Trigger Warning/Content Warning:

•Very brief description of Gunshot Wounds/Mild Violence

(I'm bad at writing fight scenes so I skipped to the injuries) (which I also didn't describe well)

Grian looked sideways at his friend as Impulse glanced down at his phone. "Are you sure there's been no hero sightings near here?" Impulse queried, frowning. "We're really close to headquarters, so it won't end well if there are any nearby."

"I'm sure it'll be fiiinnee- oh, for Void's- seriously?!" The dirty blonde added with a scowl as he spotted Hotguy and Seize turn round the corner.

Hotguy froze as he spotted the pair, saying something to Seize before rushing forwards. "Hey! Losers!" Great. Funnn. His gaze flicked briefly to the pistol in the hero's hand before looking at Impulse, who looked incredibly anxious.

"Dude. I. Cannot be bothered, actually, please just leave us alone." Grian said skeptically, glancing between the heroes as Seize joined the group.

"What- you're- no!" Hotguy finished lamely, pulling a face. "You're villains!"

"Your point?" Impulse said with a frown. "We're just walking."

"Where?" Seize queried, adjusting his mask and tilting his head slightly with as quizzical of an expression as he could manage with his mouth and nose covered.

"Just... on a walk." Grian interjected hastily as Impulse shot him a mildly panicked look. Definitely not heading to headquarters, that would be crazy, man. Haha.

"Rrright. I'm sure you're like- on your way to rob the bank- and fail again! Or you're-" Hotguy squinted at the pair, looking them up and down for what Grian could only presume was any sign of criminal activity. "Running away from a crime!" The brunette added lamely as Grian and Impulse exchanged a skeptical glance.

"Look, we're not trying to start a fight. Please just- leave us be." Impulse said quietly as Grian glanced around, wondering how quickly any other villains would be able to reach them. "Just leave us b-" Impulse's repetition was cut off as a knife flew towards his head and he dodged it swiftly. The scene then descended into chaos.

This, of course, ended up in Grian fighting Hotguy. The parrot hybrid knew that Hotguy was cocky and smug and Grian really didn't like his personality, but the dirty blonde had no prior impressions of the hero's fighting skills (other than the fact that he had managed to murder a villain, that is).

Turns out Hotguy was very good at landing his shots (which was not good for Grian, especially when his opponent was using a gun and when the villain was more focused on leading the heroes away from headquarters than fighting), which led to Grian practically collapsing to the ground with a shriek and clutching his stomach, which had been shot about three times.

Fun.

He stared down at his hands (this quickly became quite a difficult task as a number of black spots began to cloud his vision), which were slowly being stained red from the blood seeping through his jumper. To be fair, there wasn't nearly as much blood as he would have expected from three gunshots, but there was still quite a lot.

While thinking this, he barely registered the clattering of Impulse's weapon hitting the ground as his friend ran over.

The parrot hybrid could hear vague shouting (maybe from Impulse?) and panicked shrieking (either from Impulse or Hotguy, although he wasn't entirely sure), but he couldn't really make out any words.

The only thing he was able to make out was a choked, "Why do you keep- trying to kill people I care about?!"

Then his vision went black.

——

"Uh- are you... sure you're- qualified to do this?"

"Well, I'm not exactly qualified- although I didn't realise you needed a qualification to remove bullets from someone's body- but I do have like three years of experience from medical school before I dropped out...?"

"So- you do know what you're doing? Are you sure you won't hurt him more?"

"Well, do you want me to heal him and he'll just- have bullets under his skin?"

"...no."

"That's what I thought. Now please just- let me do my thing, and he'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, there was like- a decent amount of blood loss, but I can just heal him and he should be fine."

"Go ahead then."

——

The first thing Grian heard when he somewhat regained consciousness was the voice of an unfamiliar woman. He appeared to be lying down on a couch or something, and he was pretty sure there were like two people sat next to him.

"So, sweetheart, remind me again what lead to your friend getting shot? Three times?" The new voice added wryly.

"Well- he was mugged! I told you this." Grian opened his eyes quietly, a wave of relief washing over him as he recognised the familiar voice of BDubs.

"Yeah." Impulse.

"Right." The unfamiliar woman appeared to have dark brown hair and brown eyes, and she had bright pink flowers braided into her hair. "If you say so, DoubleO."

"Uh- guys? Not to interrupt your conversation, but I think your friend's woken up." The other person sat next to Grian added- the man appeared to have a thick accent (Swedish accent, maybe?).

Grian straightened awkwardly, wincing as the woman turned to face him. "Oh- thanks, Iskall. How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

The parrot hybrid managed to let out a noncommital, 'Hm?' as he blinked rapidly, attempting to stop the world around him from spinning (he still appeared to be very dizzy).

"Well- he can- respond at least. My name's Stress- I'm friends with BDubs. I'm the one who healed you." Grian paused, pulling part of his shirt up to reveal that there were no longer gunshot wounds on his stomach, only three small scars. "Apparently coming to me was cheaper than going to hospital." BDubs let out a mildly panicked noise at this statement.

"Wait, you're gonna charge me?! He got mugged! That's not-" He broke off with a scowl at Stress' laughter.

"I'm just messing with you, Bubadubs." BDubs' scowl deepened. "Although I might as well charge you, considering how much you manage to get yourself beaten up. I don't know how you do it, man." Stress added with a laugh, before turning back to Grian. "Like I said, I'm BDubs' friend, and any friend of BDubs is a friend of mine, so don't be afraid to come to me for help if you don't think you can manage a hospital bill." She added wryly. "I can only really heal external stuff though."

"Unfortunately." 'Iskall' added with a snort of laughter as Grian turned to look at him for the first time in the conversation-

And practically jumped out of his seat when he realised the brunette had a bionic eye.

Stress followed his gaze. "Oh, yeah- that's Iskall. They, uh-" They? Oh, they- Nevermind. She bit back a laugh, although she still had a somewhat sympathetic expression. "They walked into a wall that had a nail sticking out of it."

"And lost my eye." Iskall grumbled, rolling their eyes (eye?), but they didn't appear to be actually annoyed by Stress' remark.

Grian turned his head away from Stress and Iskall (who immediately began chattering about something) as he felt a tap on his shoulder, glancing at Impulse, who was frowning slightly. "Are you okay?" His friend asked quietly.

"Uh- I... think so? A bit shaken up, but- nothing I can't deal with. I don't think I've ever gotten hurt before during a fight though." He added quietly- he could only assume Stress and Iskall didn't know about the other three's villainous exploits based on the fact that BDubs had lied about Grian getting mugged. "Thank Void BDubs is friends with someone with who has healing powers, though."

He shuddered slightly at the thought of what might have happened if BDubs didn't know Stress. Maybe I underestimated Hotguy.

Just a little bit.

He still sucks though.

L Grian he got shot but luckily for his dumb ass BDubs is friends with Stress, who has healing powers :D

Iskall is there too, they can control ice and shatter any metal they touch :]

Anyway hope you enjoyed :] this chapter felt a bit all over the place and rushed to me but I can only hope it didn't feel that way to you guys lmao-

Comments and votes are appreciated! <3 :]

Tysm for 1k reads btw! :D