Grian rolled his eyes with a snort of laughter and adjusted his mask slightly. "That is an awful joke." He commented.

Pearl huffed crossly. "You still laughed, so it's not that awful!" The other villain protested, although he knew she was grinning under her mask.

The two had gone on a walk together- still in their villain outfit- because they were bored and it was funny when civilians ran away at the mere sight of them.

Yes, it was a childish thing to do (as Impulse had repeatedly said), but- it was funny nonetheless.

"You love my jokes really." The brunette continued.

"Hmm." Grian's noncommittal noise earned him a light smack over the back of the head. "Hey! Jerk." The dirty blonde said crossly.

"Hey, you're the jerk here." Pearl said with a huff, although she didn't appear to be mad.

"No! You're the-" Grian paused, nudging Pearl slightly with his left wing. "Uhhhhh. Sense." She paused, turning around and freezing in place as she spotted Hotguy and Pituita approaching them.

"HEY! Stupid- lame bad guys!" Hotguy shouted. Grian groaned internally, stretching his arm and reaching for his bow.

"Calm down, big guy." Pearl commented, glaring up at Hotguy as the hero approached. "We're just on a walk."

Pituita glared at her fiercely. "I highly doubt that. I've had multiple reports of you terrorising people." The Slimecian hybrid snapped.

His statement made Grian burst into peals of laughter. "Terrorising people?" He squeaked, grinning. "We're walking." Pituita stared at him blankly, an odd flare of recognition in his gaze. He doesn't- I don't think he recognises me? The only thing he might have recognised would be my voice, and it'd be too vague of a memory for him to pinpoint it to me. Grian paused. Right?

"I don't care. You're villains. You shouldn't be parading through the streets terrifying people." Pituita said quietly.

"Not our fault people get scared so easily." Pearl said with an unbothered shrug. Grian paused, watching silently as Hotguy loaded his bow as Pearl glared back at Pituita. Luckily her gaze flicked to the hero at the last moment and she jumped sideways, letting out a startled shriek as the arrow just missed her. "What the hell- it's like you're trying to k- jerk!" She finished lamely.

Grian's gaze flicked to a small flock of pigeons pecking something on the ground nearby, and he whistled quietly, smirking as the birds flew at Pituita, who let out a startled shriek, waving his arms wildly.

As this was happening, Pearl's blue gaze had flickered and turned to a bright purple colour as she stared directly into Hotguy's eyes, speaking slowly and clearly. "Go back to hero headquarters. Leave us alone." Hotguy's eyes widened slightly as his green gaze flickered to purple as well and he nodded slowly before turning around and walking away.

Grian glanced at Pituita, who was still screaming and trying to swat pigeons away from his head. He exchanged a glance with Pearl and the two silently walked away from the hero, only to burst into peals of laughter the second they walked through the door of the villain headquarters.

This earned them an odd look from Impulse and a sigh from Cub, who added, "Let me guess, you ran into a hero."

Grian tried to say something else but he couldn't stop himself from giggling at the memory of Pituita trying to run from the pigeons.

Pearl let out another snort of laughter before attempting to compose herself. "We- we ran into Hotguy and- Pituita- and- and Grian sent pigeons after Pituita-" She broke off with another cackle of laughter. "You should have seen his face!"

Cub raised both eyebrows, smiling. "I can only imagine."

Grian took a few minutes to compose himself as well, and when he finally did, he noticed there was an additional presence in headquarters- it was the man with an X shaped scar on his face that Grian had met when he joined the villains.

Grian edged slightly closer to the man's conversation with Doc. "...so I'm just warning you that I think Ren may be considering revealing your identity to the heroes." The man said quietly. "I don't think he knows for sure that you're Dynamite but I think he has a guess."

Doc shrugged, looking completely unsurprised by this news. "Yeah, I expected that much." He then glanced at Grian. "Dude, if you're gonna eavesdrop, do it well." He said with a laugh, and the brunette next to Doc waved at Grian, looking much friendlier than the first time they had met.

"Oh- hello. Volare, right? I forgot to introduce myself the first time. My name is Xisuma." The purple-eyed man added with a small smile.

"Nice to meet you properly. And yes, I am Volare. But- call me Grian. What are you... doing... here?" He gestured vaguely around the room and Xisuma laughed quietly, although it didn't sound like a joyful laugh, more of a forced one.

"Oh. Right. Well, I'm not exactly a villain, but I'm definitely working with you guys. I work very closely with the Hermitopia hero division, you see, so I have a lot of inside information to offer." He explained. "I'm like... a double agent, if that helps." Ohhhhh.

Grian bit back the obvious, 'Why are you helping us?', nodding and grinning instead and saying, "Cool!" Xisuma's smile grew ever so slightly (although it was still slightly icy) and he nodded, glancing down at his watch.

"Oh, I have- got to go, unfortunately. But I do look forward to conversing with you more often, Grian." Xisuma glanced back at Doc with a muttered goodbye before walking away and leaving.

"He'll warm up to you over time." Doc whispered. "Poor guy's been through a lot, doesn't open up to people easily." He added.

Grian nodded slowly. Xisuma certainly appeared to be an interesting character, and Grian would definitely try and learn more about him in the weeks to come.

Wooo X-eye-zooma void :)))

Comments are appreciated <3 :]