Unlawful Good- A Last Life Superhero AU

~2~

He burst into the somewhat derelict and abandoned building (the one situated on the edge of the city) that the vigilantes used as a 'headquarters' of sorts. "Did you guys see that fight?" Grian asked excitedly.

Speculum rolled his eyes. "Of course I did, genius. You literally saw me there."

"Well- well, how do you know I wasn't talking to Luna or Velox, huh?" Grian retorted awkwardly, pulling a face at the other vigilante.

Luna glanced up from the chair she was sat in where she had been reading a book- Astral Projection Powers and How to Manage Them- and stared at Grian, one eyebrow raised. "What fight? I didn't hear anything about a fight."

Velox nodded with a frown. "Yeah, I didn't either, and I've been monitoring all of the news stations since Avis spotted Sync and Atrotos near the arcade."

"Atrotos and Aoratos blew up a shop for, like, no reason, and then Viridian and Thunderstruck showed up, and it was awesome!" Grian declared. "You know, I'm not really a fan of heroes, for obvious reasons, but Viridian and Thunderstruck are really cool. Like- Viridian can create anything out of energy, and Thunderstruck can make lighting. WITH HIS HANDS. How cool is that?!"

"Avis. Please. Calm yourself." Speculum snarked. "You're starting to sound like one of the fan-girls most of the heroes have on Twitter."

"Oh shut up, you're no better-" Grian was hastily interrupted by Velox.

"Not the time, guys. It appears that Sync and Piscis have been spotted downtown- you know, near that tech shop that's been really popular. The one that's owned by that guy from the next town over? The Southlands or something?"

"Oh, I know that place!" Grian said brightly. "I think the owner's called Impulse. Or something. Not sure." He had a vague memory of Mumbo going that shop all the time to get parts for his weird machines. The dirty blonde shook his head, pushing the memory away and glancing back at Speculum as he started speaking.

"Yeah, well, if Sync and Piscis are near there, I wouldn't recommend getting too attached to the place." Speculum commented wryly. "I'll meet you there." He took a few steps backwards, walking through a mirror as if it was a gap in the wall and disappearing out of sight.

"Same. It'll be quicker if I just fly there." Grian reasoned, putting on the red, yellow and blue (the same colours as his wings!) face mask that covered his mouth and nose and then grabbing his bow and some arrows before heading out of the door, spreading his wings.

——

He landed in the alleyway next to the tech shop with a flourish. Grian heard slow clapping from nearby and looked over to see Speculum leaning against a wall and messing with his crossbow as the other vigilante tried to put a firework into place.

"Took you long enough. Where are the others?" His friend asked, tilting his head.

"The hell do I know? I have wings, genius. I can fly." Grian pointed out wryly. "Of course I'm gonna be faster than them."

"I knew that! I was just asking!" Speculum yelped, glancing out of the alleyway. "So... do we confront them, or not?"

"What are they doing?" Grian asked, walking over to Speculum and peeking out of the alleyway.

His gaze landed on the two villains, who were stood to the side having a very casual conversation.

One he recognised very quickly- Sync, a villain with a mop of messy pale blonde hair, a green outfit, a mask covering his mouth and nose, feathers covering his ears and very small white feathered wings sprouting out of his back- wings that weren't big enough to gift him the ability of flight, but big enough to slow a fall from a high place.

The other he had seen about twice, and yet the villain was one of the most well known names in the city. Piscis, the aquatic villain gifted with the power of water manipulation and underwater breathing. So, he's basically just a fish. But a very scary fish who's killed a few people. Grian paused thoughtfully. Not as many as the Red King though. He shuddered slightly before glancing over Piscis.

Piscis had rather short dark blonde hair, a green masquerade style mask similar to Luna's, chartreuse 'fins' where his ears should have been, brown eyes and a mix of small brown and forest green scales scattered across his face like freckles. Looking closely, Grian was pretty sure that the villain had webs between his fingers, but he couldn't get tell for sure.

"Yeah, no, we shouldn't tackle them by ourselves." Grian said in response to Speculum's question. "Definitely wait for Velox and Luna."

Speculum nodded, edging slightly closer. Grian followed in the hopes of overhearing the villains' conversation.

"....is boring!" He only heard the last part of Sync's sentence. "Give me someone to eavesdrop on, come on."

"I don't know... one of those lazy vigilantes?" Piscis suggested wryly, looking annoyed at the fact that the other villain was even addressing him.

"Oo, good idea. Okay..." He carefully crept forwards to hear Sync mutter a name under his breath as the villain's eyes flickered bright green. "Avis." Oh no.

Speculum opened his mouth to speak but Grian quickly covered his mouth with one hand, noticing a slight ringing start in his ears.

Sync pulled a face. "I can't hear anything." The blonde complained, his eyes flickering back to their normal colour.

Piscis scoffed. "Okay, idiots, you can come out now, we know you're there."

Grian stared. "How did you..."

"We aren't blind." Piscis snapped, turning around to stare directly at Grian.

Speculum exchanged a glance with Grian. "This isn't good, is it?"

"What do you think, mirror boy?" Grian retorted under his breath, carefully nocking his bow. Speculum glared and aimed his crossbow at the villains. "We don't want to fight." He added to Sync and Piscis. "We just want to know what you're doing."

"'We don't want to fight', he says HOLDING A BOW AND ARROW." Sync yelped, his own bow appearing out of nowhere.

Grian exchanged an uneasy glance with Speculum, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he looked down the street to see Velox and Pearl running towards them.

A heads up that some character designs will be based on headcannons/other smps

E.g my design for Sync/Martyn is based on my design for Listener!Martyn, and my design for Piscis/Jimmy is based on his character from Empires S1