I glanced around the street again, quickly spotting Zaeim, who was locked in a fierce battle with Nightmare.

I watched as Zaeim matched every blow aimed at him, and eventually knocked the villain's sword out of his hands.

There was an angry shriek as red vines flew towards Zaeim, wrapping around his throat and tossing him into a wall. I spun around in shock to stare at Black Rose, who's eyes were glowing with a mix of anger and anxiety.

The red vines continued to wrap themselves around Zaeim as Black Rose rushed over to Nightmare, whispering something to him and checking him over for any injuries.

There had always been something sinister about Nightmare.

He wore red armour with a hood that covered his hair, and he had a (somewhat sadistic) sad face mask that covered his whole face. His sword, which was made of a rare metal called netherite, had been tossed to the side in the fight.

I rushed over, grabbing the sword before anyone noticed where it was. I then ran over to Zaeim.

"Zaeim? Are you ok?" I asked quietly, trying not to drop Nightmare's sword. I must have caught my hand on something, because it has started bleeding again.

His eyes were closed, and when they opened I recoiled in shock.

They were blood red, as opposed to the pearly white I was used to his eyes being.

I had heard that Black Rose could mind control people, but had chosen to believe (or rather, to hope) that it was a lie, made up to scare people.

Black Rose looked over, her eyes narrowing as she spotted Nightmare's sword in my hands. "Zaeim, be a dear and get the sword off of... what's your name, sweetheart?" She purred, her voice sickly sweet as she glanced in my direction.

"Their name is Echo." Zaeim muttered, turning to look at me.

Why on earth would he- "Ah, ok! Take the sword off of Echo, please. And get rid of them while you're at it." I hadn't realised until now that a voice could sound so sweet and so menacing at the same time. I clutched my weapon as Zaeim took a small step towards me, his eyes still red.

What do I do, what do I do? I had trained to fight villains, not one of my best friends. I quietly admitted to myself that 'best friend' was the right word for Zaeim.

Obviously that didn't apply as he was trying to stab me with his sword (which I blocked).

I took a few uncertain steps backwards.

"Zaeim?"

No response, just another attempt to kill me.

"Zaeim?!"

Nothing's working, nothing's working!

I hesitated. What did Lucendi- Foolish- say his name was again? Eryn? Ethan? Something beginning with E?!

Then it clicked.

"Eret!" I lowered my voice to a whisper. He froze, frowning and closing his eyes.

When they opened again, they had returned to their normal shade of white.

"Y/N?" He muttered numbly, looking around. Luckily he was speaking too quietly to be heard.

"It's Echo!" I hissed, making sure to add a playful undertone to my voice.

"Ah. Right. Of course." He said dizzily, looking around. "What happened?"

"Black Rose." I pointed at the villain, who was watching us with a confused expression.

"How did he break out of my control that easily?" Black Rose demanded.

I exchanged a glance with Zaeim- Eret- and we both shrugged.

"Now I suggest you run before you have to deal with us both." Eret said bravely, and I nodded, pointing Nightmare's sword in her direction. She let out an annoyed noise, turning around and running down the street.

"Teamwork!" We said in unison, high fiving.

"One question, though. How did you know my name?" Eret queried, tilting his head slightly.

"Foolish told me." I said with an off handed shrug.

"Ah, I see. That makes sense. Thanks though, mouse." I rolled my eyes, reluctantly accepting the fact that 'mouse' was my new nickname. "I've never actually been controlled by her before. She's only been a villain for what, a month?"

I nodded. "What's it..." I paused. "What's it like being mind controlled?"

"Well..." Eret glanced around thoughtfully. "It's not very nice. Whenever it tried to move or speak, I couldn't... and I said and did things I didn't want to. But it's over now, and I am never going near those vines again. Black Rose sure is protective of the other villains, isn't she?"

"Yeah I guess. But they're like family to her, aren't they?" I said quietly, thinking of how Blood God had rushed over to help Mercator, and how scared Black Rose looked when she thought Nightmare might be hurt.

"I guess you're right." He sighed. "Now come on, this is still a fight. Although..." he squinted, looking around. "I think most of the villains are gone. Yeah, it looks like it's just Spectre." He pointed to the villain who was locked in combat with Swift, fiercely swinging his axe in an attempt to hurt the hero.

I winced as Swift threw his wings in front of him to protect himself, and then they were caught by the axe, blood dripping from the wound and feathers coming off with the attack. Spectre, delighted that he'd managed to land an attack, continued swing the axe and repeatedly slicing across the hero's wings.

Eret narrowed his eyes, which had turned midnight black, and focused on Spectre. Upon noticing this, the villain went invisible, disappearing out of sight and reappearing once Eret's eyes had returned to normal.

There was an annoyed yell from Spectre as a green goo flew out of nowhere and stuck his foot to the ground. Slimecicle was watching him with an unimpressed expression, raising his hand and sending another spray of green goo to hold Spectre's other foot in place.

The vigilante calmly walked over, took the axe out of the villain's hands, and punched Spectre in the face as hard as he could.

He turned to Swift with a concerned expression. "You okay?" Slimecicle asked as me and Eret ran over.

Swift slowly moved his wings back to their normal position, wincing. "My wings'll be sore for a while, but I'll be fine." He shot a curious glance at Spectre. "Why isn't he just going invisible?" The villain glared at him.

"My guess is that the slime keeps his feet normal, and if one part of him can't go invisible, then he can't go invisible." Slimecicle guessed with a shrug. He turned to me and Eret, looking at me closely. "Are you a new hero?"

"Kind of." I muttered.

"Echo's training to be a hero." Swift said at the same time.

"Ahh, I see, I see." I glanced around with a slight frown, faint sirens ringing in my ears.

"Because you helped Swift, I'll give you and the other vigilantes a heads up- the police are coming, so you better leave before you get arrested." I nodded towards where the sound was coming from.

Slimecicle looked surprised. "I can't hear anything."

"Echo has super senses." Eret explained. "That's their power."

"Oh. Well, I'll leave this guy with you for the police to arrest." The oldest vigilante turned towards Deactivator and Paradox, both of whom still looked alarmed from Paradox's fight with Mercator. "DEACTIVATOR! PARADOX! WE'RE LEAVING!" Turning to me, he added, "Thanks."

"No problem." I said with a shrug, glancing at Spectre as Slimecicle rushed towards the other vigilantes.

I hadn't really been able to study him up close before. He had a masquerade mask (what was the thing with these? Everyone seemed to wear them) which was a shade of smoky gray with gold markings. He was wearing a dark brown trench coat and a silver chestplate. Parts of him were gray and translucent, and others were how he would normally look.

For example, patches of his hair were see through and ghost-like, and parts were curly and dark brown. Well, not really curly, but just a tiny bit curly. The same went for the patches of translucence all over his body.

I frowned as he suddenly reached out and grabbed my arm, and I felt my body turn to ice as he disappeared.