The next few days mainly revolved around very slow progress that was dedicated to planning an attack on the villains to take out The Red King (and hopefully Elenchos as well, but Grian didn't mention that) once and for all.

Etho had been incredibly helpful during all of this, revealing not only the identities of the two villains apart from Ren (the only surprise to Grian out of these two was that Sync was Ren's friend Martyn) but also the location of the villains' new base, the rotation of who guarded the base and the habits of the aforementioned villains. All in all, incredibly helpful.

During this time, Jimmy had taken Grian aside for a very hasty apology. As it turned out, Jimmy had been Piscis and he was the one who had killed Grian and Scott (this information had somehow escaped Grian's memory).

"I'm just- I'm really sorry. If I'd known it was you, I never would have... done that. I don't want to be a villain anymore- I don't want to make any mistake like that again. You don't have to forgive me- it'd be completely understandable if you didn't- but I can only hope you do." Jimmy had shot him a slightly awkward smile before letting out a slightly surprised noise as Grian pulled him into a quick hug before stepping back.

"Forgiven." The dirty blonde had said with a grin. "If you're willing to change, then I don't see the problem."

The dark blonde had visibly relaxed, his smile growing bigger. "Well, that's.. great. Now I just have to speak to Scott." Jimmy had added in a slightly nervous voice. (Grian wasn't quite sure he was meant to have heard that last part, but he said nothing).

He had also spoken to (been reintroduced to, Grian supposed) Pearl and BigB.

BigB appeared to just be incredibly relieved that Grian was alive (if a little confused as to how the dirty blonde vigilante wasn't dead), and Pearl just seemed happy to see him.

Grian also came to the conclusion that he couldn't keep referring to himself as a vigilante when the name 'Avis' didn't quite fit him anymore. It was Mumbo who had suggested his new name.

"Oh, by the way- you know how you said you were thinking about a new vigilante name?" The black haired man had asked curiously.

"Yeah? Why?" Grian glanced at Mumbo.

"Well, I had an idea for a name that you could use. If you wanted to, that is. You don't have to." Mumbo added hastily, and Grian frowned slightly. Since Grian had been reincarnated and the two had been reunited, Mumbo seemed incredibly prone to apologising for the smallest things and blaming himself for every tiny thing that went wrong, which was pretty incredibly out of character for the former hero ('former hero' was sadly still accurate, although Grian and Scott were trying to convince Mumbo to join the heroes again).

"What is it? I'm sure it's great." Grian added with a grin, attempting to reassure the man somewhat.

"I was thinking maybe Alatus. It means 'winged' in Latin, and it kind of fits with your old name as well as your new powers." Mumbo suggested with an offhanded shrug.

"That's great! Alatus! That's awesome!" Grian declared with a laugh, and Mumbo had brightened slightly, acting a lot more confidently for the rest of the conversation.

Grian had then taken to wearing a face mask (similar to the one he had worn under the alias of Avis but it was black instead of red, yellow and blue) whenever he went to help the heroes or vigilantes, and over the new week or so he became much more confident under the alias of Alatus.

——

His gaze flicked to Etho. The gray/white haired man was leant against the wall and was studying a small sketch of the layout of villains' new base (which turned out to be an abandoned apartment block on the edge of town- much more fitting than Impulse's tech shop, in Grian's opinion) that he had drawn the previous day.

"Hi." Grian tried brightly. Oh wow, that was awkward. And weird. Was that weird? I think that was weird, does he think I'm weird now?

The man's gaze briefly flicked to him with a muttered, "Hey," in response as he looked back at the drawing, sighing and putting the small scrap of paper in his pocket. "How are you?" Etho tried, clearly making a visible effort to be sociable.

"I'm good. Why?" Grian shot him a slightly odd look.

"I was just asking- I'm not that antisocial, am I?" The former villain demanded with a slight frown.

"Ehhhh-" Grian made an odd hand gesture, grinning slightly as Etho rolled his eyes. "I mean, you're not as bad as BDu- Speculum-" Grian corrected himself hastily before continuing. "You aren't as bad as Speculum when he hasn't had coffee. If you try to approach him, there's a high chance that you will just get violently murdered." To Grian's surprise, Etho let out a small laugh, raising one eyebrow.

"He sounds fun." The gray/white haired man commented, relaxing slightly. "What are the other vigilantes like?"

Grian paused thoughtfully. Although he had regained his memories from before he had died and been reincarnated, it was still rather difficult for him to recall memories sometimes. "Well... Velox is quite overprotective- I think that's the right word anyway. He's definitely the most responsible out of all of the vigilantes, and he generally keeps us out of trouble. Luna is definitely quite positive, but she can also be a bit annoying- well, she annoys Speculum, anyway, Speculum says he really doesn't like her but he does really... oh, yeah, Speculum. He's incredibly sarcastic most of the time, although sometimes he is the sweetest, most enthusiastic person you have ever met. Oh, and he gets really annoyed if you call him short." Grian added with a laugh.

Etho blinked. "Oh, I see. They sound great. You're very lucky to have them."

WOOO DOUBLE UPDATE I THINK

Also yes this was pretty much just a filler chapter