Unlawful Good- A Last Life Superhero AU

~6~

Grian glanced around the room quietly, humming to himself with an amused smile as he watched Jimmy and Scott squabble over something or other.

"I am not shorter than you!" Jimmy protested, pulling his tongue at the cyan haired man.

"Have you looked at yourself next to me, Jimmy? You are definitely shorter than me." Scott said with a grin.

"I am not- Grian! Tell Scott I'm not shorter than him!" Jimmy whined, glancing at the dirty blonde.

"Oh, I am not getting involved in this." Grian said with a laugh. "Have fun with that, you two."

The three of them were hanging out at Scott's place, which was much bigger than Grian had expected, and the debate had started (he was pretty sure) when the two had walked past a mirror hung on a wall and Scott had called Jimmy short.

The other reason he had not wanted to get involved (even though Jimmy was definitely shorter than Scott, although, to be fair to the dark blonde, he was only shorter by an inch or two) was that no matter what side he took, the fact that Grian himself was much shorter than them both would definitely get brought up by the other.

He had only zoned out for a few moments (maybe a few minutes, he wasn't quite sure) when he felt someone tapping his shoulder.

"Grian! We asked you who your favourite hero was!" The dark blonde yelped, stepping back as Grian jumped slightly.

"Jesus- you scared me then, Tim. Um..." he paused thoughtfully as the others watched him, Scott watching slightly more intently for some reason. "Probably Thunderstruck. He can make lightning with his hands, can't he?"

"That is true." Scott admitted with a shrug, looking slightly defeated for a reason that was unapparent.

Jimmy was the next to speak up. "I think Axolotl's pretty cool. Okay... not 'favourite villain', but 'who do you think would make the best hero'. Theoretically."

"Maybe Aoratos?" Grian suggested. "Invisibility is pretty useful no matter what side you're on."

"Yeah, but Atrotos can't be hurt physically- not with fire, with knives, with... anything. The guy's basically a tank." Scott pointed out. "Makes me feel bad for the heroes who have to fight him." The cyan haired man added somewhat ruefully. "Especially the ones who specialise in attacks that rely on physical damage, like, oh, I don't know... Aeor?"

"True, but wouldn't Thunderstruck do some damage?" Grian suggested after a pause. "Because it's only his skin that's invulnerable, not, say, his eyes, or his mouth, so theoretically the electricity would travel into his body through like- his ears, or eyes or something and still shock him, right?"

"That is correct. From what I've seen on TV, anyway." Scott amended hastily with an awkward laugh.

"I think Piscis is pretty cool." Jimmy said with a shrug, glancing at the other two as if waiting for their reactions.

"Isn't he basically just a fish?" Grian said with a laugh. "I mean, don't get me wrong, he's a very scary fish," Grian ammended, "but still just a fish."

"I mean- yeah, but, like-" Jimmy's protests were cut off by Scott.

"And he's a murderer, so..." Scott shrugged.

"So are some of the heroes." The dark blonde pointed out.

"Yeah, but they've only killed villains, most of whom are murderers anyway." Scott said pointedly with an odd look at Jimmy, who opened his mouth to respond and then closed it again with a strangely sullen expression.

"Hm... favourite vigilante?" Grian asked as casually as he could, looking between his friends.

"Probably Avis or Speculum. They're the only ones who can use their powers in a fight." Scott reasoned. "Luna's power leaves her body vulnerable, right?" Grian nodded. "And while Velox's power is useful in the aftermath of a fight, he can't use it to attack, whereas Avis and Speculum can use their powers as a tactical advantage."

"That is correct. Tim?" Grian glanced at Jimmy, who was muttering crossly under his breath.

"Hm? None of them. They're pretty annoying, just showing up and getting in the way of the vi- heroes' work." Jimmy said with a shrug.

Ouch. That is a commonly held view, to be fair. Can't get mad at him. And I did ask him his opinion. Grian reasoned with an internal shrug. He blinked at as his phone started ringing. "One sec." The other two muttered understanding responses as he stood outside, answering the call. "What is it, Pearl?"

"BDubs is shouting at Cleo again." He heard her say with a sigh. "He swears on his life that he saw her meeting with a villain, but he won't specify who, which makes me think he might just be lying because he doesn't trust her."

"Im busy, so you'll kind of have to sort it out by yourself. Sorry." Grian said with an apologetic shrug even though he knew the brunette with blonde highlights couldn't actually see him.

"Are you sure? Things are getting pretty-" she broke off for a moment and he heard her moving. "-heated." Pearl added awkwardly. "Hey- he just threw my book at her! I was reading that, idiot!" She added loudly to someone other than Grian with a shout. "Sorry about that, Grian." The shouting in the background paused briefly.

"What on earth is going on there?" Grian asked as Pearl yelped and (he presumed) dodged something else.

"Now she's throwing stuff-! SHE THREW MY HEADPHONES! WHY ARE THEY ONLY THROWING MY STUFF?!" Pearl said with an offended yelp. "HEY, WHY ARE YOU ONLY THROWING MY STUFF?" She added, and Grian briefly heard a muttered apology from BDubs.

"Well, as fun as that sounds, I'm hanging out with friends." Grian said awkwardly, and there was a small silence as he heard BigB in the background quietly lecturing BDubs and Cleo.

"I- okay, it looks like BigB has it under control. If you could talk to BDubs about it though, that'd be great." Pearl said with a sigh.

"I'll try, but no promises. See you, Pearl." He ended the call and went back into the room, stuffing his phone in his pockets.

BDubs doesn't trust Cleo, hmm. Do you think he's right to not trust Cleo or is he just suspicious for no reason?

Also probs won't update this for at least a week cause, if you didn't see my announcement, I'm going on ✨h o l i d a y✨ and I don't know what the WIFI will be like. Hope this chapter will be enough for now :)