I glanced at Blood God, who looked stricken. "Understood." The villain muttered quietly, glancing around as he pulled a phone out of his pocket.

"Wait, what are you doing?!" Gemstone demanded as Blood God hit a button.

"Why would I tell you, nerd?" The villain scoffed, as a light lit up on the phone, which, looking at it, didn't seem to be a normal phone.

"Whatever. You- Paradox." Paradox looked up as Gemstone addressed him, pointing to himself as if to say, 'Me?' "Call the police to get this idiot locked up behind bars where he belongs."

The vigilante nodded with a frown, pulling his phone out and calling the police.

There were a few minutes of awkward silence from everyone else as Paradox explained the situation to the police, broken only by a few mutinous mutters from Blood God.

I turned my head as I heard footsteps, assuming it was the police, only to stare in shock as I spotted Black Rose and Spectre running over.

Gemstone straightened with a frown, and Slimecicle reached over and grabbed a knife from his pocket. I exchanged a glance with Paradox, who put his goggles on, and then we both looked at Blood God, who had a smug smile on his face.

"Took you guys long enough." He muttered as the villains reached them.

"Well, we were on the other side of town!" Spectre protested, and Black Rose nodded in agreement, her gaze lingering on me.

"Whatever."

There was barely a moment's hesitation before Spectre rushed over over to Slimecicle, grabbing onto the vigilante's arm before he had time to react. There was a flash of light as Spectre disappeared, and I suddenly saw why Eret had found it so scary when I had been controlled.

Slimecicle froze in place, and I could see a dull black glow replace his eyes under his glasses. When he spoke, his voice had a cold metallic rasp that sounded incredibly different from his normal light hearted voice. "That was easier than expected. Guess you weren't exaggerating when you said the else guys weren't properly trained, Tec- Blood God."

Slimecicle twisted his hands in a few flicks and motions, and the slime that had trapped Blood God appeared to almost evaporate, seeping into the ground and disappearing. It looked as if the slimy substance crawled out of the ground, wrapping itself around Slimecicle's ankles and wrists, and it seemed as if his skin had almost absorbed the slime. Then it was as if the slime had never been there.

"Yuck. Don't know how he deals with that all the time." Slimecicle muttered, the metallic rasp that represented Spectre's control nearly drowning out his normal voice.

"Okay, lets go." Black Rose snapped, her gaze shooting daggers in my direction.

"Right, of course." Slimecicle muttered, following her and Blood God as they started walking away.

"Wait! Aren't you gonna let him go?" Paradox demanded.

"I don't know. We need some sort of leverage over Deactivator, do we not?"

Spectre shot him a nasty smile using Slimecicle's body.

"There's no way I'm gonna let you-"

Spectre let out a somewhat patronising "Ah, ah, ah!" He smiled again. "I wouldn't if I were you. Unless, of course, you want your friend to get hurt." He twisted the knife Slimecicle had grabbed previously between his fingers, holding it dangerously close to the veins on the vigilante's wrist. "You see, if I do this, it doesn't hurt me. I'm just controlling the body- I don't feel the pain. But poor Slimecicle on the other hand..." He sucked in a breath through his teeth. "It won't be pretty, I'll tell you that."

Paradox dropped his knife, his gaze darkening with worry and anger. "Alright. You win. Just... don't hurt him."

"I make no promises, time travel boy!" Slimecicle called over his shoulder, the strange tone of voice making his sing song stone sound even stranger as he disappeared after Blood God and Black Rose.

——

The results of that had been somewhat chaotic. Paradox had hastily called up the other available vigilantes (Obsidian, Deactivator and Swarm), and once they had arrived, he explained the situation.

It was the first time I'd seen Swarm. He had messy blonde hair with incredibly visible brown roots (the same as my brother's- clearly Tubbo's hairstyle wasn't as unique as I had thought), a pair of cyclops glasses similar to Gemstone's (although they were striped black and yellow instead of blue), some wrists guards similar to Deactivator's (again, striped black and yellow instead of white like the other vigilante's) and a jar of bees. I was not joking.

He had tiny holes poked in the jar so they could breathe, and some flowers that were somehow growing at the bottom of the unusually large jar. When he noticed me staring, he reassured me that it was perfectly safe and these were his backup bees in case no other insects showed up when he summoned them. Swarm also explained that he had once run into Azalea on patrol, and she had provided him with a special type of moss to grow flowers for his bees.

"These are my favourite bees." He had announced proudly. "They deserve the best. Bees get such an unfair reputation but they're actually really cool!"

Our conversation was cut short when the police arrived, and the vigilantes had to run (they needed to look for Slimecicle anyway), apart from Paradox, who stayed to explain what had happened with Slimecicle after being reassured by me and Gemstone that we wouldn't let him get arrested.

I then walked back to Headquarters with Gemstone after a quick goodbye to the vigilante to explain the situation to Swift and Puffy and see what they could do.

I also bumped into Bad, who of course knew who I was even when I was in my hero gear- he lived in Headquarters now.

"Oh, hey Bad!" I said brightly. I was waiting in the lobby of Headquarters while Gemstone had run off to go pinpoint the exact location of the... was 'fight' the right word? Confrontation? Disagreement, maybe?

"Hey Y/N!" He had said with a small smile. He seemed a lot more confident than when I had first met him. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"I'm considering maybe applying to be a hero."

I blinked in surprise. "Oh! Well, that's great! We could always use more heroes. What's your power anyway?"

"This." My vision flickered slightly as Bad was replaced with a much taller... creature? His face was midnight black, with pure white eyes and what looked like fangs. His hands were the same colour, and his fingers had become a more claw-like shape. His devil tail had turned into a lashing, scaly dragonesque tail, and his horns were much bigger. He even had onyx black wings (that had ripped a hole in the back of his shirt) to match. It was as if a piece of the void had replaced the friendly man I had been talking to.

"Woah! That's... awesome. Do you just look like that or can you do anything?" I queried.

"Boosted strength and speed as well. And flight, obviously." His voice sounded the exact same, and I almost laughed at how much Bad's kind, warm voice didn't suit this demonic form. It was cool, though. Don't get me wrong.

My vision flickered again as he switched back. "So? What do you think?"

"I think you'll definitely be a great hero with some training." I murmured, and I meant every word. I glanced around as I heard Swift yell for me and Gemstone. "Oops. Gotta go. See you later, Bad!"

🤔