Unlawful Good- A Last Life Superhero AU

~5~

As soon as Grian left the shop after an afternoon of hanging out with Jimmy, Ren and the others, Grian turned down an alleyway, putting his mask on before launching himself into the air and flying towards the makeshift headquarters.

He landed outside with a flourish, and right before he opened the door he heard a shout from BDubs-Speculum.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT! She's a villain! Are you actually stupid?" Grian winced, opening the door to see Speculum glaring at Velox and Luna stood in the corner, watching with an unimpressed expression.

It was then that he noticed a woman stood behind Velox. Elenchos, the only person in the country who had managed to gain the status of 'unclassified'.

She had long ginger hair, bright green eyes, patches of dark, faded green (almost zombie-like, in Grian's opinion) skin and a twisted crown of thorny vines and black roses.

They all turned towards him as he walked through the door. "Sorry I'm late- what's going on?" He asked.

Elenchos opened her mouth, holding up a hand towards Speculum as he tried to interrupt her. "Quiet." She said, her voice echoing strangely as Speculum's eyes flickered briefly to red. He frowned as his gaze returned to normal and Elenchos continued speaking. "I've been wanting to become a vigilante for a while now- get rid of my bad reputation, if you will- so when I saw your friend Luna over there, I asked her, and she brought me here." Without hesitation? "Your little friend Speculum doesn't seem to like the idea though."

"I mean you did burn a building to the ground, Elenchos." Grian agreed awkwardly.

"Oh please, no need for our fake names- call me Cleo." She paused, her gaze flickering briefly. "Not uh- not my real name obviously. Just feels nicer than Elenchos. And the people that lived in that building are the ones who killed my family." Elenchos (Cleo?) said with a shrug.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Well... I suppose it won't do any harm to let her work with us for a while until we know we can trust her." Grian reasoned, glancing at the other vigilantes.

Velox and Luna nodded in agreement and Speculum did nothing, still staring at Elenchos.

"Well if most of us are in agreement I suppose it won't hurt." Luna pointed out, and Speculum nodded slowly, watching Elenchos with a dark expression.

"Fine. But I have plans with a friend, so... have fun with that." He said quietly, turning and walking out of the room.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm meant to be going on patrol now if you want to come with me." Grian suggested to Elenchos, who nodded brightly.

"Sure, why not?" The former villain said with a grin.

——

They were walking by the beach when they heard a shout from a voice Grian intensely disliked.

"Stop right there, Elenchos! And... Avis?" He glanced at Engineer, who had a surprised and confused expression, with one eyebrow raised.

"Calm down, hero. She's good now." The dirty blonde said with a roll of his eyes. "She's on our side. Well. She's on my side. I'm not particularly a fan of heroes, so..."

"I highly doubt that. And I- nope, not gonna say it." Mumbo added in a mutter to himself before raising his voice. "How can you be sure?"

"It's sort of like a trial run sort of thing." Grian explained with a shrug as Mumbo walked closer.

"Gr- Avis, you realise that you're defending a literal arsonist, right?" The black haired man pointed out. "She's literally killed people."

"So have some of the heroes. Your point?" Grian snapped. He almost felt inclined to defend Elenchos- Cleo- now that he knew that the hero wasn't fond of her.

"Heroes have killed villains. Not innocent civilians." Mumbo pointed out. "I can't believe I even have to explain the difference to you, Avis."

"They weren't- you know what, never mind. Where's Warlock? You two are normally a duo." Grian said pointedly, noticing the absence of the curly haired elf.

"Busy." Mumbo said evasively, pulling a face. "Not that it's any of your business. Speaking of Warlock, I wanted to apologise on his behalf." Grian blinked, surprised.

"An apology? From Engineer? My goodness, that's something I thought I'd never see." Grian said with a mock gasp of surprise.

"I'm serious, Avis." Mumbo said crossly before sighing. "Just because we don't work with you anymore doesn't give Warlock the right to mess with the vigilantes and make underhanded comments. I just wanted to apologise."

Grian frowned. "Well... thanks. But I have a patrol to do. I'll... see you around, I guess, Engineer."

Elenchos shot him a questioning look and he shook his head. That was... odd. It was nice of Mumbo, don't get me wrong, but still... odd. He shook his head again, pushing down the hopes that had briefly appeared. He's just being polite. He doesn't want to be friends again. Don't be stupid, Grian.

"Have fun with your patrol, then." Engineer said with a nod, walking past them with a slightly suspicious glance at Elenchos.

"Have fun with... whatever you're doing." Grian said with an awkward yet wary smile. He stared after Mumbo until the hero disappeared before glancing back at Elenchos.

"You two know each other?" She asked curiously.

"You could... say that, yeah." Grian said with a shrug. "Engineer and Warlock were vigilantes before they became heroes, so I did know them. Not very well though." He added, pulling a face. As nice as Cleo seems, I'm not just gonna immediately let her know how sensitive I am when it concerns them. Which I'm not! That's just what Speculum says to annoy me. I think.

"I see, I see." Elenchos said with an understanding (yet still slightly skeptical) expression. "Well, let's get on with the patrol then. What do you do on patrol anyway?" She added.

"Just kind of walk around town and make sure nobody's causing any trouble. Now come on, I want to check by the bank. There's normally a few villains there. That's why we always patrol in pairs- so nobody has to fight alone."

Chapter summary: Elenchos/Cleo joins the vigilantes, Engineer/Mumbo is slightly less of a terrible person