Grian woke up, cradled in Mumbo's arms. His friend was asleep still, but G was a bit freaked out. Why was he here? He struggled to get out of the man's arms, but the redstoner stayed asleep and gripped him tighter.

"Mumbo!" Grian whisper-yelled as his friend hugged him. "You're suffocating me!"

The taller man didn't wake up. He hadn't slept for days, and seemed to be in a deep sleep. Grian rolled his eyes and shrunk himself down. He narrowly avoided getting squished by Mumbo's arms, but he zipped on out. He flew above his snoozing buddy and saw Jrumbot asleep next to him.

Grian swooped down in front of the baby and landed on his chest. He poked the boy's face, even though it was metal.

"Wake up, Jrum." He told the robot.

Jrum's eyes snapped open. "I'm not asweep!" He giggled and sat up, catching his feathered father in his hands. "I was pwetending!"

Grian titled his head. "Why?"

"Cuz I didn't wanna distuwb you and Mommy!" Jrum smiled. "You two awe sooooooo cute!!"

The bird's face became red. "Your mother? You mean-....oh, Mumbo." Grian looked over at his friend, who lazily flipped over and hugged Jrum (and by extention, Grian) in his arms like a teddy bear.

Jrum found delight in this. He held his cupped hands to his chest and snuggled up against his father, holding his other dad close.

Grian started to feel a little claustrophobic. It was like his dream void, but much more real.

He started to panic, and started sparking. Little jolts shot off of him and ran through Jrum's metal body, exiting the baby and zapping Mumbo.

Needless to say, the mustachioed man woke up with a jolt. Literally.

"Wha- who's there?!" Mumbo sat up, still clutching Jrum and Grian.

"Sorry! That was me!" The bird managed to chirp.

The redstoner looked around, confused, but then realized that he was holding someone. He loosened his grip and looked down at the beaming face of his little baby boy.

In his hands was a shaking feathered mess.

"Oh, good morning!" Mumbo smiled sleepily, his eyes half-open and his hair messed up. Somehow, his mustache remained pristine.

Grian hopped out of Jrum's hands and ran down the comforter to the edge of the bed. He glided onto the floor and grew to his normal size.

"You need to keep sleeping." He stepped on over to Mumbo and gently pushed him down against the mattress with his hand.

Mumbo's smile remained. "Whatever you say, G." He yanked on Grian's arm, pulling his friend down onto himself. The tall Englishman hugged both the bird and the bot that were against his chest.

"Ack, not with me!" Grian pulled himself off of Mumbo and laughed. As he got up, he grabbed the gray and yellow starred sweater that was next to his friend, tying it around his waist. "I need to go out as Poultry Man. Establish myself as a hero, y'know? I'll be back later."

Mumbo chuckled. "'Aight. See ya later." He kissed Jrum's head, still hugging the baby.

Grian rushed out of the shop. He popped back in a second after he left. "Love you!" He waved to the two of them. Mumbo smiled.

"I love you more!"

"Huh? Oh that was meant for Jrum, but haha, I love you too bro." G winked with a smile.

Jrum giggled. "Well, I wuv you two da most!"

"I can confirm that that is correct." Grian laughed and rushed out again.

Mumbo tickled Jrum, which worked since the boy had touch sensors. "I love you even more than the most!" He kissed the baby's face before hugging him close and falling back asleep.

Grian felt giddy and happy after the night before. He scarcely remembered his nightmare at the moment, and that felt good. He felt comforted with Sunshine's sweater around his waist.

He missed her.

He wished she could come back.

But she was dead, he knew that.

He always wondered....how did she die? All he remembered was that they were walking together, and then...they weren't. She was gone and he was left with the knowledge in his mind that she was dead.

Did she ever have a funeral?

He couldn't remember.

He pushed those thoughts aside and went behind TVGrumbot so he could equip his armour unseen.

He took P's sweater and put it in his inventory.

The bird willed himself to his hero size and quickly put on his supersuit before zipping up into the sky. He flew high and looked over the shopping district. It wasn't long before someone spotted him.

It was Iskall.

"Hallo Poultry Man!" The Swede called up to the bird and waved him down. He was standing with a few of the other hermits, namely False, Stress, and Scar.

Grian swooped down and landed in front of the gang. All of them looked up at him in awe and quite reasonable confusion.

"Hello!" Grian did his best to not sound like himself. Everyone could see his wings, but since he was anonymous, he didn't feel that same crushing anxiety that plagued him so often nowadays.

"Ah, yes, hello Poultry Man!" Scar smiled and greeted his friend. He did a good job of acting like this wasn't Grian.

"This is the hero guy I was telling you about! He saved my life!" Iskall beamed.

Stress studied his outfit. "I quite like ya suit! And ya wings! Very pretty!"

Grian smiled underneath his mask. "Aw thanks!" For some reason, the compliment wasn't hurting like it would.

Strange.

"So, who are you? Are you a hermit? A whitelisted member? A trespasser?" False examined the hero. Despite being much taller than her in this form, Grian felt slightly intimidated. "Does Xisuma know you're here?"

Grian took a slight step back. "Yes, Void knows I'm here." He made the decision to try and act and speak differently than he normally would. Calling X "Void" was one of his ways. "We're friends. And please forgive me if I'm hesitant to give away information about myself. A hero's secret identity is important to them. Well, to me, at least."

False nodded. "I get that."

Stress started to say something, but her eyes went wide. She pointed behind Grian at Bdubs, who was carrying a sword and appeared to be in a daze. He was on a higher cliff, and was nearing the edge of it.

"I'll be right back!" The bird said before zipping off towards the cliff, right as Bdubs stepped off. Grian caught him, but the sword fell and stabbed itself into the ground below.

Bdubs was...asleep.

Why was he up there?

Poultry Man returned back to the gang, carrying the sleeping hermit.

"You saved him!" Scar looked very happy and rushed to his friends, holding his arms open for Bdubs.

"Any idea why he was up there? And why he's asleep?" Grian asked, handing the Boomer over to the candidate.

"He sometimes gets into the habit of sleepwalking when his narcolepsy gets bad." Scar chuckled. "He'll be fine now, thanks to you!"

The others came towards the hero.

"That was amazing!" Stress smiled wide.

"You've got good reflexes." False gave him a thumbs-up.

Iskall was ecstatic. "Oh man, that was so cool!" He looked up at the hero with bright eyes...well, one eye and one glowing robot eye.

Grian stood confident. "Well, thank you! I'm here to help!"

The praise felt great. It made him feel loved and strong.

He felt amazing.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to get a better feel for the layout of the land." The bird flew a few feet in the air.

The group gave more praise with their goodbyes.

"Thank you!" Scar waved to the hero.

Bdubs, who was being carried in Scar's arms, started to wake up as Grian left. "Huh? Was that...was that Gr-" He stopped talking when Scar gave him a look to "be quiet".

He backtracked. "I mean, was that a superhero?" He was kind of bad at lying, but no one really thought anything of it.

Grian flew high in the sky and soared over the server. He couldn't help from grinning and laughing out loud in joy.

He felt so good. He was a hero, and people believed in him. They loved him. They thought he was...cool.

G knew that was a dumb thing to care about, but there were always people who thought he was strange. It just felt nice to be looked up to for once, both literally and figuratively.

Grian didn't want this feeling to end.

He spotted Xisuma leaving his base and flew down in front of him while he was locking his front door. When X turned around, he jumped.

"Oh! You startled me!" The admin examined the hero, realizing that it was actually just his friend. "Grian? Is that you?"

The bird nodded and removed his mask. "I told ya I was a superhero now!" He smiled.

Xisuma couldn't help but feel happy at the joy that Grian felt. "That's great! You look great!"

"I've even saved people already! And the others don't know who I am, and they admire me!" He beamed.

X knew how much this meant to his friend. "Oh, Grian, I'm so proud of you!" He hugged the tall man, who hugged back much tighter. "This is going to be great for you!"

"Yeah! I guess it will be!"

After a moment of hugging, Grian let go of Xisuma. "I just stopped by to say hi, but now I've got to go!" He smiled.

Xisuma nodded. "Best of luck out there, Poultry Man." He winked. Grian chuckled and put his mask back on before flying up into the air.

The rest of his day was eventful. He introduced himself to more hermits. None of them seemed to recognize him as their 5'6, high-voiced, gremlin buddy.

That meant Bdubs' disguise (and Grian's hero form) was working.

It was later that evening when Grian finally made his way back to the base.

He staggered down the lift and out its doors when they opened into the headquarters. Mumbo was down there with the kids.

Grian was tired, but drunk on excitement.

"I'm a hero!" He laughed and stumbled towards his family. Mumbo somehow caught him as he fell.

"That's great! Are...are you alright?" Mumbo looked a tad concerned.

"Haha oh, I'm great! I'm greater than I've ever been! All thanks to you bro!" He sleepily took Mumbo's face in his hands and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Mumbo smiled. "I think you're the one who needs sleep now."

"You're...probably...right..." As Grian spoke this, he shrunk back down to his normal size. Staying in the big form tired him out quickly. "I'll just go to bed." He unequipped his armour and stood up out of Mumbo's arms, dragging himself to the bed that was down in the base.

"Should...should we leave?" Mumbo asked the half-asleep bird.

"Doesn'tmattertome" Grian's words slurred together in his tired daze. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was Jrumbot giving him a kiss on the forehead.

Grian woke up the next day.

He was sore all over, but a good sore. The kind of sore you get after working out. He stood up out of bed and groaned. His arms had a few more feathers than before.

He was slipping away, wasn't he?

Mumbo was sitting at the table in the headquarters by himself, drinking a cup of coffee. For once, he seemed well-rested, although his hair was a bit messy.

Grian made his way over to his friend.

"Morning." The bird yawned and stretched out his wings. He chirped a few times as he wrapped his arms around his friend from behind and rested his head on his shoulder.

"Good morning, Grian." Mumbo smiled and reached up to G's arms, petting the feathers that came out of it. The bird cooed with content and let go.

"What's on the agenda for today, my fine feathered friend?" Mumbo asked before taking a sip of his still-hot coffee.

"I think I'm gonna go out as Poultry Man again. It's really nice to be loved and admired like that."

Mumbo frowned. "But, G, we love and admire you here too."

Grian rubbed his sore arm. "Yeah, but it feels different from them. They don't know who Poultry Man is, and I think that's part of why it feels...good. They don't know he's me. They don't know that I'm...a bird."

Mumbo sighed. "Grian, you haven't gone out as yourself in so long." He paused. "I didn't want to tell you last night, since you were tired and it probably would have ruined your mood, but..."

"What. What is it?" Grian shrunk down and hopped up onto Mumbo's arm.

"Scar told me how people are worried about you. Iskall hasn't seen you in a couple of weeks, and he came by the shop asking where you were. I panicked, not knowing what to tell him, so I said that I didn't know where you were at the moment, but that I had seen you the day before."

Grian sat silently on the redstoner's arm. "Ren's seen me."

"Yeah, but even then you were acting off."

The bird looked down. "Well, what am I supposed to do?" He wiped his eyes that were starting to tear up.

"Maybe someday, come clean?"

Grian tweeted in fear. "I don't want them to know!"

Mumbo looked down at his tiny friend with a look of pure sadness. "Grian...how do you think this will end? Your problem won't go away. One day, you'll be a bird, and then everyone will know. Even if you did manage to hide once you transformed, everybody will think you went missing. I can't lie and tell them you ran away, or died, or disappeared. How would I explain the giant bird that suddenly appeared one day. Besides, Xisuma, Scar, Bdubs, and I already know. You know that we love and appreciate you so much, and that we'll be right by your side, no matter what. But...it's up to you. Tell them, or don't. They'll know in the end."

Grian was taken aback. He didn't know what to say. "Alright."

That's all he could manage to say.

He turned around and hopped off of Mumbo's arm.

"Are you going to consider what I've said?" The redstoner's eyes held so much regret in them...but from what?

Grian didn't know.

"I'll think about it."

He grew to his hero size and equipped his armour. The air between the two of them felt cold.

His steps were heavy as he walked over to the lift.

"I'll see you later." Mumbo sighed and downed the rest of his coffee.

Grian nodded. "Yeah."

The doors closed to the lift, and as the elevator ascended, Grian's descent began.