stupid. I’ll give you his name if you look into it, alright?”

“Just like that?” HotGuy asked. “You’ll hand over the name of someone that close to you?”

“He’s more important,” Grian said. Something shifted in HotGuy’s eyes. Grian didn’t like it, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it, either. “Whatever happened is something that he would never be messed up in if he had a choice. Please, he needs your help.”

“I’ll do whatever I can for him.” For once, Grian was grateful that the hero had stupid things like morals and ethics.

“Jimmy Solidarity,” Grian said. It felt like a betrayal and an admittance. HotGuy took it as either. 

“I’ll look into it,” HotGuy said. “Do you have anything else to go off of?”

Grian’s wings were suddenly heavy on his back. “I have reason to believe that the Doctor may have developed a way for people who never had powers to manifest them. I think that’s what happened to Jimmy.”

“That’s not possible,” HotGuy said easily.

“That’s what I thought, too,” Grian said. “I was wrong. So are you. Sticking to old beliefs when confronted with evidence will only hurt people.”

“You haven’t given me any evidence,” HotGuy said. “I can’t just believe the word of a villain, even if I choose to listen to you about your friend.”

Grian raised his wings. “Just take a look at Jimmy’s file, alright? That’ll give you proof.”

HotGuy looked unsettled, but Grian had nothing else to say to him. He flew off, and HotGuy didn’t try to stop him.

===

“You were right.”

It had been two days since his last conversation with HotGuy. Grian hadn’t gone on patrol either of the nights. He had sat on a rooftop, easy prey for any hero who wanted to pick a fight.

No one did. Grian hadn’t so much as seen a hero until now.

“Of course I was right,” Grian said, a little too serious to be snarky.

“Do you have a plan?” HotGuy asked.

“Not really,” Grian hated to admit. “It’s kind of a stupid one.”

“Well,” HotGuy said. “Those tend to work out the best, I find.”

Grian glanced back at him. The hero looked less flashy than usual. His expression was calm, but serious, prepared for what he was going to get into.

“Are you sure you’re ready to ally with a villain?” Grian stood up, rolling his shoulders.

“If that’s what it takes to save someone else, then yes,” HotGuy said. “I already turned off my suit’s bodycam, if that’s what you were worried about. As much as the public believes otherwise, heroes and villains aren’t as black and white as we appear.”

Grian stared at HotGuy for a minute. “That’s pretty rich, coming from you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” HotGuy asked.

“Something we can unpack later.” Or never, probably. “You need to draw the Doctor out. I need to get to Jimmy.”

“Then what?” HotGuy asked.

“I save him with the power of friendship?” Grian tried to sound more confident than he felt.

“You think that’ll work?” HotGuy asked.

“It’s the best I’ve got,” Grian said. “Unless you have more information, that’s what we’re going to have to do.”

“The power of friendship it is, then,” HotGuy said, tilting his head. “We don’t have anything on the Doctor’s chemical weapons. There’ve been a few cases of civilians here and there being hit, but I couldn’t find anything in their bloodwork.”

“Prototypes. Maybe a different kind of weapon,” Grian said choppily. He didn’t like thinking that HotGuy had gone back to Grian’s lab results again. What if he had found evidence of Gem tampering with something?

“Maybe,” HotGuy echoed distantly. “I’ll do my best to draw the Doctor out, but I can’t promise anything. He never rises to threats or ultimatums. Everything is on his timeline.”

“Fine,” Grian said stiffly. “I’ll work with that. Just let me know when everything’s going down. I’ll be prepared.”

HotGuy held out his hand. Grian took it, cementing an awkward truce of necessity between them. 

===

Waiting was the worst part.

The Doctor wasn’t like other villains. He didn’t go out and cause the heroes minor issues. He only came out when he wanted to cause massive chaos. 

Grian had been ignoring Gem’s calls. He didn’t want her getting involved. His and HotGuy’s truce didn’t necessarily include her, and he didn’t want to risk her freedom for his own problem.

That night, before he left, Grian slipped a piece of paper underneath his pillow, just like he had every night for the past two weeks. Just in case. If something went wrong, Mumbo deserved some kind of explanation for the way Grian had been asking for months.

The night started out like all of the others. Grian found a place to perch, and waited. His actions weren’t going to draw the Doctor out. He always preferred to focus on the top heroes, the ones who had the most impact. The villain had an impressive history of killing heroes, one that would make Grian impressed if he was more committed to being a villain.

He hadn’t been expecting the alarm to go off in his ear. He yelped in surprise, slipping off of the windowsill he’d positioned himself on. He scrambled until his wings snapped out, preservation instincts saving him from the most stupid death possible. 

His heart was beating too loudly in his ears for a minute to think quite straight. It was only when he reconsidered what had scared him so badly that he remembered what, exactly, that alarm was for..

The Doctor was attacking. Which meant that Grian had to get moving.

In an instant, he shot up into the sky, his wings taking him higher than he hardly ever risked. It was easy to spot where the fight was happening. Wherever the Doctor was, explosions were sure to follow. Grian angled his wings and prayed to whatever gods were watching that this stupid, not-a-plan would work.

All things considered, Grian got to the location extremely quickly. It still didn’t feel fast enough. By the time he arrived, there was already a battle in motion. He easily spotted HotGuy, evading and shooting arrows like his life depended on it.

Well. It did. But regardless.

The Doctor was a little further back, preferring ranged attacks. Or for someone to attack in his place.

Grian spotted Jimmy last. His wings were dusty, coated in debris from some explosion. His purple eyes were glowing, and it made Grian feel a little sick because his eyes weren’t supposed to be purple.

He also wasn’t supposed to have wings or be a villain, but Grian was working on one detail at a time.

HotGuy made eye contact with Grian. He nodded once, firmly, ducking into a nearby alleyway. Jimmy made to follow him, but Jimmy didn’t let him.

“Hey!” Grian shouted, stepping into the fight. His wings were pulled back, hidden away. Jimmy didn’t acknowledge him, but the Doctor noticed.

“Well then, who’s this?” the Doctor had some sort of metallic voice changer covering their identity. “A new little hero? You should know better than to get involved in something bigger than you.”

“I’m not a hero,” Grian snapped. “Don’t compare me with the likes of them.”

“Then you have even less of a reason to get involved,” the Doctor said airly. “I’m feeling generous tonight, so you can walk away as long as you make it quick.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Grian raised his wings behind him. The night made his red feathers look dark enough to be blood.

“Oh, I see,” the Doctor hummed, suddenly seeming a lot more interested. “I was wondering where you ended up. I figured it didn’t work on you, but… how intriguing.”

The Doctor could tell who Grian was just because of his wings? Had he given him this power on purpose? If he had that ability, how had he not taken over the world yet? HotGuy was helpless to stop a foe like that.

“Canary,” the Doctor said, interrupting Grian’s train of thought. “Take care of the failed experiment, won’t you?”

Jimmy’s attention snapped to Grian. His wings snapped in the air, throwing him forward faster than Grian had ever managed. They collided roughly, tumbling on the ground. The asphalt ripped at Grian’s costume and wings as they rolled.

Distantly, Grian could hear HotGuy return to the fight with the Doctor, but he had a much different focus now.

Grian landed on top of Jimmy, pinning him down. Jimmy’s face was perfectly blank, emotionless in a way that made Grian feel sick. Jimmy was always full of happiness.

“Jim!” Grian yelled, shaking his shoulders as he tugged them both into a sitting position. “Wake up, it’s me!”

The purple haze over his eyes didn’t move. He punched Grian, breaking his hold. Jimmy kicked Grian in the chest before he had the chance to recover, using his wings to add extra effort to it. Grian rolled back, coughing as his torso slammed against the ground again.

“Jimmy!” Grian tried. “Snap out of it!”

It had been stupid to think that the power of friendship could do a thing against magic and powers. Grian should have listened to Gem. He shouldn’t have acted as though he knew what he was doing to HotGuy.

Jimmy lunged for him again. Grian narrowly avoided him, making a break for the nearest alleyway. As soon as he was under the cover of the shadows, he yanked his mask off. Maybe the power of friendship wasn’t completely doomed, right?”

Grian heard Jimmy approach, stepping to the side just in time to avoid another blow. He turned, praying for some kind of recognition in Jimmy’s eyes, but there was nothing. Jimmy just reached for him again. Grian kicked his hand away, using his wings to boost him up to a nearby fire escape. Jimmy latched onto his ankle as Grian started climbing, but Grian kicked him off.

He wasn’t exactly sure what his plan had been, now that they were on a rooftop, but he was improvising. The power of friendship hadn’t worked, so he had to figure something else out.

“Jimmy,” Grian tried uselessly as he backed away. “It’s me, it’s Grian, don’t you remember? Your best friend?”

Still, nothing shifted. There always had to be a way out of mind control, right? Grian desperately hoped it wasn’t defeating the Doctor. He didn’t know how he’d manage that in a million years. 

Jimmy tried advancing, so Grian jumped ahead to the next rooftop. How far could they go? Maybe there was a range limit on the mind control. If Grian could drag Jimmy far enough away, maybe that could fix something.

Listen, Grian didn’t know what he was doing. He was desperate, at this point.

So he kept running. He could tell that Jimmy was hot on his heels, but Grian had months of practice being a villain. Jimmy… well, Grian didn’t know what Jimmy had been doing, but at very least, he didn’t have full control over himself. That had to give Grian at least a little advantage. 

Grian jumped onto a building that was currently under construction. He weaved between half-built beams and uninstalled windows. He glanced back, immediately regretting his decision to put distance between them and HotGuy and the Doctor.

Because Grian had just led Jimmy straight to a bunch of weapons.

As much as Grian would like to believe his best friend would never hurt him, the axe Jimmy had picked up was not particularly reassuring.

“Jimmy!” Grian shouted, but it was useless. He advanced on Grian, the axe held tightly in his grip.

Grian made for the most direct exit out of the half-built building. Solid ground, even if it was made of rooftops, was going to be safer. As soon as his feet hit the ground, something hit Grian’s back. He had gotten far too acquainted with the floor recently, Grian decided.

He forced out a cough, sitting up enough to see that Jimmy had thrown a window at him, which was now shattered around him. What kind of super strength had Jimmy gotten from the Doctor?

Grian hadn’t even sat up properly by the time Jimmy pounced. Grian’s head cracked sharply against the rooftop. He let out a shout, which only grew louder as he watched Jimmy raise the axe.

“Stop!” Grian grabbed at his back, almost on instinct at this point. He still had the staff he’d stolen from the heroes ages ago there. It was in his hand in a moment, blocking the axe from Jimmy. The staff held steady, which made Grian appreciate the engineering capabilities of heroes for perhaps the first time ever.

Jimmy pulled the axe back, aiming for another strike, but while he was distracted, Grian kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying backwards. The axe clattered against the ground. Grian grabbed it with his free hand and set off into the air.

Usually, when Grian flew away, that was paramount to him winning. HotGuy could fire arrows at him as much as he wanted, but Grian truly ruled the skies. He could fly for ages and no one would ever be able to follow him.

So it wasn’t really a consideration in his mind as Grian climbed that this was the one situation where that did not apply. This was the singular time that his enemy had the means to follow him into the air. When Grian looked back to find Jimmy flying after him, he was so shocked that he almost dropped the axe. Which could have been really bad because that was the exact moment they were flying over the Doctor and HotGuy.

Jimmy was getting too close. Grian was weighed down by the axe and what was most likely a concussion. He angled towards the ground, a stiff dive that he barely stumbled into a landing. Jimmy landed right behind him. Grian didn’t give him a second to breathe. Grian whirled around and hit Jimmy square in the chest with the staff.

Grian had stolen this staff from the hero’s storeroom a long time ago. He had known what it was at the time, but he would have never imagined that it would still work at least a hundred years after it had been retired.

Electricity arched down from the staff to Jimmy’s chest. Grian snatched away the staff out of instinct more than anything else, but it was too late. Jimmy collapsed. Grian dropped the axe and staff, lurching forward to catch his face before it hit the concrete.

“Sorry,” Grian muttered quietly, despite the fact that Jimmy couldn’t hear him, and even if he could, most likely wouldn’t understand him. 

He didn’t know how to save Jimmy. He wasn’t a hero. He was just playing at being a villain because he didn’t know how to grieve, and now one of the causes of that grief was lying right in front of him, impossibly close and impossibly far.

“G… Grian?”

He jumped so hard that he almost dropped Jimmy, but he managed to recover before Jimmy slammed into the ground.

Jimmy was looking up at Grian, looking pained and confused. His eyes were only just barely open, the moon reflecting off his blue eyes.

Blue eyes.

“Jimmy!” Grian yelled. Jimmy winced. “Can you hear me? Can you understand me? Are you okay?”

“... hurts,” Jimmy muttered. He shifted, trying to sit up with shaking muscles. Grian helped him, but kept a hand on his back. The electrical blast must have freed Jimmy from whatever was controlling him. 

“What happened?” Jimmy asked blearily.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Grian asked instead.

“There was an attack by the apartment. I’d just gone out to the store for a minute, but I missed it completely somehow. But then…” Jimmy trailed off, staring into space. “I don’t…”

“That was almost a year ago,” Grian said quietly. Jimmy’s eyes snapped to stare at Grian.

“What? A year? But that was just- it only just-” Jimmy was at a loss for words, brow furrowed. “What happened?”

“I… don’t really know,” Grian admitted. “But my running theory is that you got powers from the Doctor and he’s been mind controlling you ever since.”

“A doctor? What kind of doc- wait, the villain!” Jimmy’s eyes blew wide. “Are you talking about the villain? No way!”

“You’ve got a lot to catch up on,” Grian said. He stood, offering a hand to help Jimmy to his feet.

“I’m- I’m confused,” Jimmy said, successfully standing, though his legs were shaky.

“I’ll explain everything later,” Grian said. “Once HotGuy’s done with fighting the Doctor, he’s going to help you, alright? Don’t say anything about me, but tell them everything else you remember.”

“HotGuy?” Jimmy asked. “The HotGuy? I can’t meet HotGuy in this state! Grian!”

“He saves people in much worse condition than you all the time. I think you can handle it.” Grian patted Jimmy’s back. He put his mask back on when he heard footsteps approaching.

“He’s back to himself now,” Grian said to HotGuy. “I assume you’ll want to take him to the hospital?”

“Yes, thank you, Pesky,” HotGuy said. He smiled at Jimmy. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m here to help, okay?”

Jimmy stared at HotGuy for a few seconds before he passed out. Grian caught him.

“For the record,” Grian said. “That was because of the mind control stuff. Not because of you.”

HotGuy laughed, and for once, it wasn’t the most annoying thing Grian had ever heard.

===

Grian hated leaving Jimmy’s side, but he couldn’t justify sticking around much longer, or going to the Hero Commission with him. Instead, he returned home and waited for a call that had to come eventually.

It took much longer than he would have liked. It was late the next evening by the time he was contacted. He acted shocked and told Mumbo in a blur of confusion and excitement. That, perhaps, was what made it feel real.

Grian wasn’t making it all up. Jimmy was alive. Not okay, but alive.

Jimmy was going to be stuck in the hospital for a lot longer than Grian was. Not only was there the whole mind control mess, but he technically also faked his death and magically acquired powers. Grian made sure to stop by every day, having first hand experience with how dull sitting in a hospital could be. Jimmy had tried asking him about what had happened the night Grian saved him, but Grian had refused to give him a concrete answer. He could explain everything when they weren’t inside the literal Hero Commission.

All those visiting hours meant that it was impossible to avoid Gem. Their conversation had been veiled in code, but Grian got the gist. She wasn’t happy about him ignoring her for so long or taking the risks he had, but she was glad that Grian had his friend back. They’d be okay, at the end of the day.

Everything would turn out just a little bit okay, Grian thought.

===

It was almost a month before Grian went out in his costume again, but for once, he wasn’t planning on committing any crimes. He just wanted to see a certain hero, and it didn’t take that long to find him.

“I was wondering how long it’d be before you were out and about, Pesky.” HotGuy was the one to spot him, that time.

“I just wanted to say… thanks, I guess,” Grian said, landing on the rooftop beside the hero.

“You guess?” HotGuy raised an eyebrow.

Grian groaned. “I appreciate that you didn’t throw me or Jimmy in jail, alright? Thanks for not doing your job.”

“I’ll take it,” HotGuy said. He tilted his head, peering at Grian strangely. “Do you plan to continue being a villain? I’ll give you an out, right now. Walk away and you’ll never be prosecuted for what you’ve done.”

Grian blinked. “You’d pardon me? Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Do you even have that power?” Grian asked.

“‘Course I do. What are they going to tell me, no?” HotGuy asked, all overconfidence.

“Why would I stop being a villain?”

“Trauma, the danger of your identity being exposed, the fact that it’s illegal, everything that happened with Jimmy,” HotGuy listed. “Are none of those good reasons for you?”

The offer was tempting. It would be easier to walk away from everything. Jimmy needed him now. He could get Jimmy, and even Mumbo in trouble if he kept fighting.

Grian shifted his wings. He had become a villain because he was mad about the heroes letting Jimmy and Pearl die. He blamed HotGuy, and he couldn’t pretend like there wasn’t a part of him who still hated HotGuy for everything that happened. Even though Jimmy had turned out to be alive, Pearl was actually gone.

“Come on,” Grian said, trying for a grin that was closer to a grimace. “Who’d bother you on your missions if I quit?”

HotGuy sighed, but there was a genuine smile on his face. “Alright then. I just have one more question for you, if you’d humor me.”

“I suppose I could give you that much.” Grian crossed his arms.

“Why did the Doctor call you a failed experiment?”

Grian was silent for a long time. Telling the truth would expose his identity. Lying could expose him if the heroes found out more about the gas from the Doctor in the future.

What if they wanted to check his blood again? What if Gem wasn’t there to get in the way? That wasn’t a death sentence for him, because he could always pretend that his powers had never manifested, but with Jimmy being his cousin and the rest of the evidence stacked against him, Grian could end up unmasked.

Grian shifted his wings. He had always known, even if he didn’t want to acknowledge it, he was carrying a considerable amount of risk. 

“Jimmy had wings, too,” Grian said. “I think you can draw your conclusions from there.”

HotGuy sighed. “Fine, then, keep your secrets.”

“Are you incapable of critical thinking?” Grian shot back.

“It would be so much easier if you just told me everything!” HotGuy countered, throwing his hands in the air.

“Not happening,” Grian said. He turned away from HotGuy, raising his wings. HotGuy didn’t try to catch him that time, but Grian knew better than to know he was off the hook.

A lot had changed in the past year. Most of it was for the worse. Grian’s entire life had been upended and he had all but gone crazy with avoidance. 

But maybe just a little bit of it all was for the better.