Unlawful Good- A Last Life Superhero AU

~15~

He spun around, breathing a sigh of relief as he spotted Engineer. "You scared me then!" Grian whined jokingly, grinning.

Engineer laughed. "Sorry, mate. Didn't mean to." He squinted at Warlock, who was still messing with the crossbow. "What's up with him?"

"He's ecstatic that he found a crossbow." Grian explained with a fond smile. "Not sure why."

"They're cool!" Their friend protested from behind them, trying and failing to put an arrow in the crossbow and instead dropping it on his foot with a yelp of pain. "Ow! This thing hurts!" He abandoned the crossbow, grabbing his staff again. "Much better." He moved on to the next weapon, a sword with a golden handle that had red jewels embedded into it. "Oo, shiny!"

Grian laughed and exchanged a look with Engineer, who was watching Warlock with an odd expression, closing his eyes briefly.

"Do you have any idea where Luna and Velox are?" Engineer asked quietly, looking away.

"No, unfortunately." Grian said, his amusement fading and his smile vanishing completely. "We've searched more than ten rooms- nothing."

Engineer let out an annoyed mutter, opening his eyes again. "Of course."

"Of course what?" Grian asked curiously, wondering for a moment why his head was still turned away.

"Of course you haven't found anything. Fantastic. There I was, thinking this was gonna be a quick mission, in and out, but of course you found nothing." The black haired man said quietly, his tone of voice oddly familiar. Why does he sound so... weird?

"What's that supposed to mean?" Grian asked sharply, an odd but familiar feeling making him feel slightly sick. It's happening again, was repeating over and over in his head for some reason.

"Nothing. Just that you were never the best at gathering information." Engineer paused with a shrug. "Or doing... anything, really."

Warlock, who had been distracted by a rather ornately decorated trident, looked over at this, his (rather childlike, Grian thought) excited expression vanishing as he frowned at his friend. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Engineer glanced at Warlock with one eyebrow raised, and it was at this moment that Grian noticed that one of his eyes were green and the other was red.

Oh no.

Engineer's gaze flicked to Grian with a frown, and his gaze briefly flickered back to normal before returning to red and green. Elenchos, I swear to God...

Without another word, the black haired man turned and left. Warlock, who had clearly not noticed his teammate's oddly coloured eyes, nor what the strange colouring meant, shot an apologetic glance at Grian before rushing out of the door after him. "Engineer, what the hell was that?" He heard the brunette yell.

He stared after them, feeling a mix of anger and confusion. Cleo, if you can hear me, leave them out of this. Grian thought fiercely, just in case. Do whatever the hell you want to me, but leave my friends out of it.

The dirty blonde was so focused on his silent question- his plea, if you will- that he didn't notice Piscis enter the room behind him.

——

Mumbo frowned as he faintly felt Scar tugging on his sleeve, willing himself to look at his friend, but he was unable to. What the hell?

"Engineer! Engineer! Engineeeeeeer! Stop ignoring meeee!" Why am I ignoring him? I don't want to. But as hard as he tried to turn to his friend, he couldn't- for some reason or another, he just continued walking.

The black haired man could faintly hear crashes and shouting in the distance- shouting that sounded distinctly like Speculum and Thunderstruck- that implied that there was a fight going on. Why can't I go and help them?! His gaze flicked to Scar, who had stood in front of him in an attempt to stop him in his tracks.

"Engineer! I don't know what the hell is going on, but that was really uncalled for." The brunette's eyes were glowing with a mix of determination and uncertainty. "We've been trying so hard to become friends with Gr- Avis again, and you just turn around and do that. Why?" I don't know! I didn't want to say any of that! Mumbo thought with an internal sigh. Scar squinted at him with a frown. "What the hell is up with your eyes?" Again, I don't know!

"Engineer!" Scar frowned thoughtfully, glancing at Mumbo's eyes again. "Ohhhhh- it's Elenchos." He said, his tone of voice incredibly disappointed. Oh, that's what it is- yeah. That makes more sense now. "And... maybe Sync?" Scar stared at him for a moment, his gaze a mix of confused and curious. "Yeah, that looks like Elenchos and Sync have like- swapped your hearing and kind of mind controlled you? Buddy? Helllooooo?" Scar waved a hand in front of his face with a roll of his eyes and an awkward laugh.

Mumbo blinked, shaking his head with a frown. "What the hell was that?" He asked, looking around before glancing back at his teammate.

Scar visibly relaxed, smiling slightly awkwardly as his grip on his staff loosened. "Oh hey, your eyes are back to normal! Yeah, um, I think Elenchos kindaaa mind controlled you, just a little bit." Scar made a series of odd hand gestures to go with this statement for some reason.

Mumbo opened his mouth to speak and then broke off as he heard a high pitched scream of pain from down the corridor that sounded exactly like...

Grian. Or Avis, if we're being technical. But that isn't what's important right now, Mumbo!

He exchanged a panicked look with Scar, turning and running towards the sound as Scar evidently tried to figure out what had just happened.

Mumbo turned a corner and ran into the room they'd been in before just in time to see Grian collapse onto his knees, desperately trying to, with his hands, stem the flow of blood that was coming from a stab wound in his stomach that was also slowly staining his bright red jumper a dark crimson.

This fic has #characterdeath for a reason

But does Grian die

Or is it another character?

You'll have to wait and find out >:3