Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy is pretty sure that he's going to die today. Admittedly, he gets himself in these situations a lot but he's not quite sure how to get out of this one.

"Fuck Fuck fuck" and oh yeah, has he mentioned fuck?

Tommy quickly looks behind him to see the two men still chasing him.

God, you crash one drug deal and they try to kill you. People are so easily offended these days.

"You know what would be awesome guys? If you stopped trying to kill me. My legs are getting pretty tired and-"

Tommy stops speaking as he sees a blade fly by in the corner of his eye. If they didn't want to talk they could have just said so, they didn't have to throw a knife at his head.

Tommy looks down at the smartwatch on his wrist to see Tubbo's number, he could call him and ask for backup or he could try to find a way to lose the men.

He quickly decides that he'll just take his chances with the men. The worst they can do is nowhere near the worst that a furious Tubbo can.

"Okay Tommy, think. You can't die here." Tommy murmurs to himself, eyes frantically searching for an escape. He's not even had his first kiss yet and he ate Plain Shredded Wheat cereal for breakfast.

He shudders at the memory, he will survive. That will not be his last meal.

He comes to an abrupt stop as he realizes that he's at the end of the roof. "Damn it" he whispers, quickly glancing behind him to see the two men catching up. His eyes finally land on an escape, a different building thats roof is about the same height as the one he's on. It's pretty far away and he's not sure if he can even jump that distance but it's at least worth a shot.

"Hey, he's over there!"

He's out of time. Tommy takes a deep breath and takes a few steps back before running full force ahead and leaping off of the ground.

He's doing it! He's actually doing it! He's so awesome. He lets out a small laugh and time seems to freeze for a moment, then he realizes.

He's falling. He's falling, fast. He lets out a panicked noise as he gets closer and closer to the ground. Tubbo is going to be so pissed.

He forces his eyes shut as he prepares himself for impact. Well, it was a nice run he guesses.

"Are you okay mate?"

Tommy is flying. He opens his eyes to see himself getting further and further away from the ground. He looks up and can't contain the gasp that escapes his mouth as he sees his hero, Philza. The #1 hero in the world.

The man sets him down on the building roof and gives him a kind smile.

"You okay?"

"Uh yeah, thank you for saving me."

Tommy looks over towards the other building and sees the two men on the floor in handcuffs. Beside one stands a guy with long pink hair, twirling his sword around in his hands with a bored look on his face. Beside the other is a tall guy with a beanie on and a trenchcoat with a proud look on his face.

"But um, why exactly were you on the roof in the first place?"

"I was actually patrolling the area," Tommy says proudly. This is awesome. Tommy is meeting his idol, maybe he could get his autograph or-"

"Oh you're a hero, can I see your Hero License? It's just protocol."

Tommy freezes. Shit, this is bad. This is very bad.

"Oh of course, just um, give me a second to find it."

He slowly begins searching his pockets. Receipt? No. Phone? No. The teleporter eye? He forgot he stole that from Tubbo. A card? Maybe. A small smile makes its way on Tommy's face as he pulls it out.

"Here ya go big man. May I just say, I'm a huge fan." Tommy says, giving him the card and backing up slowly towards the edge of the building.

"Thanks mate. Wait this isn't a hero license-" He says looking back at Tommy in confusion.

"Yeah, sorry man. You seem pretty pog so I'd love to stand around and chat but Tubbo will murder me if I'm late for dinner again so, gotta go."

Tommy gives a half-wave before falling back off of the building and throwing the teleporter eye.

Tommy doesn't have his hero license on him because he's not even a hero. Surprising right?

Tommy is a vigilante.

Which is much better than a hero in his opinion, he gets to commit crimes which is awesome. Those hero dudes have to help people and follow rules, but not Tommy. No, if Tommy wants to hit a random person, he can do that and he does pretty often.

Being a vigilante is pog.

-----------------------

The three heroes stare down at where the boy disappeared in confusion.

"I'm going to go on a limb here and assume that he wasn't a hero?" the pink-haired man says amused making the guy in a beanie nod.

"Uh, yeah, I'd say that you're probably right"

"He gave me an expired coupon for Fundy and Nikki's bakery."

-----------------------

Tommy lands on the apartment floor with a loud thump. He lets out a small groan and sits up, coming face to face with his worst nightmare.

"Have a nice trip?" Tubbo asks, raising an eyebrow at the boy on the floor.

"Uh, yes?"

"Are you injured or anything?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm fine."

"Good. I'm glad, really. Because I'm going to kill you" Tubbo says with a scowl, crouching down next to the boy and flicking him on his forehead.

"Ouch, that hurt" Tommy mumbles, rubbing his forehead.

"What part of "Do not take this mission, it is extremely dangerous and could very easily result in you dying" escaped your head you idiot?"

"Tubbo, big guy, my bro. You can't just tell the super strong absolutely amazing Tommyinnit the Vigilante not to do something and expect him to listen."

"Tommy, I don't know how you are alive but I'm glad...somewhat."

"So we're good?"

"Sure."

"Even though I stole your last teleporter eye?"

"...YOU WHAT?!"

"we're still good though right?"

"Tommy."

"Yeah?"

"Get out"

"Okay"
-----------------------

Chapter Text

There is nobody in the world who can tell Tommyinnit, the most amazing vigilante what to do. Well, except for maybe one.

"You can come home after you get the groceries. I'd get them myself but someone decided to steal and use my last teleporter's eye so instead I need to try and figure out where to get the materials again. Please don't do anything stupid."

Tubbo's words play in Tommy's head over and over again as he quietly follows behind this totally unsuspicious person he saw sneaking around the alleyway.

Okay, so maybe the person's a little suspicious but it's fine. What Tubbo doesn't know won't hurt him.

Who sends someone out to buy groceries at fucking 8:00 PM anyways? He worries about Tubbo's sanity sometimes, it's a good thing Tommy's there to keep him from doing something stupid. Good thing Tommy is a genius and stole Brenda the taser back from Tubbo or he may have gotten hurt.

In his defense, she was taken from him for a really stupid reason anyways. Tubbo keeps saying that tasing random people in the street is "very unkind" of him but Tommy begs to differ. He is literally the nicest person on the planet. Well...maybe not the kindest but definitely the most pog.

Yep, the absolute poggest.

"Who are you and why are you following me?"

Wait, what?

Before Tommy can even realize what is happening, he is being harshly shoved against one of the alley's walls.

"Ow, what the hell? That really hurt. Also, I was thinking. It's not nice to use sneak attacks on people, I could have totally stopped you if-"

"Answer my question." The person says, tightening their grip on Tommy's shoulders making him roll his eyes at their rudeness.

"Calm down dude, you'll get wrinkles."

"I-what?"

Gosh, some people really know nothing huh? Tommy goes to point out that this person is an idiot but then he realizes.

"Big Q?"

The guy furrows his eyebrows as he stares at Tommy in confusion.

"Huh? Do I know you?"

"Yes you know me! It's Tommyinnit, the most amazing vigilante."

The man stares at the boy for a minute before he seems to relax a bit and a huge smile appears on his face.

"Ayee Tommy, my man! I didn't even recognize you man." He quickly releases Tommy's shoulders and dusts them off. "Sorry about that. You can't be too careful these days, ya know what I'm saying man?"

Tommy nods in understanding, these are rough days to be a vigilante.

"How've you been my man? Where's Tubbo?"

"Oh, Tubbo is at home. He lost a bunch of his equipment this morning in a situation he got himself into so he sent me on a very important mission for him."

Okay, so maybe Tommy's lying a little. But it's Tubbo's fault that he left the teleporter's eye alone in the first place, if he didn't want Tommy to take it he should have kept up with it better

"Oh, that makes sense...Ah, I have a great idea! I'm actually about to go on a mission, wanna join me? It'll be just like the old days. I promise I'll make it worth your while. Oh, unless you're busy?"

Tommy considers it for a second, either he can get groceries or go on a fun mission.

Tubbo can wait a little while, it'll be fine.

-----------------------

"See those men down there? They didn't pay me for their drug-I mean, therapy." Big Q explains to the boy as they watch the men load money in trucks from the roof, but that's not what Tommy is focusing on.

On a rope tied to the back of one of the trucks stands the most glorious thing Tommy believes he has seen:
A baby cow.

And he wants it.

"Alright Big Q, let's get rid of these wrongins." Tommy says, cracking his fingers, taking the taser out of his pocket.

"Wai-" Big Q goes to grab the boy but he has already jumped off of the roof towards the men, so he just says a Spanish prayer and joins him.

"Hey you! Give us all your money!"

"Uh, Tommy I think we should calm down a little."

"Hey, you're that drug dealer-" Big Q clears his throat loudly, trying to cut off the man.

"Big Q, you're a drug dealer? I'm all for crime but drugs..that just crosses the line."

Tommy looks over at him in disappointment making him laugh nervously.

"They're crazy Tommy, don't listen to them, they're criminals. On second thought, I think violence is the only option here."

He doesn't have to tell Tommy twice.

It's time to put Brenda to good use.

-----------------------

"Man, I forgot how much fun it was committing crimes with you." Big Q laughs as he counts out 500 pounds and sticks it in his pocket.

"Yeah, we should do it again sometime." Tommy grins, sliding the taser back into his pocket and turning to face Big Q.

"I'm sure we will, and maybe even Tubbo will come. Man, that would be amazing. Just like we used to..." A small smile crosses his face before he clears his throat. "Oh yeah I almost forgot, what do you want in return for helping me? You can have some cash, but let's leave some for the pol-"

"I want the cow."

"...A cow?"

Tommy rolls his eyes at the man and walks over to where the cow sits tied up.

"Not just any cow Big Q, this cow specifically. He's special."

Big Q stares at the boy in confusion before nodding slowly.

"..Right. Well um, sure you can take the cow..I guess? I gotta get going but it was nice seeing you again Tommy, say hi to Tubbo for me."

Tommy nods as he grabs the lead and disconnects it from the truck, smiling down at the baby cow.

Tubbo is going to be so excited.

-----------------------

"Finally, you're home. Gosh Tommy, you've been gone for like three hours I-"

Tubbo freezes as he walks into the living room, eyes focusing on the animal attached to a lead. He looks up and sees a very proud-looking Tommy holding it close to him and lets out a sigh.

"Uh, Tommy?"

"Hmm?"

"What in the actual fuck is that?"

"It's a cow Tubbo. Is your eyesight worsening with age big guy? Do you need some glasses?"

Tommy is such a considerate friend, he deserves to be paid at this point.

"That's not what I- You know what, we'll talk about this later. Just, what did you buy for us to eat tonight?"

Shit.

"About that, you see..."

"You're fucking kidding me."

"...I'm thinking about naming him Henry."

"We're going to starve to death, we're not keeping the fucking cow Tommy!"

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Tommy is, in fact, keeping the cow and his name is in fact, Henry.

"I can't believe that you're abandoning me." Tommy says in hurt, sitting on the kitchen counter making Tubbo roll his eyes.

"I'm going to work Tommy, you know, to make money. You should try it sometime. While I'm gone can you please stop by the bank and withdraw some money? I'll go to the shops tomorrow to get us some food. Tommy, can you please do this for me?"

"Don't sweat it big man, have I ever let you down?"

"Yes..multiple times actually."

Tommy decides to ignore him and instead decides to pet Henry.

"You're such a good baby cow."

Tubbo gives his friend an amused look.

"You mean calf?"

"No. Baby cow."

-----------------------

"You know Henry, I think us meeting was fate." Tommy says, looking down at the cow walking on a lead beside him. He gets some looks from people who walk by but he just ignores them.

Gosh, they act as if they have never seen a boy in his vigilante mask walking his pet cow before.

“You just need to ignore the haters Henry. They’re jealous of us and the amazing friendship we have.”

-----------------------

After what seems like forever, they arrive at the bank. Tommy lets out a groan when he sees that there is a long line.

"Can you believe this Henry? God, we're gonna be here for ages. I'm gonna fucking fight Tubbo for forcing me to come here today. Can you believe this shit? He better find a way to make it up to me."

The cow stares up at the boy, tilting his head a little making Tommy roll his eyes.

"It is not my fault I forgot to buy groceries. If anything, it's Tubbo's for sending me after them in the first place."

-----------------------

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

This is an absolute outrage. How dare they try to make him leave? He hasn't even done anything wrong.

"Give me one good reason why I should leave."

"Sir, you got your money 20 minutes ago and your cow has chased away all of the other customers."

"So? Sounds like a personal problem to me."

"You're not even supposed to have a cow in here!"

Tommy rolls his eyes at the man. People are such babies these days.

"What seems to be the problem here?" a familiar voice asks and Tommy swears he can hear his heart beating out of his chest as he turns around to face the man.

Philza stands there with his two partners with a raised eyebrow, looking straight at Tommy.

Shit, this isn't good.

"Oh, thank goodness you guys are here. This guy brought his cow here, which has been tormenting everyone here and refuses to leave."

Philza glances back at the two men and then nods, taking a step closer to Tommy.

"Listen mate, we can't have you tormenting customers. You're the guy from the other night right?"

Tommy laughs awkwardly and nods.

"Look man, we're not going to hurt you but you have to cooroperate." the man with the beanie says, making the pink-haired man let out a snort.

"Speak for yourself."

"Tecno, seriously?"

Tommy needs to go.

He quickly picks up Henry and starts running. God, he's heavy. He quickly glances behind him to see the three men chasing after them.

"Wilbur." Philza says simply and the younger boy lets out a noise of agreement.

"Stop running."

Tommy curses under his breath as he hears the voice, but he doesn't stop running. In fact, he doesn’t even feel the urge to which is weird but he decides that this is a very bad time to worry about that.

"Huh?"

Tommy looks behind him to see the men have stopped chasing him so he decides to pause.

"Um, are you guys alright? Don't get me wrong, I am perfectly okay with not being chased because Henry is pretty heavy but-"

The man, who Tommy assumes is Wilbur gives him a look of disbelief.

"How did you do that? Phil, did you see that?"

Philza nods, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion at the boy.

Tommy stands there awkwardly for a minute as the three men stare at him before shrugging. This guy’s power malfunction is not his problem.

"I guess I'm gonna head out then? Um, I hope your powers are okay. Maybe go to the doctors and get that checked out or something?"

Tommy picks Henry back up and after making sure the heroes are not following after him, he heads back to his and Tubbo's apartment.

-----------------------

"You're such a liar."

"I am not! Henry, tell Tubbo that I'm telling the truth."

"...."

"...."

"...."

"Traitor."

Tubbo rolls his eyes as he moves his focus back to the computer. “Tommy, these are the strongest heros in the world and you’re telling me that you’re somehow not affected by their powers? I’m calling bullshit.”

“I know it seems impossible-”

“It is impossible.”

“I’ll have you know-”

Tommy is cut off by a pained groan from Tubbo, him burying his face in his hands.

“Tubbo, are you okay?”

“Yeah, It’s fine just give me a minute.”

“...Another vision?”

Tubbo hesitates for a second and then nods, lifting his head and giving Tommy a reassuring smile.

“I’m fine. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I’ve found a place where we can get a few more teleporter eyes. It’s pretty dangerous but I recken we’ll do fine as long as we go together and are prepared.”

“Wait, you’re coming too? Awesome! We’ll commit so many crimes-”

“I think we should focus on successfully getting the teleporter eyes first. Though I’m up for doing some more crime after if we have the time. But Tommy, you have to take this seriously. No screwing around or we could both end up dead.”

“When have I ever not taken my vigilante career seriously big man?”

Tubbo stares at the boy in disbelief before shaking his head and letting out a small laugh making Tommy give him a confused look.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. Don’t even worry about it Tommy.”

-----------------------

Chapter Text

"Is it time?"

"No, there's no need to rush.

We still have plenty of time."

-----------------------

"Give it to me."

"No"

"Tommy, give. it."

"No, you can't do this to me Tubbo."

Tommy looks to Henry for support but is met with him laying on the floor chewing on the carpet.
He'll have to fight this battle on his own.

"Tommy, just give me the dumb taser" Tubbo sighs, putting his hands on his temples.

Tommy glares at his roommate as he cradles the taser closer to his chest.

"Don't talk about her like that. Her name is Brenda."

Tubbo stares at Tommy in exasperation.

"I-It's not a person Tommy, it's just an object."

Tommy lets out a gasp at his friend's words, how dare he say that about his Brenda. He could expect this from wrongins but his Tubbo?
This isn't possible.

"Tommy, give it."

"Take one more step and I'll tase the shit out of you."

-----------------------

Tommy gives himself a celebratory pat on his shoulder as he slips Brenda into the slot attached to his thigh. He's honestly so good at convincing people to let him do what he wants.

Maybe in another life, he's a lawyer or something.

He'd be an amazing lawyer.

"Do you have all of your things ready?" Tubbo asks, grabbing a bag and slinging it over his shoulders. Tommy nods, grabbing Henry's lead making Tubbo raise an eyebrow.

"You're bringing him? It's going to be pretty dangerous, you sure you wanna do that?"

Tommy hesitates for a minute and then shrugs.

"I mean, I can't just leave him here alone."

Tubbo hums deep in thought before giving Tommy a small smile

"I need to stop and see some old friends real quick."

-----------------------

"Thanks" Tommy murmurs as the waiter hands him a glass of hot chocolate, quickly taking a drink.

It tastes delicious. Not that Tommy is surprised. It's been so long since he's been here, if he was weak he'd probably feel very nostalgic. Right after the accident happened and they had nowhere else to go, the owners always let them have free muffins.

But Tommyinnit is in fact not weak so he feels nothing.

Nope. Totally nothing

"It looks like the heroes were finally able to capture him" A voice exclaims from behind him.

"Who is he?" Tommy asks confused, staring at the green man on the television screen in curiosity. He seems oddly familiar although Tommy is pretty certain he has never seen him before.

"I think they said his name is Dream or something like that. He's been causing the heroes a ton of problems for the past few years. Murder, thievery, you name it, he's probably done it. He's apparently extremely smart too. He probably won't be in there long, I hear that they are wanting to move him to the Pandora's box."

Tommy's eyes widen. Not many people have been to Pandora's box, and those that have never lived to tell the tale.

Just the thought of it sends chills down Tommy's spine.

"Fundy, thanks for this." Tubbo says smiling, standing up, and walking over to him.

"Of course. Are you sure you want to do this though? This is very dangerous Tubbo, one wrong move and you could both die-"

"I know, I know. It'll be okay. Isn't part of the fun of being a vigilante doing things that may result in death?" he jokes making Fundy roll his eyes and shake his head.

"You're starting to sound like Tommy."

-----------------------

"Okay, here is the armor you asked for. Remember, once the meter hits red you both need to get out of there ASAP. That means only one more hit and it falls apart. Check it every so often." Fundy explains, pointing out the small meter on the collar.

"Right, got it."

"I put some food and water in there as well. It's not a lot but anything is better than nothing I suppose."

"Okay, thanks for all of the help guys. I really appreciate it" Tubbo says, putting the earpiece in.

Tommy lets out a sad sigh as he pets Henry.

"I'll take good care of him, I promise." Nikki reassures him making Tommy nod.

He wanted to take him with him but that would put his life in danger. Tommy refuses to lose Henry.

"Try not to miss me too much my child. I will return as soon as I can to get you."

Henry glances up at Tommy for a minute then goes back to munching on the blanket he is laying on.

"You ready Tom?"

Tommy gives Henry one last pet and then nods, walking over to where Tubbo is standing.

"Thanks for all of the supplies guys, I really do appreciate it. I promise I'll pay you back-"

"Worry about coming back alive first, we will worry about that stuff later."

Tubbo gives them an appreciative smile and turns to Tommy.

"You ready?"

Tommy looks at Henry one last time before turning to Tubbo with a huge grin.

"Absolutely. Let's go commit some crime."

-----------------------

"God, it's freezing out here." Tommy murmurs to himself as he crosses his arms against his chest to hopefully save some needed body heat.

To be fair, he's not quite sure what he expected. It's the middle of the night in London's November. Of course, it's not gonna be fucking hot.

He looks over at Tubbo to see that he has similar body language, and he swears that he can see his teeth chattering.

"How far away is it anyways?"

Tubbo falters for a moment, checking his smartwatch, and then points ahead.

"Around 30 minutes that way."

"You know what would make this much better big man?"

"Hmm?"

"If you had your license so we could just drive there."

Tubbo pauses long enough to turn around and give him the middle finger before going back to walking and Tommy busts out in laughter.

Maybe if the two boys distract themselves enough they can ignore the huge pit in their stomachs and the feeling of being watched.

-----------------------

Chapter Text

After what seems like ages, the boys arrive at the outside of the building, and what Tommy sees he can't even comprehend.

It's completely empty. Aside from the two teens, there aren't even vehicles on the roads. The building is dark and silent, seemingly void of anyone or anything.

"Um, big man are you sure we're at the right place? I'm not doubting you or anything but I'm pretty sure this place is abandoned. I mean, where is the security-"

Tubbo looks down at the watch on his wrist then nods

"This is definitely the right place. About security, well, there isn't any. This building doesn't exist to keep people out Tommy, it's here to keep them in."

"I can't believe I let you talk me into coming with you" Tommy sighs, making Tubbo raise an eyebrow

"Um, this is your fault in the first place. You are the one who decided to steal my last teleportation eye. You were coming either way dude."

Tommy rolls his eyes, Tubbo can be so dramatic sometimes.

-----------------------

"Remember to check the armor's status when possible, we don't want to get in here and get killed. If the armor gets into the red we need to get out ASAP." Tubbo explains, placing his bag on the ground and rummaging through it.

Tommy nods, watching as Tubbo lets out a small noise of triumph, pulling out something from the bag and placing it underneath the door handle.

"There's a code lock, this will help us break in without setting off the alarms. It will only work for around 30 minutes though, after that the alarms will go off and then..."

"then what?"

Tubbo stares at the boy for a minute before turning his focus on the door.

"..We better be out before those alarms go off."

Tommy feels his breath catch in his throat. It's not like he's scared or anything. No, of course not. Being scared is for bitchboys and Tommy is most definitely not a bitchboy.

He just needs a drink of water. He's dehydrated or something.

A few minutes go by before a small click breaks the silence followed by the door slowly creaking open. Tubbo grabs two flashlights from his bag and looks back at Tommy, tossing one into his arms.

"You ready Toms?"

Tommy nods, following behind the boy as he enters the building. The inside looks oddly ordinary for being known to house the most dangerous things in the world, though Tommy isn't exactly sure what he expected.

The mission is simple enough: they just need to get a few teleportation crystals and then get out. Simple enough right?

Well...not quite.

"God, they are weird looking" Tommy mumbles eying the creatures making Tubbo roll his eyes. "What are they again?"

"Endermen, Tommy. Be careful looking at them, if you look them in the eyes they will attack you. All we have to do is get past them and get to the teleporter eyes they are guarding. When we grab the eyes they are going to start attacking us to be prepared to fight. Thankfully, they can't leave this building due to Hero Philza's barrier so once we are out we are safe."

Tommy nods slightly at the boy's words, reaching for his dear Brenda.

"Just make sure to keep me updated on how the armor is doing okay Tommy?" Tubbo asks, pulling his mask over his face making the other boy nod and mirror his actions.

"Right, I'm right behind you big man."

-----------------------

Tommyinnit, the most amazing vigilante is currently running for his life.

"I thought you said the armor was still at half strength!" Tubbo yells making Tommy nod as he frantically runs.

"It was! Like 5 minutes ago! The armor must have messed up or something!"

Okay, so maybe it was a little longer than 5 minutes ago but what Tubbo doesn't know won't hurt him.

Tommy quickly looks behind him to see the enderman still chasing them. As if that's not bad enough, the alarm is going off and is flashing red.

This is not pog. In fact, this is the opposite of pog. This is pogn't.

"Water! Tommy, run to your right!" Tubbo's voice calls from behind him making him nod and quickly run into the room to his right.

The first thing Tommy notices is that his shoes are now very uncomfortable.

"God Tubbo, you prick. Now my shoes are fucking soaked." Tubbo scoffs at the boy, flipping him off for good measure.

"Oh, my bad Tommy. I was trying to make sure neither of us died. Sorry I didn't worry about your fucking converse getting wet."

"Hmm...I guess I'll forgive you this time. If, you give me money so I can buy a weapon like a sword..ooh, or a gun."

Tubbo stares at the boy for a moment and then shakes his head rolling his eyes.

"The endermen won't hurt us here, so we're safe for now but we really need to get out of here. The heros are definitely going to be here soon and the teleportation eyes won't work until we're out of this building."

"But..where exactly is here?" Tommy asks confused, eyes scanning the room. It looks..weird to say the least, but the thing that stands out the most is the giant painting in the middle of the room.

"Hey Tubbo, come look at this."

Tubbo walks over to the boy and furrows his eyebrows at the sight of the painting.

"Wow, it's..an egg?"

"Weird, right?" Tommy asks, staring at it. It's just a giant painting of a huge red egg with some incomprehensible text written under it.

"Can you read that?" Tommy asks, gesturing to the text making Tubbo hum in thought before shaking his head.

"No..but whatever it is, we can't worry about that right now. We have to go. Now. We're just going to have to run as fast as we can towards the door. When we leave this water the endermen are going to start attacking us again. When we get outside we can use one of the teleportation eyes to-"

"Oh, so you two are the ones who broke in."

Tubbo freezes in his tracks and Tommy forces himself to hold in a groan at the familiar voice. They turn around to see Techno twirling his blade around.

Damn Tubbo and his long-ass explanation of plans.

"I found them." He calls out bored, a moment later the two other men appear.

"Good job mate." Philza grins, before turning his attention to the two boys.

"You know, this is a very dangerous place to be commiting crime and shit. You guys could have easily ended up dead." His eyes scan Tubbo before landing on Tommy and his eyes widen a little bit. "Wait, it's you again? What are you doing?"

Fuck. They need to go. Tommy and Tubbo make quick eye contact and then they are both running towards the door.

"Wait, shit, Wilbur?" Techno calls out making Wilbur nod

"Stop running" Tubbo freezes for a moment before letting out a pained noise, grabbing his head in his hands.

Another vision? Now? Tubbo better buy him a great weapon after today.

Tommy quickly grabs Tubbo's hand and practically drags him out the door, collapsing onto his knees as he exits the building.

"Are you alright?" Tommy asks out of breath, quickly glancing over to his friend who is still holding his head.

"Y-yeah, I think so."

He tries to stand up as he hears the three men's footsteps quickly approaching but he just ends up falling back down.

"Damn it adrenaline, you couldn't last a little bit longer?" Tommy murmurs as he feels a hand grab onto his shoulder. He looks behind him to see Wilbur frowning down at him.

"You couldn't have waited until the morning? I was almost asleep too. Damn." Wilbur sighs, letting out a yawn before letting go of Tommy and holding out his hand. "You have teleportation eyes right? Go ahead and give them to me."

Tommy looks over to his partner to see him in a similar situation and after receiving a nod, he begrudgingly hands them over to Wilbur, Tubbo doing the same quickly after.

-----------------------

After a few minutes, Philza exits the building and gives the two boys a kind smile.

"You guys are okay right? Do you have all of the eyes that they took Will?"

"Yep, all 9 of them."

9? Did they only take 9 of them? Gosh, and they had to give them all up too. All of this was for nothing.

"Great, hand them over will ya? We'll take them down to the police and then I think we'll end patrol for the night.”

“Finally. Man, I’ve been looking forward to getting some sleep since 10 this morning.” Techno says, cracking his knuckles making Philza give him an amused look

“You didn’t even wake up until 12.”

“Exactly.”

Wilbur rolls his eyes as he walks over to Tommy and places his hand on his shoulder.

“Time to see who’s behind the mask” Wilbur grins, tugging it down.

“....”

“....”

“....”

“Wait, you’re a fucking child?” Wilbur asks in disbelief making Tommy glare at him.

“I’m not a child you prick.”

“Wait, Techno, pull down his mask,” Wilbur says gesturing to Tubbo making the pink-haired man shrug and then tug off his mask.

“They’re kids..You’re what, fucking 10? Maybe 13?”

“Ten?! I’m 17!”

Wilbur stares at him in silence for a minute and then looks back at his partner.

“What the hell are we supposed to do with kids? Call their parents or something?”

Philza stares at the boys in confusion before turning to Tommy

“Where are your parents mate?”

Before Tommy can think of a reply, Tubbo uses Techno’s lack of attention on him to run to Tommy and grab him, quickly pulling out a teleporter’s eye.

“I knew we had more than 9!” Tommy says excitedly making Tubbo roll his eyes before throwing the eye on the ground and disappearing out of the hero's sight.

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Crash

Tommy winces as his body collides with the familiar apartment's floor. Hard.

He definitely needs to talk with Tubbo and find out a way to have more peaceful landings.

"That's definitely going to leave a bruise." he murmurs, rubbing his now sore elbows before looking over to his roommate.

Tubbo lies on the floor deathly still, and Tommy feels panic quickly rush over him. Without Tubbo, he's screwed.

"Oh no, please don't be dead. I have no money, how will I survive?!"

Tubbo rolls his eyes at his friend as he sits up, letting out a small sigh.

"Good to know that if I died, your first concern would be money. Damn it, all of that and we didn't even end up with teleportation eyes." Tubbo murmurs, frowning down at his hands.

Tommy slowly walks over and takes a seat next to the boy and gives him a reassuring smile.

"Hey, don't worry big man. We could always try again maybe? Besides, you really saved our asses out there today. I mean, I thought for sure we were goners before you pulled off that pog escape." Tommy praises, making Tubbo crack a grin.

"It was pretty awesome wasn't it?"

"Oh, hell yeah!"

Tommy is truly the most amazing friend. Who else could be so great at comforting their friends? Why nobody other than Tommyinnit of course.

"Thanks Tommy, I feel much better now," Tubbo says, smiling at the boy.

"Yes yes, of course. Will you buy me a gun now?"

"Okay, moments over."

"Okay, fine. How about a very large knife?"

"Tommy"

"Yes?"

"Fuck off"

-----------------------

"No. Absolutely not."

Tommy stares wide-eyed at his friend's request. Asking him to go on a super dangerous mission where they might die? That's one thing. But this? It's a whole other ballgame.

"Tommy, come on. It's not that big of a deal-"

"Not that big of a deal?! It's a huge deal!"

"Seriously?"

"Tubbo, I won't. I completely refuse."

Tubbo rolls his eyes at his friend, taking a spoonful of cereal.

"Tommy, its really not that serious. Look, the heroes know what we look like now. If we do crime, they will easily recognize us and take us to jail. I just feel like it's a good idea to lay low for now, keep our heads down y'know?"

"But I can do that from home!"

"Tommy, I can't leave you alone for five minutes without you causing some kind of trouble. I really don't understand, you love Nikki and Fundy!"

Tommy scrunches his nose up in disgust at his friend's words.

"First off, I don't love anyone. My heart is made of stone, I am incapable of feeling love. Second of all, I enjoy when they give me free food. I don't enjoy working, especially when it doesn't involve crime. I'm not doing it."

"Tommy-"

"I won't do it Tubbo, I refuse. I'm drawing the line here."

-----------------------

"Welcome to Nikki and Fundy's bakery, what can I get for you today?" Tubbo asks the couple smiling, Tommy glaring at him from the kitchen as he helps Nikki knead the dough.

"This is so violating. Please help me." Tommy pleads, looking down at the cow beside him.

Henry stares up at the boy making him let out a sigh and shake his head sadly.

"There is no thought behind that baby cow's eyes."

Nikki shoots Tommy a confused look as she puts a fresh batch of cupcakes in the oven.

"...Baby cow? Don't you just mean calf?"

"God, what is it with you people and the word calf? That sounds stupid, baby cow makes you sound smart."

Nikki goes to respond but is cut off by Fundy placing a hand on her shoulder and shaking his head.

"Don't waste your time, Tubbo and I tried for like an hour this morning."

She nods, Tommy letting out a breath of relief. Sometimes it's a curse being as genius as he is. Normal people are completely oblivious.

Tubbo lets out a yawn as he walks into the kitchen, going straight to the sink and washing his hands.

"Hey Toms, take over the register for me for a second. I'm getting a headache so I'm going to take some medicine real quickly."

Tommy nods, setting the roller pin down on the table and walking to the front of the bakery. He really wishes he was committing crimes right now. He lets out a bored sigh as he rests his elbows on the counter and lays his head down.

After a few minutes, the sound of the store bell makes him quickly raise his head up and force a large smile on his face.

"Welcome to Nikki and Fundy's bakery, what can I help you with today?"

He opens his eyes to come face to face with an unfamiliar man with green-looking skin, a nervous smile etched across his face.

"I am meat!"

Tommy stares at the man for a minute and then nods slowly.

"Uh, that's good dude. What do you want to order?"

"Oh, um...I'm not sure honestly. What do you, a fellow human, suggest?"

"Well, most of the stuff here is really good. The pies are known to be some of the best in the city though so maybe one of them?"

The man studies Tommy's face in curiosity for a second and then nods, digging into his pockets.

"I'll take one of the pies then. You can keep the money, because that's how this economy works!" Tommy's eyes narrow in confusion as the man gives him a pretty hefty sum of money and then slowly backs out the door and into the darkness.

A sudden hand on Tommy's shoulder makes him jump causing Tubbo to give him a concerned look.

"You alright?"

Tommy nods, still staring at where the man had been staring in confusion.

"Did you recognize him?"

"Who?"

"The guy who was just here."

Tubbo tilts his head at his friend in confusion making Tommy let out a sigh and shake his head.

"Uh, just nevermind."

-----------------------

Fundy lets out a yawn as he finishes wiping down the bar, a peaceful smile on his face as he turns to the two teens.

"Good work today guys. I must admit Tommy, you did much better than what I expected" he laughs making Tommy raise an eyebrow.

"Um, of course I did great. I'm fucking Tommyinnit, great is my middle name."

Nikki shakes her head as she hands Henry's lead to Tommy and gives him a small smile.

"You both did wonderful, especially since it was just Tommy's first day. Are you going to be able to help us often?"

Tommy scoffs lightly at the girl's question and shakes his head.

"Just for a week or two. I want to get back into crime as soon as I can man, Brenda is calling my name."

-----------------------

"Is it time to move on to the next part of the plan master?

"...Yes, we will do it tonight."

-----------------------

Chapter Text

"I'm telling you Techno, anteaters are fucking hideous. They are literally the worst, I wish they would just go extinct already."

"Wilbur, for the fifteenth time. I really do not care. I think I would rather hear literally anything else other than you talk about your hatred for anteaters." Techno says, leaning against the side of a random building.

"Techno, don't make me make you jump off of a bridge."

"Do it, I dare you. I will stab you."

Philza lets out a sigh and shakes his head at the pair, closing his book. Sometimes he finds it insane that they are adults, they have been the same since they were little kids before crime got really bad in the cities.

At least some things never change.

"Mates, I love you, don't get me wrong. But please shut up, I'm trying to read here."

Wilbur gives him a curious glance before looking at the object in his hand, tilting his head to try and read the book's title.

"What are you reading anyways? You've seemed very engrossed in it lately."

"It's actually a book about old astrology. You see, constellations change over the years. The constellations that existed when I was your age are completely different from the ones that exist now. This book just sort of tracks how they have changed, sometimes it's just nostalgic to be able to see the same sky it was when I was younger."

The boys watch their father intently as he explains, sometimes even showing them pictures of past constellations.

"Does it make you sad when they change?" Techno asks curiously and Phillza thinks for a moment and then shakes his head.

"I think it's cool when they change, I love being able to experience each of the changes as they come. Although I enjoy seeing past ones every now and then, I look forward to when they change again."

The boys nod at their dad's words before looking at each other with a mischievous glint in their eyes.

"So.." Techno begins, standing up and walking over to where Philza and Wilbur are talking "You really are old then huh?"

"Gosh, do your joints pop when you fight these days? Gosh, Techno and I should start looking at nursing homes soon right?" Wilbur asks, a huge smile on his face.

Philza listens as his boys make old jokes about him for the next few hours, and although he will never admit it, he enjoys these moments with his sons.

Some things truly never change, and unlike the constellations, he hopes that this kind of thing never will.

-----------------------

Chapter Text

"Tommy, it's my turn to watch TV," Tubbo says annoyed, reaching over the boy to grab the remote. They've been going back and forth since they got home from the bakery which must have been at least an hour and a half at this point.

"Nope, I'm the best person so it's actually always my turn to watch TV" Tommy explains, holding the remote out of Tubbo's reach.

Okay, so maybe his logic is a little flawed, but it's fair enough right?

The answer is yes, yes it is.

Tubbo lets out a huff as he seems to give up, leaning back on the shared futon making Tommy grin in accomplishment and slowly lower his hand holding the remote down on his lap.

"I knew that you'd eventually see my si-"

Tommy is cut off as Tubbo lunges across the couch and seizes the remote, a small mischievous smile on his face at Tommy's widened eyes.

"We're watching Disney movies."

Tommy frowns and then lets out a huff as he crosses his arms.

"You cheating bitch!"

But he can't stop the playful smile that appears on his face or the laugh that escapes his throat.

-----------------------

Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

Tommy's not quite sure what gives it away first, the frantic shaking awake from Tubbo or the burning in his lungs as he involuntary inhales more smoke.

"Tubbo, what's happening?"

Tommy asks confused as Tubbo grabs his arm and pretty much forces him from the bed.

"I don't know, the apartment's on fire I think." Tubbo mumbles, frantically trying to open the window to the fire escape.

It won't budge.

"Shit. Tommy, go check the other window."

Tommy nods and runs to the other side of the room, testing the window's ability to open. He smiles as he feels it slide open, only to frown when he looks down.

It's straight down, and Tommy curses himself for wanting to be so high up. There's no way that they would be able to survive jumping from the 16th floor onto the street.

They're stuck.

"Tommy?" Tubbo's voice asks softly, bringing him out of his mind as he turns around to face him.

"No."

He's pretty sure he can hear the boy's breath catch in his throat when he hears the reply, so short and yet so powerful.

"Oh."

For a minute Tommy thinks about trying the window in the office but almost as if Tubbo can read his mind he shakes his head.

"It's blocked by the fire, so is the front door."

"Then what are we supposed to do now?" Tommy asks, his voice breaking and Tubbo gives him a sad smile.

"There is nothing we can do Tommy."

For once in his life, Tommyinnit the most amazing vigilante, feels completely helpless. There are no teleportation eyes, no escape routes. Nothing.

Tommy is just glad that he decided to let Henry stay the night with Nikki and Fundy.

Tubbo slowly sits in front of the couch, resting his head on his knees, Tommy soon sitting next to him. For a few seconds, the apartment is completely silent until Tubbo breaks it with laughter.

"Remember when we first moved in and you tried to bake me a birthday cake?" Tubbo asks making Tommy roll his eyes and nod, a small grin creeping upon his face.

"I wanted it to be a surprise, I stole all of the ingredients from the grocery store because we didn't have any money. I didn't think to read how long it had to bake though." Tommy laughs slightly at the memory of the burnt cake, Tubbo refused to eat it so they ended up just getting a cake from Fundy and Nikki.

Tommy feels himself getting dizzy and he really wants to sleep but Tubbo pushes him slightly.

"Don't fall asleep okay? We can't fall asleep Toms." Tubbo murmurs, clearly feeling the same way.

Tommy nods, trying to think of another story.

"Remember when we first ran away from the orphanage? I thought you were going to grow three heads when you told me your's and big Q's plan...I wish we could go on an adventure again..the three of us.

"We can, when we get out of here let's go find him okay?" Tubbo asks softly and Tommy nods smiling.

"That...That would be nice." He whispers as he feels the world turn black.

-----------------------

Philza frowns up at the apartment building, looking over as his sons help escort the remaining people out of the building. It isn't very common for apartment buildings to just randomly catch fire, especially fires as big as this one.

"Look around, does anyone notice people missing?" Wilbur asks out loud to the people, silence following.

A few seconds pass before an elderly lady lets out a gasp and looks at Philza in shock.

"There are two young boys, I'm pretty sure I saw them earlier. In apartment...16B I think?"

Philza nods, quickly flying up the height of the building. When he gets to the 16th floor, he tries to quickly look into all of the windows before finally, he gets to one that catches his eye the most. Unlike the others, where the windows were open to the fire escapes, this one remains closed, and inside lies two boys on the floor. Philza goes to lift the window but quickly stops when it doesn't budge, and after examining it closer he raises an eyebrow.

"It's sealed with glue? Why in the world?.. Crap, I can't focus on that right now, I need to get them out."

Philza breaks the glass in the window, maneuvering around the pieces so he can get inside as smoothly as he can. When he gets in, his eyes land on the two boys on the floor.

"Huh, didn't expect to see you guys again." he laughs with an amused look on his face as he tosses the familiar boys onto his shoulders, adjusting his grip to ensure they won't accidentally fall off.

When he gets out of the apartment, he spots his sons next to the firefighters.

Great, this is actually exactly what he needed.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where the fire started?"

"The fire? It's too early to tell but it looked like the 16th-"

"Yes, that's what I thought. Thank you"

Philza nods and grabs both of his sons' shoulders, dragging them away from the building.

"Philza, what's going on?" Wilbur asks confused, Techno raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"Do you recognize them?" Phil asks, gesturing to the boys on his shoulders.

"...Wait, that's the boys from the other day right? Why-"

"Listen, I think someone is trying to kill them."

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Tommy wakes up in a strange bed in a strange room to the smell of eggs and toast. To say he's confused would be a huge understatement.

Is he dead? The last thing he remembers is the fire and Tubbo-

Tubbo. Where is Tubbo?

He needs to find him.

Tommy goes to sit up but quickly falls back onto the mattress in a coughing fit.

If this is the afterlife or whatever, it sucks. He wonders if he could ask for a refund or something.

Tommy is brought out of his mind by the doorknob twisting and Wilbur walking in.

This is not Heaven.

"What the fuck? Why are you here?"

Wilbur makes a face at the teen, walking over to the front of the bed.

"What do you mean? I fucking live here."

Tommy's eyes widen; he has been kidnapped. This is not a drill. His eyes scan over the room quickly, landing on the window.

Time for Tommyinnit the most amazing vigilante to make his great escape.

-----------------------

"Dude, calm the fuck down!"

"I am leaving, a loser hero like you cannot stop me."

"I-You fucking child! I am not a loser, I am one of the best heroes in the world thank you very-"

"Um, what the hell are you guys doing?"

A confused voice causes the boys to freeze, both turning to face the pink-haired man staring at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Phil told me to come get you because you were taking too long. He fixed breakfast. Your friend is already down there."

Tommy's stomach growls at the mention of food. How long has it been since he has eaten? Plus, Tubbo's already down there.

After staring at Wilbur for a minute, he nods. He supposes he can eat.

"Fine, but no sketchy business or I'm leaving."

Techno shrugs, leaving the room to head to the kitchen with the two boys following close behind. It becomes apparent to Tommy very quickly that this apartment is much larger than the one he and Tubbo have been living in. Gosh, these heroes must be making bank.

When they arrive downstairs in the kitchen, Tommy quickly sees Tubbo glaring at Philza, angrily eating his toast.

When he sees that Tubbo is alive and okay, Tommy almost runs to hug hi-uhh, give him a very manly handshake. Because Tommy is a man. Obviously.

"Oh, hey mate. I have some breakfast, feel free to eat as much as you want." Philza says, noticing the boy in the doorway, smiling at the teen warmly.

Tubbo looks behind him quickly at the mention of his friend, seeming to relax when they meet eyes before going back to glaring at Philza.

Tommy nods, taking the seat next to Tubbo and grabbing a piece of the toast.

"Don't let the food trick you Toms, they kidnapped us."

"What-We didn't kidnap you guys, you fucking gremlins. We saved you-." Wilbur begins, Philza holding a hand up for him to be quiet.

"Calm down Will. To be fair, this is probably a crazy situation for them. Your apartment building burned down last night, no deaths thankfully. Your escape route must have gotten stuck or something because you were passed out on the floor." The two other men shoot him a look that Tommy doesn't quite understand but he tries to ignore it.

"But why are we here? You could have just left us there with the rest of the residents or something right?" Tubbo asks, squinting his eyes at the man.

Philza lets out a small sigh, giving the two boys a small smile.

"..I must admit that I'm curious as to how you both are immune to our powers. So I was thinking that you guys can stay here, at least for now. Maybe if we are around you long enough we can figure out what makes you two special."

Tubbo tsks at the man's words, rolling his eyes.

"And what do we get out of it hmm? It sounds like it mainly just benefits you guys."

Philza laughs at the boy and hums in thought.

"Alright, you have a point. You guys can live here free, we will keep food stocked and everything."

Tommy raises an eyebrow at the man and shakes his head.

"That's all? I must admit, I'm a bit disappointed..."

"Well, what else do you want?"

"Nukes?" Tubbo asks, making his voice sound almost innocent if you did not know that he was asking for weapons of mass destruction.

"No, no way. You'd blow up the planet or something." Wilbur says, shaking his head at the teen.

"...How about you have access to some bombs instead?" Philza suggests, ignoring the "are you crazy" look Wilbur shoots him.

Tubbo hums in thought, the room is silent for a minute, and then Techno interrupts.

"You guys can also continue causing crimes or whatever. I'll even let you have some new weapons."

Huge smiles spread on the teens' faces, Tubbo quickly nodding.

"Deal."

"What? Have you all fucking lost your mind or something? You're not only giving these teens access to new weapons and permission to commit crimes, but also bombs? W h y?"

Techno shrugs, grabbing a book from the dining table with a small smile on his face.

"I enjoy the chaos."

"You can't be serious."

"Uh, no takebacks. Now, where exactly can I find a gun in this economy?" Tommy asks, already imagining how many crimes he will be able to commit now.

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Tommy is on a mission. The most important mission he has ever been on, more important than fighting the tall skinny creatures or busting drug deals. No, this is much more intense. He may not even come back alive.

Operation: Get back Henry.

It's been 3 long weeks since he'd last seen his child, the heroes have kept a close watch on him and his partner in crime so they haven't had the time to sneak away. But tonight the heroes made a mistake: they went to bed early.

"Are we almost there? I'm so fucking bored." Tommy mumbles, Tubbo rolling his eyes at the other teen.

"Stop being such a baby. We're almost there, just be happy we found an uber and didn't have to walk. It'd take hours."

Tommy lets out a sigh as he looks out the window, trying to think of a way to pass the time quicker.

Although he knows this will be very shocking to hear, sometimes Tommyinnit the most amazing vigilante...isn't the most patient person. Sounds pretty unbelievable right? Most people are shocked when they find out, they can't even speak.

"Okay..and we're here." The uber man says, turning around to give the two boys a kind smile. "That will be £30 boys. Have a great night."

The teens exit the uber and head towards the front door of the bakery. They are definitely cutting it close, the bakery will be closed for the night in 5 minutes.

Good thing they didn't walk.

The door's bell jingles as they enter the bakery, the familiar scent of fresh cakes in the air.

"Welcome to Nikki and Fundy's bakery! We are about to close so-" Fundy stops when he sees the familiar boys, the smile on his face quickly turning into a frown as he runs to them and checks their arms for injuries.

"You're okay? Thank goodnes. Nikki, we have visitors!"

-----------------------

"We heard about the apartment burning the morning after, we waited for you guys to contact us but.." Nikki trails off as she places a cup of hot chocolate in front of both of the boys.

"It's been weeks since we've heard from either of you, we expected the worst." Fundy says, turning the sign from open to closed.

Tubbo shoots them an apologetic smile as he takes a sip of the hot liquid.

"Yeah, sorry about that. We're staying at the hero Philza's apartment-"

"Wait, what? You didn't-"

The atmosphere of the bakery shifts quickly, the tension between the group could cut like a knife.

"Don't worry, we've not mentioned either of you. You guys are safe. They know that Tommy and I are, but we don't have nearly as much as you guys do to lose."

Nikki and Fundy relax at the boy's words, but Fundy frowns as he glances out the bakery's window.

"It's late out, how about you guys stay with Nikki and I for the night? Sorry that we can't really hang out tomorrow due to having to open the bakery but it'll be safer.-"

Tommy grins at the man's words, smiling as he places his empty cup next to Tubbo's.

"That sounds great actually, I'm tired."

Tubbo shoots his friend a doubtful glance at his words.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Tommy? We should probably head back before the hero's wake u-"

"Don't worry, I'm sure they won't care at all."

-----------------------

"Philza, please let me leave."

"Sorry mate, no can do."

This is an outrage. An absolute crime, and not even the good kind.

Tommyinnit, the most amazing vigilante, is grounded.

Which is absolutely ridiculous, he didn't even do anything wrong. It's all because of that dick Wilbur, he ratted him and Tubbo out this morning for sneaking out.

Tommy glances at the cow by his feet, chewing on one of his old shoes. He debates for a minute swapping it for one of Wilbur's shoes, but then he'd have to listen to him complain which would annoy him even more.

"Hey mate, are you lactose intolerant?"

"Um, no?"

Philza lets out a sigh as he marks something down in his notebook. He's been at the kitchen table for the past few hours, reading books and marking things down.

"What are you doing anyways?" Tommy asks, walking closer to the older man and squinting to read his handwriting. It doesn't even look like English, just scribbles so he decides to stop even attempting to read it.

"I'm trying to think of reasons you're immune to our powers. I'm sort of stuck honestly, I can't think of any reason.." He trails off as he stares down at the piece of paper, muttering something to himself as he marks through some text.

"..Is it a bad thing? That I'm immune to your powers?" Tommy asks making Philza look at him in surprise.

"No. But it is odd. I've been alive for centuries, and have never met anyone immune until now. If I could find out why you're immune, you could be a great hero." Philza says, laughing as Tommy makes a face.

"I wouldn't want to be a hero. I like commiting crimes."

Philza opens his mouth to say something but is cut off at the sound of the front door swinging open.

"Phil, we need help!"

Philza hurriedly rushes to the living room, Tommy following behind him. When they enter, Tommy is surprised to see a tall man passed out, one arm slung on top of the shoulders of each man.

"Whoa, what happened to him?"

"I don't know, he just sort of passed out? He's been murmuring to himself but I don't think they're actual words." Techno explains, motioning for Wilbur to help lie him down on the couch. They do so without much difficulty, Techno taking a seat on the floor in front of the man.

"Alright let me see if we have any healing potions left," Philza says, going to walk away but is grabbed on the arm by Wilbur.

"There's one more thing."

Philza gives the man a confused look, Wilbur's gaze shifting to where Tommy stands in the doorway in confusion.

"He is immune to our powers."

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Philza stares at his son in surprise at his words before quickly looking back at Tommy in confusion.

"Do you know him?"

"What? No."

Techno stares at the boy for a moment, clearly confused.

"Okay, then what the fuck? We went from nobody being immune to our powers to three people? There's no way that this is just by chance."

Philza nods, eyes flicking back to the boy on the couch before shaking his head.

"That's not what's important right now, he needs a healing potion."

Philza quickly heads upstairs, leaving Tommy, Techno, Wilbur, and the strange boy.

"Look, it's not that I don't trust you but I don't trust you. You're absolutely sure you don't know him? He's not your long lost relative or something?" Wilbur asks, making Tommy roll his eyes at the older man.

"If he was 'long lost' I wouldn't know him you idiot."

Tommy can't help but wonder how Wilbur is seen as one of the most powerful heroes, because no offense, he's not very smart.

Actually, full offense.

Techno rolls his eyes at the pair before his ears perk up slightly at the sound of footsteps descending the stairs.

"Oh, you're back. Wilbur and the child are- Oh, it's you."

"What do you mean 'it's you'?" Tubbo asks, giving the man an annoyed look before his eyes fall on the boy on the couch.

"Who's that?"

"D'know. Found him." Wilbur shrugs, making Tubbo roll his eyes.

"Of course you did. What's up with you lot and kidnapping? I thought you guys are supposed to be heroes?"

"For the last time, we didn't kidnap you fucking grem-"

Tubbo hums to himself, clearly not listening to Wilbur, which Tommy can't help but find absolutely hilarious.

Tubbo walks up to the couch and leans down slightly next to the boy's face with a curious glance.

"Is he alri-" he cuts himself off with a yelp as the boy's eyes flash open, and he quickly grabs onto Tubbo's arm.

"Fu-Philza!"

-----------------------

"Wh-Where am I? Who are you?" The boy asks, eyes frantically scanning the room.

"They kidnapped you dude-" Tubbo starts but is quickly cut off by an agitated Wilbur.

"Don't listen to him, we didn't. You were freaking out and passed out on the street, we brought you here so we could help you."

The boy relaxes slightly, but anyone with eyes can tell he's very much still on edge, so Philza slowly approaches him like you would an injured animal.

"It's okay, none of us are going to hurt you. I'm Philza, these are my sons Wilbur and Techno. The boy next to you is Tubbo, the boy over there is Tommy. Are you feeling okay?"

He seems to think about it for a moment and then gives a small nod making Philza smile.

"That's good. Can you tell me your name?"

"...Ranboo."

"Ranboo? Do you remember why you were freaking out earlier?"

The boy shakes his head.

"Alright, do you remember passing out?"

He shakes his head again.

"Well, where are you from?"

The boy seems to think for a moment before his eyes meet Philza's in surprise.

"Um, I don't remember."

Philza furrows his eyebrows and then slowly nods.

"Okay, what do you remember?"

Um..a cave...I think? Maybe? Yeah, I just remember a cave and now I'm here. Sorry."

Philza's eyes widen slightly at the boy's words, quickly glancing back at his sons and then back to the boy on the couch with a small reassuring smile on his face.

"..Right, okay. Ranboo, what do you think about staying here for a while?"

-----------------------

"Mate, please stop glaring at the poor boy." Philza sighs as he watches the teen send the boy on the couch a death stare.

"I don't like him."

"How do you already not like him? He's not even been awake for an hour?" Wilbur asks amused as he picks at the guitar strings.

"I just don't. He gives me bad vibes. What kind of name is Ranboob anyways?"

"...Ranboo?" Philza asks, a small laugh escaping from his throat. 

"Ranboob."

"Do you mean Ranboo?"

"Ranboob."

"It's Ranboo"

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Ranboob."

Philza stares at the boy for a minute and then shakes his head, deciding that this isn't a battle he wants to fight today.

"I agree with him Phil. Why do you keep inviting random orphans to live with us? Are you trying to like spite me or something?" Techno asks, making a face at the word 'orphans.'

Philza rolls his eyes at the boys and then gives them a small smile.

"Come on mates, give him a chance. Tubbo seems to be alright with him." he says, glancing in the living room to see Tubbo explaining how the television remote works.

Tommy makes a disgusted face at the scene. How dare this Ranboob guy show up like this and try to steal his best friend?

"Philza, I'm telling you. I don't like him."

"Give it time Tommy. Who knows, maybe in a few weeks you will be best friends."

-----------------------

Chapter Text

"Give it time Tommy. Who knows, maybe in a few weeks you will be best friends."

Yeah right.

"Ranboob, I swear to god-"

"What? I didn't even do anything-"

"Don't act stupid. You know what you did."

"I really don't. And once again my name is Ranboo."

"Yeah, right. Whatever you say Ranboob."

Tommy had been out all day adventuring and had really been looking forward to coming home and getting some fast food with Tubbo. But instead, when he opened the door to see Tubbo eating with this guy. He hasn't even been at the apartment for a month and he has the audacity to try to steal his Tubbo? It's not going to happen.

"Oh my god, they're at it again" Wilbur groans, rolling his eyes at the still bickering boys.

"Hey Will, how about we go patrolling?" Techno asks hopefully, making Philza let out a small laugh.

"It's our day off, remember? Gosh, if I had known that you would volunteer to patrol, I would have found these boys sooner." he grins, glancing towards the living room where the boys continue to argue back and forth.

"Phil, please make them stop." Techno pretty much begs which makes Philza laugh.

"Don't worry mate. They'll tire themselves out soon enough."

Hopefully.

-----------------------

"Okay, Ranboo. Since you're living here, it's only fair that you help out with chores. What do you think about doing dish duty?" Tubbo asks, the boy just shrugs.

"..Alright, I'll take that as 'yes, dish duty sounds great'."

Tommy scrunches his nose up in disgust at the pair making Philza laugh slightly and shake his head.

"Tommy, he's allowed to have other friends. You know that right?"

"But that guy is trying to steal my  Tubbo. I'll fight him...Hey Philza, do you have a last name?"

"What?" Philza asks confused, tilting his head slightly at the boy's question. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, I was just curious if heroes have last names. Most people do, but...heroes aren't really human."

Philza looks at him for a few seconds and then nods.

"My last name is Minecraft."

"..."

"..."

"Like the game? Do you play it a lot or something?" Tommy asks laughing.

"Game?"

"Yeah, Minecraft. The game of squares, you can build and mine and stuff.

Philza gives him a confused look and then shrugs his shoulders.

"I've never heard of it mate."

Tommy stares at the older man in surprise at his words. He's never heard of Minecraft? H O W ?

"Okay, that's a crime. Minecraft is very popular, have you been living under a rock or something? Can you believe this Henry?"

Tommy looks down beside his feet to see his animal companion staring up at Philza.

"..."

"Exactly, wise words Henry! Philza, you need to play Minecraft man."

"Mate-"

Philza is cut off by a sudden pained yelp coming from the kitchen.

"Oh shi-Philza!"

Tubbo quickly runs into the living room, dragging Ranboo beside him by the elbow. The tall boy has his right hand close to his chest, a pained expression on his face.

"He's burned?" Tubbo says confused, Philza walking up to inspect the tall boy's hand.

He looks at it for a minute or two, before he lets out a gasp and runs out the room with a quick "I'll be right back."

He's gone for a few seconds and then returns with a thick book in his hand. It's very old, the cover of it is cloth and seems to be torn in many different places. He quickly skims through some of the pages, a smile appearing on his face.

"I knew it. Ranboo, you're an Enderman."

Wilbur gives him a confused look, glancing at Ranboo in disbelief.

"Um, are you sure? I don't think he looks like an Enderman."

Techno nods at his brother's words, giving Philza a concerned look.

"Has your age finally caught up with you? Sometimes old age affects your reading abili-"

"I'm not even that old. And yeah, he's definitely an Enderman. Or at least half. Endermen can't touch water, it's like acid on them."

"Then when he was muttering-"

"He was probably speaking in Enderman. Though I don't understand how it's possible for him to be a half breed, he has to be."

Ranboo stares at his burned hand in surprise.

"I'm an..Enderman?"

-----------------------

"Breaking News. Well known villain, Dream, has managed to escape jail just two days before he is to be moved to the Pandora's box. Police force and heroes are perplexed, but ensure they they will catch him. Until then, it is recommended you do not go many places alone or at night. If you see any suspicious characters, please contact the police or the National Hero Association immediately."

Tommy stares at the TV in surprise before quickly looking back at the heroes to see that their mood has changed completely.

"How did he escape? I thought it was impossible to escape the holding cell?" Tommy asks the three men, confusion evident on the boy's face.

"It is. Most villains would never be able to escape. He's not most villains though. As we have learned these past few months, impossible things happen." Wilbur murmurs, making Technoblade nod.

"I mean, you guys being immune to our powers is impossible. Dream, he's..he's crazy. When we arrested him, he didn't feel bad, he was just annoyed that he couldn't commit anymore crimes. I'm not surprised, if anyone can escape the holding cell, it's him."

Philza shakes his head, giving the men a reassuring smile.

"Let's not worry too much about it, alright? We caught him once, we can do it again. Wilbur, Techno, we'll increase training to four days a week instead of three. Tommy, Ranboo, and Tubbo, don't go out unless you have at least one other person with you. Preferably Wilbur, Techno, or myself." Philza explains, giving a pointed look at Tommy.

"Huh, why are you looking at me?" Tommy asks in surprise, making Wilbur raise an eyebrow.

"Because you'll probably ignore him."

"What? I would never."

"For some reason, I really don't believe you."

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Tommy has been bored out of his mind for the last few days, to say the least. He hasn't even left the apartment since Philza told him the new "rules." Wilbur thinks he will be the first one to break them, so of course, he has to prove him wrong.

"Tubbo, I'm bored." Tommy murmurs, hanging upside down on the couch making the other teen lets out a sigh.

"Yeah, I know. You have been for like the past hour." Tubbo murmurs, laying the Gameboy he's been playing on the table. He can't focus due to the boy's constant complaining anyway, so he might as well save battery.

"Can we go commit crimes or something?" Tommy asks hopefully, pouting slightly when the boy shakes his head.

"Not today. This new videogame releases tonight, so I'm going to try and convince Philza to buy it for me."

Tommy sighs at the response, trying to think of things to keep him entertained. He's been watching a lot of TV lately but there's nothing good on right now, so that's out the window. A small noise causes his attention to shift to Henry eating on the floor when suddenly he gets the best idea ever.

Tommyinnit is truly a genius.

-----------------------

Henry counts as a person, right?

Tommy hums to himself as he walks down the street, glancing down every now and then to check on Henry. He needed to be walked, of course, it would be cruel of Tommy to force him to stay inside.

He is such a good pet dad, so caring.

Henry has gotten so big over the past few months, he is no longer the small cow he was when Tommy stole-saved him- from those evil people.

"So what are you thinking Henry, what do you want to do?" Tommy asks, glancing down at the cow by his side.

"...."

"Hmm, I don't know, we may get caught if we do that. I really don't want to listen to Wilbur bitch."

Henry looks up at the boy and then lets out a small moo making Tommy grin.

"You have been very vocal lately, I think you deserve a reward. Hmmm, ooh, how about a cake? I really want a cake now. Maybe Tubbo can have a piece or two if I'm feeling generous."

"...."

"Are you crazy? Of course Ranboob can't have any, I'm not a traitor."

"...."

"Don't talk back to me, I'm buying the cake, I decide who eats it."

"...."

"Okay, technically it's Philza's money, but he'll never notice."

"...."

"I'll pay him back Henry!"

-----------------------

In Tommy's defense, none of this is his fault.

"Oh thank goodness you're here. This boy and his cow have been tormenting the store!"

Tommy lets out a snort at the man's exaggeration. They have not been "tormenting" anything. They have simply been playing hide and seek on the shelves.

"Of course, he won't be bothering you again." Wilbur reassures the old man, shooting a glare at Tommy, causing him to roll his eyes.

Great, now he's going to have to listen to him complain for the next week.

The universe must really hate him.

After a few minutes of Wilbur and the old man talking, Wilbur wishes him goodbye and him, Tommy, and Henry start heading home.

"Not even a week and you've already broken the one rule, you gremlin child." Wilbur smirks, making Tommy scrunch his nose up at the man.

"Uh, technically he never said I couldn't bring Henry. I didn't break any rules you old man."

Wilbur stares at the boy for a minute and then lets out a small laugh as he shakes his head.

"What? What's so funny?" Tommy asks annoyed, but Wilbur just smiles.

"Nothing, don't worry about it child. Let's get back to the apartment, it's fucking freezing out here."

And for the first time ever, Tommy actually agrees with him on something.

-----------------------

"Oh, there you boys are. Where have you been?"

Crap. Tommy scatters his brain searching for a believable excuse but Wilbur speaks up quickly.

"We just went exploring. The cow needed exercise, and you know how the gremlin can get when he feels trapped inside."

Philza stares at the boys with a raised eyebrow for a minute and then shrugs.

"Well, alright then. I've ordered pizza, it should be here anytime. Ranboo and Tubbo are already in the kitchen and Techno should be home soon. Nothing interesting on patrols today, there was a few jaywalkers but that's pretty much it."

Tommy half-listens to the man as he talks about the patrols. Some people are not good at committing crimes apparently, not Tommy though. If that old man at the grocery store wasn't such a snitch, he's sure he would have had a lot more fun.

"...Maybe you can bring Tommy with you and Techno on patrols tomorrow."

Wilbur stares at his father like he has just grown three heads. Actually, Tommy is pretty sure that Wilbur would be less surprised if he did grow three heads.

"Uh, no."

Philza gives his son a disappointed look at his response, tsking him.

"Wilbur, don't be like that. It could be fun.-"

"Fun? What? Look, I know you enjoy stealing orphans in your free time Phil, but I can think of a million fun things. None of them involve bringing this gremlin child with me on patrols. That is the only place I can escape from him dude."

Philza shakes his head at the man, a disapproving look in his eyes.

"Wilbur, that is not nice. You and Tommy have to learn how to get along. You can't just hate each other forever."

"Wanna bet? I have a 20 if you do."

"Will."

"What? We have to be realistic here. We'll just end up killing each other anyway."

"Wilbur, you and Techno will be taking Tommy on patrol with you tomorrow. And you will be nice to him when you do."

"Phil, I am not taking this gremlin child with me. I absolutely refuse to."

-----------------------

Chapter Text

"I can't believe we got stuck babysitting." Wilbur murmurs as he slides the backpack onto his shoulders.

"Well, you know how Philza is. You should have known that telling him no wouldn't do us any good." Techno sighs, glancing beside him at the 17-year-old playing with the taser.

"Stop complaining babies, you should be thankful towards the great Philza Minecraft. He let you exist with the most pog man in the universe." Tommy grins at the two men.

"And who's that?" Wilbur asks curiously with a raised eyebrow at the younger boy.

"What-Me of course!"

"Yeah, right."

Techno snorts at the boys and shakes his head, sliding his sword into its sheath on his back.

"Okay children, I don't run a daycare. Can we go now or are you going to bicker for another few hours?"

Wilbur rolls his eyes at his twin and flips him off, shooting a disgusted look at Tommy.

"I'm not a child like this gremlin."

"I'm not a child! I am 17, thank you very much!"

"Oh my god, I really don't give a fuck." Techno groans, rubbing his temples.

This is going to be a long night.

-----------------------

Tommy lets out a sigh as he leans against the brick wall. This is..much more boring than he was expecting it to be. He glances over at the two men to see if they are also bored but they look totally fine. Techno is reading a book and Wilbur is on his phone playing a game or something. After a minute of hesitation, Tommy decides to walk over and sit next to them.

"..."

"..."

"I'm very bored."

Neither of the men looks up from what they're doing, if it wasn't for Techno nodding his head Tommy would have assumed they didn't even hear him.

"Is it always like this?"

"Yep, pretty much."

Tommy groans, leaning his head back, before his eyes land on Techno's book cover.

"What are you reading?" Tommy asks curiously, making Techno let out a sigh and look away from the pages.

"It's Greek Mythology. But you keep talking, so I'm not getting much done."

"Hmmm, sounds pretty boring."

"Of course you'd say that. But it's quite the contrary actually, at the moment I'm reading about Theseus."

"Theseus? Who's that?"

"He was the son of Aegeus, the king of Athens. Athens lost a war against the king of Crete named Minos, and as punishment, he demanded a tribute every nine years. Athens would have seven youths and seven maidens to be delivered to a palace in Cnossus. There, they were thrown into the Labyrinth, a large maze where anyone would be lost as they walk along the twisting path, without ever finding the exit. The Athenian youths and maidens were to be food to a monster that lived in the Labyrinth known as the Minotaur.

Theseus decided to end the tributes, by killing the monster, going as one of the sacrificial victims. Minos’ daughter, Ariadne instantly fell in love with Theseus so she sought out Daedalus and asked for a means in escaping the Labyrinth. She ended up meeting Theseus and gave him a ball of thread. She told him to tie one end of the wool to the entrance, unwinding the wool as he walked. If he wanted to leave the Labyrinth, then he can easily retrace his steps, by following the thread.

Theseus boldly went looking for Minotaur in the Labyrinth. Without a weapon, Theseus bashed the Minotaur to death with his fist as he pinned the monster down on the ground. With thread, Theseus and the other sacrificial victims left the Labyrinth, and escaped with Ariadne to the ship and sailed back towards Athens.

He ended up exiled, he lost his throne to a man named Menestheus. He was shunned by the Athens, and died in disgrace, despised by his own people."

"But-But he saved everyone!" Tommy says confused, eyes furrowed at the older man.

"Yes, you're right, he did. But in this world Tommy, good things don't happen to heroes. Don't forget that."

-----------------------

"You know, I think you guys should just let me commit crimes tonight. I could teach everyone how to be a good vigilante."

"No." Wilbur and Techno say in unison, not even glancing up at the boy making Tommy sigh.

"..You guys are such joykills."

Wilbur just shrugs, going back on his phone until suddenly an alarm blares through the speakers. He looks down at the screen for a few seconds and then swings his backpack over his shoulder.

"Coordinates: 51.500153° N, -0.1262362° E." Wilbur says simply, Techno nodding and glancing back at Tommy.

"Time to go."

Tommy can't help the excitement he feels as he runs with the two older men towards the location. For once, he's not running from them which is pog. It doesn't take long for them to arrive, it's pretty obvious they are in the right place from the smoky vehicles with a man in a red cloak standing in the middle of the road.

"Okay, you've had your fun. Enough is enough." Wilbur says, causing the man to turn around. His eyes automatically land on Tommy's and a huge smile spread across his face.

"Ah, Tommy! It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person. I was hoping that you three would be the ones to come."

Wilbur and Techno give him a weird look before turning back to Tommy.

"Uhh, do you know him?" Wilbur asks with a raised eyebrow.

Tommy stares at the guy in shock and then shakes his head.

"I-how do you know my name? Who are you?"

The guy just continues to smile, eyes not leaving Tommy, and then he goes to walk away.

Techno breaks out of his shocked state first; and quickly takes his blade out of its sheath and points it at the strange man.

"No, I don't think so. We have to book you man, come with us peacefully and nobody gets hurt."

The man pauses and turns back around to give the three men an apologetic grin.

"Sorry guys, I'm afraid that I have to go. Don't worry though, we'll see each other very very soon." and just like that, he disappears into thin air.

There is silence between the three men for a moment, and then Wilbur lets out a deep breath.

"I think it's time to end patrol for tonight."

There are no complaints.

-----------------------

Chapter Text

 "Huh, that's so weird." Philza murmurs to himself as he listens to the three boys talk about their late-night encounter with the man.

"Yeah, I thought so too. Does he sound familiar to you at all?" Techno asks confused making Philza hum in thought for a minute and then shake his head.

"No, I don't think so. God, what's up with all of these strange people showing up recently?" Philza asks nobody in particular, glancing down at the book he was reading.

"Do you think it has anything to do with the gremlins? There's no way this is all coincidences is there?" Wilbur asks his dad, ignoring the glare Tommy shoots him at the nickname.

"..Yes, if he knew Tommy's name, I'm almost certain this has something to do with their immunity to our powers. You're absolutely sure you didn't know him Tommy?"

"Yeah, I'm sure alright. The whole time he was talking, it gave me super bad vibes honestly." Tommy points out, making Techno nod in agreement.

"He's right. The man said that we didn't know him but that we would soon. Something really weird is going on Phil."

Philza looks at his son in silence for a moment and then nods, standing up from the dining table.

"You're right, I'm not exactly sure what's going on but we need to figure it out soon. For now, let's stay cautious and stick together and if anything weird happens, tell me immediately."

-----------------------

Tommy lets out a bored sigh as he lays in his bed, staring at his ceiling. The apartment is pretty boring when Wilbur's not around for the boy to fuck with. Maybe he can go annoy Tubbo. He goes to walk down the hallway to the teen's room when-

"Tommy, come down here real quick." Techno calls from the bottom of the stairs, making Tommy furrow his eyebrows in confusion. Techno never wants him? Is he going to like kill him or something?

"Tommy, are you coming?"

Tommy eventually shrugs and heads downstairs. Well, if he dies at least he can say that he died at the hands-er-sword of the blade.

"Let's go for a drive."

Tommy isn't exactly sure what he's thinking as he laces his shoes up. Has he gone crazy? Possibly. Is he still going to go with him? Definitely.

-----------------------

"Whoa."

Tommy's eyes widen involuntarily at the pure size of the building. It's even larger than the school he attended before he was taken out in his fourth year, which definitely wasn't small.

"It's pretty huge huh?" Techno asks, letting out a small chuckle at the teen's reaction.

"It's like...the size of the queen's castle." Tommy whispers in amazement, making Techno give him a confused look.

"Uh, not quite. Anyways, let's go in. This is the heroes headquarters, I needed to get some things so I figured I'd bring you along." Techno says shrugging, getting out of the car, and walking towards the front door with Tommy following close behind.

"This is the headquarters? I thought hero headquarters were supposed to be hidden?"

"Nah, not really. That's just in movies, headquarters are very very well protected though. You need to stick with me at all times while we're in here so you don't end up lost. Philza will kill me if I lose you." Techno sighs, Tommy, nodding in acknowledgment.

The inside is even more amazing, which Tommy did not think was even possible. It's also gigantic. Techno was right when he said that he could end up lost, so the teen decides to actually listen to a hero for once.

"So, I am not trying to complain or anything. Don't get me wrong. But, what exactly are we doing here?" Tommy asks curiously, making Techno roll his eyes.

"I already told you. I need to get some things. While we are here, I figured that I would go ahead and get you a gun."

Tommy's eyes widen at the man's words, giving him a surprised look.

"Wait, really? You're serious?"

Techno nods, entering a glass elevator and giving the boy a small grin.

Tommy laughs in excitement and runs to join him in the elevator, already planning on showing off his new toy to Tubbo as soon as he gets back to the apartment.

Techno knows he's going to get an earful from both his father and his brother, but he decides that this is well worth it.

What can he say? He enjoys the chaos.

-----------------------

Chapter Text

"Master, he has finally arrived."

"Good, good. Welcome our guest with great hospitality. It's about time we discuss the next phase of our plan."

-----------------------

"Tommy...what is that?"

"What do you mean 'what is that'? It's a gun obviously. Tubbo, are you alright big man?"

The brown-haired teen stares at his friend in shock and..terror?

"Who the fuck gave you a gun?"

Tommy hesitates before answering the question, considering his options carefully. On one hand, if he tells on Techno, Tubbo may murder him. On the other hand, if he doesn't, Tubbo may murder Tommy.

"It was the Blade, it was all his idea."

Sorry Techno, Tommy needs his life.

Tubbo stares at him for a second and then nods, beelining for the stairs.

Tommy has a moment of silence for the soon-to-be fallen man before the sound of incoherent mumbling from the couch makes him furrow his eyebrows in confusion.

"Uh, Ranboob, you alright man?"

"⎅⍀⟒⏃⋔..⏚⏃⎅...⌿⍀⍜⏁⟒☊⏁..⎎⍀⍜⋔ ⎅⍀⟒⏃⋔..."

"Uh..Thanks?"

The tall boy quickly rushes upstairs, leaving Tommy standing in the living room in confusion.

"OW-Tubbo, what the fuck?!" Techno's voice yells from upstairs, but Tommy decides that this is the perfect time to watch TV.

Yep, everything is great. Nothing strange going on here at all.

-----------------------

Tommy is frantically shaken awake at around 3:00 AM by a concerned Tubbo.

"Big man? What's wrong?"

"Have you seen Ranboo?"

"Uh, not since like 7:00. Why?"

"He left at like 9:00 and he's still not back. Help us look for him."

When Tommy gets downstairs, he only sees Philza on the phone but no sight of Technoblade or Wilbur anywhere.

"They're out looking for him," Tubbo says from behind the boy as if he read his mind.

"It's so weird, why would he just up and leave like that?" Tommy asks the boy confused, making him shrug.

"I don't know."

Philza sighs as he gets off the phone and shakes his head at the boys.

"The police cameras haven't seen him in the city, Wilbur and Techno are heading to the coordinates you said right now, Tubbo."

Tubbo nods, eyes not leaving the floor, causing Tommy to sigh and drape his arm over his shoulders.

"They'll find him Tubbo, try not to worry about it."

The boy nods, giving his friend a small smile, although the worry never leaves his face.

"I hope you're right Tommy.

I really do."

-----------------------

After what seems like forever, Techno and Wilbur walk into the apartment, both holding onto one of Ranboo's arms.

"Oh, thank goodness you guys found him." Philza says, letting out a breath of relief at seeing the familiar tallboy.

Wilbur nods, eyes finding Tubbo's in confusion.

"Right where you told us."

"He's speaking gibberish again though." Techno murmurs making Philza tilt his head in confusion at the boy.

"You mean enderman?"

"Whatever, you know what I meant."

The older man nods, walking up to the trio.

"Ranboo, you alright there mate?"

"⌿⍀⍜⏁⟒☊⏁. ⋔⎍⌇⏁ ⌿⍀⍜⏁⟒☊⏁.."

"What's he saying?" Tommy asks confused as he stares at the boy.

"I'm not sure. I would need a translator. I have a book of enderman translations, I will have to decipher it later. First, we need to make him go back to normal."

He hums deep in thought, glancing around the room in search of anything that may cause him to go back to normal.

"Maybe try hitting him?" Technoblade speaks up, Tubbo quickly shooting a glare at him.

It's a good thing looks can't kill.

"We are not hitting him!"

Philza looks back at his son in surprise and then nods.

"You're kidding me." Tubbo exclaims, clearly annoyed but Philza just shrugs.

"It's worth a try right?"

Tubbo hesitates, eyes looking over the tall boy in concern.

"I guess. If it means he will go back to normal then-HEY!"

Tubbo is cut off by the loud sound of Philza's fist connecting with Ranboo's face and then a pained groan from the boy.

"Oops, I think I hit him a little too hard. Sorry mate." Philza apologizes as he looks at the pained look on his face.

"It's alright. Man, that really hurt." Ranboo murmurs as he holds his face.

That is definitely going to leave a bruise tomorrow.

"What is the last thing you remember?" Wilbur asks, making Ranboo give him a confused look.

"Um, going to bed? And then being punched in the face."

Wilbur gives the two other men a knowing look, and then their attention turns to Tubbo.

"How did you know where he was?" Techno asks him, making him shrug.

"My vision. It had coordinates, it's the same reason I knew why he wasn't back home."

"Did you see anything else?" Wilbur asks, and after a second of hesitation, Tubbo nods.

"What did you see?"

"..."

-----------------------

The living room of the penthouse is silent. Completely unlike the usual chaos that surrounds the room. The six people sit together quietly; even Tommy is too stunned to break the silence to do the normal bickering with Wilbur.

"What did you see?"

"..."

"Tubbo, what did you see?" Tommy asks confused, making the other boy shake his head.

"It's not what I seen, It's who."

"You seen someone else?"

Tubbo nods, eyes focused on the TV screen.

"Who?"

"...Dream."

-----------------------

Footsteps echo around the quiet hallway, a man dressed in a black cloak walking as fast as he possibly can to get to the guest's room before...

He interrupts his thinking process as he arrives in front of the giant door, taking a deep breath before knocking.

"Who is it?"

"I'm...I come for the master. The meeting starts in 5 minutes and it has requested your presence."

"Okay, give me a second."

The building falls silent for a moment before the giant door is pulled open, a green man in a smiling mask coming into view.

"Oh, you are already ready. Allow me to escort you to the master and Ba-"

"I can do it myself actually. I don't need your help, I have been looking forward to this day for a while." The green man smiles to himself, soon he will be the most powerful being in the Universe and there is nothing anyone else can do about it. 

-----------------------

Chapter Text

"...Dream."

The familiar name echos in Tommy's mind, a ton of questions following close behind.

Does Dream have anything to do with this? If so, what? And why does he seem so familiar to him?

The sound of rattling from the dining room makes Tommy let out a sigh. Philza's been spending the majority of the week looking for the reasoning behind everything, but he hasn't been very successful so far.

"You're thinking about Tubbo's vision aren't you?"

Wilbur's voice brings Tommy out of his daydream, nodding with furrowed eyebrows as the man takes a seat next to him

"Yeah, me too. I am honestly trying to figure out if he has any connection with that man we all saw while on patrol."

"Oh yeah, that crazy man who knew me but I didn't know him, right?"

"Yep, that's the one alright." Wilbur sighs, closing his eyes in thought.

Tommy watches the man curiously. When he acts like this, he is actually somewhat tolerable.

If only he would just stay like this, maybe Tommy wouldn't feel the urge to fight him all of the time.

...Actually, on second thought, he would probably still want to fight him. Maybe his face is the problem, it just looks so punchable honestly.

-----------------------

"I think I have finally done it."

The blonde man stares down at his book in pure shock. Is this real has he actually?-

"Oh my god, I think I have finally figured it out." Philza says to himself a little louder before a huge grin spreads on his face.

"I have figured it out mates!"

The five younger boys look to the dining room in confusion. It is completely unlike Philza to make such a commotion, especially in the middle of the day like this.

"What are you waiting for? Come in here. Hurry!"

They quickly jump up at the man's demand, racing to get to him first. Is he in danger or something?

When they get to him he smiles at them widely, pointing at a line in an old-looking book.

"Up until the 19th century, it was believed that heroes yielded the ultimate power. This belief originates from the fact that heroes have great power, unlike normal humans. For the most part, this is still accurate but there has proven to be one exception..." Philza frowns down at the book, squinting his eyes in confusion.

"Oh god Phil, did you forget how to read?" Techno sighs, making Philza roll his eyes.

"No, I did not forget how to read. But..It says here that the only exception is people who are "special."

"Special? Special how?" Wilbur asks his father confused, Philza just lets out a sigh and shrugs his shoulders.

"I don't know, it ends there. It goes on to talk about the history of heroes but that is pretty much it."

Techno sighs, sitting down on the chair next to Phil.

"Well, that is a huge help. Depending on what it means by "special," Wilbur could also be considered-"

"Hey! What the fuck man?"

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself."

-----------------------

"You prick, you picked that movie on purpose!" Wilbur scowls at his brother, making the pink-haired man raise an eyebrow with an amused look on his face.

"Well, obviously. I thought that was obvious dude."

"Tubbo, stop trying to convince Techno to give you nukes." Phil mumbles, rubbing his temples. These boys give him such a huge headache sometimes.

"No."

"Tommy, please give Techno back his sword."

"But it is pog. It has my name written all over it!"

"That is because you taped paper with 'Tommy owns this' all over it, you gremlin."

"You know Will, I think you're just a bitch."

Phil sighs as he listens to the boys bickering back and forth. He has honestly gotten so used to it at this point, At least they are not trying to stab each other. Again.

"Okay, that's it. We are watching Coco. End of discussion."

"Why do you get to choose?" Wilbur scrunches his nose up at the younger boy making Tubbo roll his eyes.

"It's almost Halloween, It's the most fitting movie to watch. If you don't want to watch Coco we could always watch 'The Bee Movie: The musical."

Tubbo suggests shrugging, but Tommy feels chills run down his spine. Tubbo was obsessed with it for like a good month. It makes Tommy sick just thinking about it.

"...Okay, fine. Whatever. But I literally cannot stand you gremlins."

Tubbo grins triumphantly and grabs the remote, clicking on the Disney+ logo.

After a minute of searching through the movies, he clicks on the film and settles down between Ranboo and Tommy to watch it.

-----------------------

"How can they simply 'hate music?' That's insane!"

"Okay, so like, that's his grandpa?"

"Dude, just let him play music! He doesn't want to make shoes!"

"Wait, they disappear if they are forgotten? Dang, that sucks."

"Oh my gosh, that traitor!"

"Tubbo, haven't you watched this before?" Techno asks the younger boy in confusion making him shrug.

"What can I say? It gets to me every single time."

The rest of the night is filled with laughter and commentary from the boys as they finish the movie. Tommy and Wilbur don't even argue over who is better.

And when the movie is over and they all head to bed, everyone is more than happy to agree when Philza suggests having a movie night every Friday.

Although none of them would admit it if you asked.

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Oh yes, Halloween. A holiday celebrated by humans and non-humans all around the world. A time where people can celebrate with their friends/family by trick-or-treating, or spend the day eating candy from the dollar store alone in their beds.

Or in Tommy's case, celebrate the holiday with 3 heroes, his best friend, and a hybrid enderman person. Oh yeah, and Henry.

Can't forget Henry.

-----------------------

This is perhaps the most frustrating thing Tommy has ever had to do..like ever.

No, frustrating is not nearly a strong enough word. This is absolutely nerve-racking.

Give him his taser or his new gun and tell him to cause chaos? He can do it with absolutely no problem.

He has to run away from 10 men trying to murder him? Sure, Tommy can run.

But this? He can't stop his hands from shaking due to the nerves.

The blonde teen squints his eyes in concentration as he brings the knife down to the skin, taking a deep breath before making a small cut.

He did it! He made the first cut!

"What are you carving Tommy?" Tubbo asks his friend curiously, looking up from his own pumpkin.

"I am carving the most pog thing in the world." He says proudly, turning it around so Tubbo can see the side that reads 'Tommy'.

He's barely able to duck his head in time to avoid the rag that his friend tosses at his face.

-----------------------

"Will you put the skull on the coffee table for me mate?" Philza asks, handing the tallboy what looks to be a human skull.

"Uh, yeah sure...It's not a real skull is it?" Ranboo asks hesitantly making the older man chuckle.

"No, don't worry. It's just a Halloween decoration" he explains, Ranboo furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"You humans are so...strange."

"So you've never celebrated Halloween before, Boo?" Tubbo asks curiously, placing a candy bowl on the dining room table.

Tommy shoots the boy a glare at the nickname.

Boo?

What is he, a fucking ghost?

"Uh, no, I don't think so." Ranboo shrugs, glancing towards the hallway at the sound of footsteps descending the staircase.

"I'm telling you Techno, it's the absolute worst Bo Burnham song in existence."

"It's really not that bad Will, what's up with all the hatred?" the pink-haired man asks confused, adjusting the glasses on his face.

Wilbur rolls his eyes at his twin, grinning slightly when he sees Tommy and practically sprints to him.

"You know Bo Burnham right? What am I saying, of course you know Bo Burnham. Art Is Dead, what do you think of it?"

Tommy raises an eyebrow at the older boy and then shrugs, turning his attention to whatever's on the TV.

"I think it's good."

"Oh god, am I the only person in this house with any music sense?"

"It's technically a flat, not a house."

Philza rolls his eyes at the boys, a smile on his face as he turns to face them.

"We're going to the Heroes Halloween party in a few hours so make sure all of you have your costumes ready."

Wilbur's eyes widen in surprise, making Techno snicker from beside him.

"Oooh Will, is Sally gonna be there?"

Wilbur shoots his brother a glare, causing Tubbo to give him a confused look.

"Who's Sally?"

"Wilbur's girlfriend."

"She is not!"

"...She transforms into a salmon."

"Techno!"

Philza laughs at his two sons, shaking his head a little before turning back to drink his coffee and reading the newspaper.

Just another normal morning in Philza Minecraft's house.

-----------------------

After a lot of inner debate, Tommy decides to dress up as a zombie.

He's...Zommy.

Tubbo decides to dress up as a hotdog, Ranboo dresses up as a member from Squid Game(Tommy totally didn't force him to binge-watch it with him), Philza dresses up as Kisuke Urahara, Wilbur goes as a mummy, and Techno goes as a ninja.

Philza even bought Tommy a devil costume for Henry.

When they arrive at the building where the party is being held, Tommy cannot help but be amazed.

The decorations are great, the building is huge, and the food offered looks delicious.

"You're free to have fun boys, just don't cause a ton of chaos alright?" Philza explains to the three boys, giving Tommy a pat on the shoulder and heading off to talk to who Tommy assumes, is one of his friends.

Wilbur and Techno also quickly split from the group, Wilbur finding a girl with pink hair and Techno heading off with a group of boys.

Tommy spends the next hour and a half or so, walking around and meeting a lot of new heroes.

Like he meets Sam, a hero with super strength. And Corpse, who has a similar power to Wilbur's siren voice.

He finds it surprisingly easier to get along with them than expected, he guesses the problem really is Wilbur.

But after a while, he begins to see something from the corner of his eye. Although it seems to never be noticeable when he tries to catch a better glimpse of it. As time passes, it seems to become more apparent and...larger?

Finally, curiosity wins over him, and he excuses himself to 'use the bathroom.'

He roams the hallway for a while, trying to make it as little noticeable as possible that he's trying to see the strange thing. But when twenty minutes come and go, he finds himself doubting what he saw.

Is he going crazy? Nobody else seemed to notice anything strange, so maybe it really is just him seeing things.

"God, Tommy. Pull yourself together man."

He sighs, rubbing his eyes with his hands.

"I guess I should head back to the party, Philza is probably worried."

He goes to head back to the hall door but stops when he notices the familiar movement from the corner of his eye.

He slowly turns his head, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion when he finally sees what has been bothering him the whole night.

"It's...red vines?"

-----------------------

Chapter Text

He slowly turns his head, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion when he finally sees what has been bothering him the whole night.

"It's...red vines?"

-----------------------

Something is wrong here.

Tommy lets out a shaky breath as he runs through the hallway, glancing back every now and then to see that the vines have spread some more. At first, they spread slowly, just covering small sections of walls, but now they are moving swiftly and it's as if they are following him.

No, at this point he is almost certain that they are following him. The hallway behind him is almost fully covered by the vines at this point, even the floor is covered so thickly that there is no way he could move if he stopped for even just a second.

He just needs to get back to the heroes he decides, maybe this is just some sort of stupid Halloween trick that the hosts do every year. But then, why does he have such a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Finally, after what seems like eternity, he sees the door and he quickens his pace. He's not surprised to see that the vines do the same, but he lets out a breath of relief when he enters the main area and slams the door behind him.

"Haha, in your face you stupid vines" he murmurs to himself as he leans forward to take a breather.

"Uh Tommy, you good mate?"

He looks up to see Philza with a very concerned look on his face, and then he notices all of the eyes on him. The music has stopped and around 50 heroes stare at him with the same worried face that Philza wears.

Tommy wants to tell them everything, to explain what he just experienced but he's so out of breath that he can't speak so instead he just opens the door to the hallway.

"What? What's that?!"

"Is that...vines?"

Worried murmurs fill the air as people discuss amongst themselves what in the world is happening.

"Okay, everyone calm down. Techno, take the boys home and then come back so we can figure out what the hell is going on here. Everyone else, the party's over. We'll figure out what's happening here, don't worry.

Tommy feels the same sinking feeling in his stomach from a while ago and he hesitates, Philza giving him a reassuring smile when he notices.

"Don't even worry about it mate, I'll see you at home yeah?"

After one last look, Tommy nods and follows Techno out of the building, trying to ignore the feeling of dread deep in his bones.

-----------------------

"You guys need to stay here. We'll figure out what's happening."

Yeah, right.

"Tubbo, where exactly are we?" Ranboo asks confused for the 100th time making Tommy roll his eyes.

"We're going to go see some friends. Keep up dude."

At the sight of the familiar bakery, instead of the usual warm feeling he gets, Tommy feels..weird?

"Something's wrong" Tubbo murmurs making Tommy nod. All of the lights are off even though the bakery shouldn't be closed, and as they approach the door he notices that it says it's closed.

"..Do you think they are here?" Ranboo asks confused, Tommy going to grab the handle when the door suddenly swings open to reveal Fundy with an unnerved look. He studies the three boys for a moment and then opens the door wider.

"Come in, hurry. We don't have much time."

The boys quickly follow his directions and what they see, Tommy cannot fully comprehend. Instead of the usual warm, cozy bakery that welcomes all that enters, he sees a cold and chaotic building that seems to want him to leave.

"Fundy, what's going on?" Tubbo asks with furrowed eyebrows, clasping the man on the shoulder causing him to pause.

"...Look, something big is coming. Dream shown up here earlier, asking us to join him."

Tommy's eyes widen at his words and he shakes his head back and forth at the man.

"Please tell me you didn't-"

"Don't be ridiculous, of course we didn't...But he's coming back. So we're getting rid of all of the important documents, things that could incriminate us or that he could use to hurt us. Or you. Any documentation about you guys being in the orphanage or the organization are gone..and we're gonna destroy the bakery."

Destroy the bakery?

What?

For a second Tommy is fairly certain that he has misheard the man, to want to destroy the bakery? That's insane. Nikki and he have run it for what seems like forever, it's one of those hidden jewels of the city. But when the serious face does not leave Fundy or Tubbo's face, he knows that he definitely heard correctly.

"You want to destroy the bakery? Seriously?" Tommy asks wide-eyed, glancing between the two owners. The bakery is their most prized possession, and to just destroy it...

"Yes, Nikki and I agree that it's the best option."

"Well, what other options are there? That's such an extreme action-"

"It doesn't matter. None of them would be effective enough anyways." Fundy murmurs, moving Tubbo's hands off his shoulders and begins cleaning out the cash register.

"Are you sure there's no other way? There has to be-" Tubbo begins, but Fundy just shakes his head, slamming his hands down on the counter in frustration.

"There is no other way! Everything is connected Tubbo. The bakery. The orphanage. Why you guys are actually immune to their powers. Everything."

Tommy furrows his eyebrows in confusion at the man's words.

"Philza said it's because-"

"You guys are 'special.' Yeah, I know. Look, we promised Quackity when he brought you to us 12 years ago that we would keep you guys safe no matter what...Let us keep our promise won't you? Who knows, give us a few months and we may be back with an even bigger and better bakery. Everything will go back to normal soon."

Tommy hopes he's right; he really does.

But the red vines he sees beginning to spread on the walls have him thinking he's dead wrong.

-----------------------

Chapter Text

By the time the boys arrive back at the apartment building, it is nearly 4 AM. To say that the three are absolutely exhausted is an understatement, Tommy couldn't wait to get in his nice comfy bed and sleep for the next week.

"Do you think they're back home yet?" Ranboo asks, suppressing a yawn.

Tubbo nods, turning the doorknob only to be left surprised when it doesn't open.

"Is it still locked?" Tommy asks surprised, kneeling to check under the welcome mat and furrowing his eyebrows when he sees that the key has not moved.

"Maybe they're still trying to figure out what the vines are?" Ranboo suggests, Tommy humming in thought.

"Maybe..." The boy stands up, pulling his copy of the key out of his pocket and unlocking the door.

Tommy's thankful that Philza had insisted on everyone having their own key, otherwise, they'd definitely be screwed right now.

The first thing he notices when the door opens is how eerily quiet it is. He supposes he's grown so used to the apartment's constant chaos, that the fact that it is this quiet unsettles him a lot.

The second thing he notices is Henry laying on the floor, surrounded by pages with a hardback book in his mouth.

Tommy feels his heart drop to his stomach, rushing over and pulling it out of his mouth as fast and as delicately as he possibly can.

Please be Wilburs'.

Or Tubbos'.

Or even Philza or Ranboos'.

Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece

Yep, Tommy is fucked.

-----------------------

When Tommy wakes up the next morning and the heroes are still not back home, Tommy cannot help but be worried.

If you had told him six months ago that he lived in a house full of heroes and he was actually worried about their safety, he'd call you a liar.

But here he is, freaking out like a mother because none of them will answer their phones.

"C'mon..c'mon...just answer the damn phone." He mumbles to himself, pacing the living room floor.

"Anything?" Tubbo asks, walking inside the apartment with Ranboo, making Tommy shake his head and dial Wilbur's number again. He really wants to hear his stupid voice right now, but instead, all he gets is silence.

"Yeah, me either. I've been to all of the hotels in the neighborhood, and they haven't seen any of them." Tubbo mumbles, flopping down on the couch.

The super-strong, absolutely amazing Tommyinnit the Vigilante is fucking terrified.

"..Do you think they could still be at the party?" Ranboo finally asks, looking up from playing with his nails.

"The party? I don't know.." Tubbo murmurs, but Tommy is already slipping the phone into his pocket and searching for his shoes.

"He has a point, you said you already looked around the neighborhood, right?" Tommy asks Tubbo, the boy hesitating before nodding.

"Well yeah, but-"

"Then it does no harm to look right? Worst case scenario, they're not there. In which case, we're back to where we are now but at least we know."

Tubbo remains sitting in silence for a minute and then nods, standing up and giving his best friend a reassuring smile.

"Okay, let's go try and find the heroes."

-----------------------

Red vines.

Red vines are literally everywhere.

"What is going on?" Ranboo asks the two other boys who are just as confused as he is. Yesterday, there were no red vines anywhere but now it's like an infestation. How do things change this much in a span of one day?"

"Uh, excuse me sir. But do you know where these vines are from?"

"The fuck if I know. All I know is that last night I went to bed, and everything was normal. I woke up today and it was like the apocalypse. You boys are actually my only customers I have had today, everyone is acting..weird" the man, Jschlatt, explains to the three teens.

After around 20 minutes of driving, they finally reach their destination. The building looks terrifying although it's very sunny outside. The boys pay the driver his due and then head inside, hoping that the heroes are safe.

Tommy isn't exactly sure what he had expected, but the building is completely empty aside from the vines that completely overtake the inside.

"Well, this was a total bust." Tommy mumbles, sliding down the door and burying his face in his hands. He almost misses the sound of a familiar pained groan coming from the hallway.

Almost.

He's running towards it almost immediately; he doesn't even stop to consider the fact that it could be a trap until he's already there.

"Tommy?"

"Techno!" Tommy feels instant relief at the sight of his bro-friend, alive and okay.

"Hey, do you mind getting me out of here? The vines are too tight, I can't get out."

"Oh, of course!" Tommy pulls out a pocketknife and begins cutting away at the vines around his limbs.

"Techno, where's Wilbur and Philza?" Tubbo asks the man confused making him growl.

"Dream. He took them. I'm gonna enjoy killing that bastard when I get out of here."

"Dream? He was here? How? Why?" Tommy starts but Techno tsks at the boy.

"Tommy, slow down dude. We were getting cuts of the vine to send off for testing when he shown up, along with that one weird guy we met on patrols with the red cloak. I was back here alone, so they didn't even realize I was here. They said something about taking them back to 'headquarters' and 'introducing them to the egg'" Techno explains, rubbing his wrists as Tommy finishes cutting his bounds.

"The egg?" Tommy asks him confused making him shrug.

"Yep, I have no idea what they're talking about honestly. All I know is that the voices are craving blood, he has my brother and my dad."

"Do you know where Dream's headquarters are?" Ranboo asks the man hopefully, frowning when he shakes his head.

"I was sort of hoping that one of you did..." Techno mumbles.

Tubbo is quiet in thought for a minute before taking a deep breath and facing Techno.

"I don't..but I may know somebody who does."

"Oh? Well then, please lead the way."

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Tommy is like 99% sure that Tubbo did not think this through.

"Tubbo, who is this?" The dark-haired man stares at the three teens and pink-haired man outside of his door in a mixture of surprise and confusion.

"This? Oh, um..this is Technoblade." Tubbo explains awkwardly, gesturing to the pink-haired man at his side.

"Technoblade...As in the hero Technoblade? Tubbo, please tell me you haven't brought a hero here."

"...Okay, what would you like me to tell you instead?"

Yep, Tubbo definitely hasn't thought this through. Bringing a hero to one of the most anti-hero vigilantes that they know?

Probably not the best idea.

"Okay, let me get this straight. You brought Technoblade, one of the top three heroes in the world to my hideout. AKA, the place that I hide from heroes in. Are you realizing the mistake you've made, or do I need to go on?..."

"To be fair, you told us that we could come here in emergencies Quackity!"

"Yeah, 'you guys' as in you and Tommy! Not 'you guys' as in a fucking hero! And this...enderman thing?" He says questionably making Ranboo nod.

"Yeah, I'm an enderman. My name's Ranboo."

"Cool."

"Quackity. Can you help us? If not, this whole trip was useless." Techno says simply, Quackity raising an eyebrow at the man.

"Sure, I can. But why should I? Heroes have done little except for screw up my life, so why should I help you?" Quackity asks, making Techno roll his eyes.

"Because you have a heart and don't want good people to die?"

"Mhmm, I don't know. I really don't feel like being a good person today."

"Quackity." Tubbo finally speaks up, walking closer to the man. "I know that this is a big thing to spring on you like this, but we really need your help. The heroes...they're great, without them...Tommy and I would be dead. Please help us save them. I know we owe you a lot, but you're the only one who can help us. Please."

Quackity stares at the boys in silence for a minute and then lets out a sigh, giving Tommy and Tubbo a small smile

"Come on, let's go save your heroes."

-----------------------

Tommy is surprised to see how...normal Quackity's hideout is. It's not very secretive, it's actually a pretty big house with expensive decor. Tommy remembers Quackity telling him about starting a casino, he must be making good money based off of the sofa that cost him at least 4,000 pounds.

"Give me just a second." Quackity mumbles, stopping at a green door.

"Hey Charlie, I have some friends here. Do you wanna come out and see them?"

Tommy hears a small "Sure!" from behind the door, and Tommy recognizes the person immediately.

"Hello, I am Quackity from Las Navades's friend, Charlie and I am meat." His eyes find Tommy's and a huge smile spreads on his face.

"Hey, I know you!"

"Yeah, you were at the bakery, right? You did pay, but you forgot to take your pie dude."

"Ohhh, you're right! I'll remember that, so next time I will make sure that the exchange is successful."

Technoblade stares at the man in confusion, looking over at Tubbo.

"Is he crazy?'

"I think so."

"Charlie, this is Tommy, Tubbo, Techno, and Pinky."

"My name is Techno"

"Pinky."

Techno lets out a defeated sigh making Quackity grin and gesture to a staircase.

"Follow me."

-----------------------

"I've been keeping tabs on Dream since he escaped from his holding cell. It's weird though. He has never been one for working with other people, but every time I see him now, he's with this guy in a red cloak.

"The egg man." Techno says simply making Quackity give him a surprised look.

"Wait, you know about the egg?"

"Yeah, when Dream kidnapped my dad and brother, they talked about introducing them to it."

Quackity stares at the man for a moment then nods, pointing to the monitor next to him.

"The egg has mind control powers, similar to pinky's brother. Tommy, Tubbo, and maybe Ranboo should be fine. You on the other hand, I'm not sure how useful you'd be in battle."

Tommy's eyes widen at Quackity's statement, glancing over at Technoblade.

Technoblade not useful in a battle? What a weird idea.

"Your brother's power works on you right? The egg has similar powers, so you'd be able to be controlled if around it for long enough. Your dad and brother are likely under its control, so I would not recommend going around them either. They would likely kill you if given the chance, so unless you're in the mood to fight them to the death, stay away from them."

"...So, what exactly are we supposed to do?" Tubbo asks the man confused, Quackity humming in thought.

"Honestly, the only 'safe' option there is, is to just not try to save them. There is a reason why Philza, Wilbur, and Techno are the 3 most powerful superheroes, with 2/3 of them under control of Dream..they could take over the country, maybe even the world."

"That's out of the question, absolutely not." Techno says annoyed making Quackity roll his eyes.

"Look, at least be realistic and realize that's an option. You're putting these teens' lives in danger. I won't help you if you won't even consider their safety.-"

"No." Tommy finally speaks up, walking closer to Quackity and Technoblade.

"Tommy-"

"No, listen. They saved us; we owe them. We can't just let them be controlled by Dream forever. There is a way to save them, right? Dream's not invincible, right?"

Quackity stares at the teen in surprise for a second and then chuckles, shaking his head.

"Nothing I say will convince you, will it? Well, in that case, there is a way if everyone is up for it. It's not going to be easy though."

Quackity begins searching through the drawer next to his desk, grinning when he finds what he's looking for. He pulls out an old notebook and puts it on the table, opening it to the 12th page.

"We can attack in two weeks, here's the plan..."

-----------------------

Chapter Text

  Two weeks.

Tommy can't stop himself from counting down the days as they progress, and he can't stop himself from worrying about Philza and Wilbur. Are they okay? Has Dream tortured them?.... Are they alive?

Quackity told them from the start that he wasn't 100% sure what Dream is doing with the pair. He assumes that Dream didn't just kidnap them to kill them, but he could easily be wrong.

Tommy really hopes that he's not wrong.

"Tommy?"

Tubbo's voice brings him out of his daydream, he looks behind him to see the boy standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Yeah?"

"Ranboo and I are going to walk around the city, do you want to come?"

Usually, Tommy would tell him no. Something about not being a third wheel and annoying Henry or Techno instead. But he finds himself actually wanting to go with them. Slime hasn't come back with Henry yet and it's not like he'd be able to annoy Techno anyways.

The pink-haired hero has been holed up with Quackity since he had decided to let them stay, just planning the attack and watching the screens.

Tommy really needs the walk right now.

So, he nods his head, grabs a coat and his trusty converse, and they head off into the city.

-----------------------

  Las Navades is a pretty city, although it's very different from London. It's very dry and deserty, completely unlike the green that he's used to.

Although Tommy isn't sure who the leader is, he wonders if he's anything like Jschlatt. He's a bit of a joke, but he's pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things. That's what his advisors are for.

"It's..pretty empty." Ranboo murmurs to the other two boys making Tubbo nod.

"Yeah, on our way here I've seen maybe 150 people? I'm actually surprised. It's nice though, to not constantly be lost in crowds of people."

Tommy hums in agreement, pausing when he feels his shirt shift a little bit.

Then he sees it.

"Hey! Are you trying to take my wallet?"

The young boy startles at the teen's voice, quickly grabbing the wallet and booking it into the nearest alleyway.

"Hey! Come back!"

The three teens chase after the boy, but they have no idea where they are going, and he's fast. By the time they get to the exit of the alley, the boy has completely disappeared out of their sight.

"Damn it, we lost him." Tommy sighs, collapsing on the ground.

Well, at least he wasn't carrying that much money, to begin with.

"Wait, be quiet for a minute." Tubbo whispers, Tommy giving him a 'what the fuck?' face.

"Excuse me? Nobody tells Tommyinnit-"

"Shh, listen." Ranboo shushes him, Tommy's eyes widening even more.

"What?-"

"Shh!" The two boys say in synch, Tommy frowning at the two before pouting slightly.

He just wanted to know what they were hearing.

After a few seconds of silence, Tommy hears it. It's quiet at first, barely loud enough to hear over the few cars on the roads. But it slowly gets louder and louder.

Crying. And it's coming from the...dumpster?"

Tubbo's the one who finally decides to investigate, slowly lifting the lid and looking inside. And then his face falls.

"Tubbo?" Ranboo whispers hesitantly, but the other teen pays no mind.

"What are you doing in there little guy? Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you."

"Tubbo?"

"There we go, everything's okay." Tubbo finally turns around to face the two teens with..a child.

No, not a child. A fucking toddler.

"This is Michael."

"Michael? How the hell do you know its name?" Tommy asks the boy with pure confusion making him roll his eyes.

"It's literally on his sweater."

It is, in big white letters too. 'Michael.'

"Uh, why was there a child in the garbage can? Is that normal?" Ranboo asks confused, Tubbo shaking his head.

"No, definitely not normal."

"Well, this has been great. Nice meeting you Michael, but it's about time we go, boys. Now let's put him back where you found him and-" Tommy begins to grab the boy out of Tubbo's hands, but the glare that the boy shoots at him causes him to freeze.

"Put him back? You're not serious, right? He's all alone."

Ranboo nods, squinting his eyes slightly at the toddler.

"If we left him here, he could end up starving."

"Ok? So, drop him off at a lost-and-found or something? Haven't you guys heard of not touching things that don't belong to you?"

"He's not a 'thing' Tommy, he's a toddler. And he's out here all alone, we can't leave him." Tubbo exclaims, looking at his friend as if he's crazy to even suggest leaving him.

"So what? Are you going to take him with us? Adopt him? Come on guys, let's be realistic here."

-----------------------

"This is Ranboo's and I's adopted son, Michael. We found him in a trash can." Tubbo introduces the toddler to everyone, making Tommy scoff.

This is ridiculous.

"Hello, tiny human!" Charlie exclaims, waving at Michael making him giggle.

"Oh my god, you've turned into Philza." Techno mumbles at the teen holding the child.

Quackity shakes his head slightly at the teens, eyes going back to his computer screen.

"I hate to be the barrier of bad news here, but he probably doesn't have any abilities, so what exactly do you plan on doing with him when we're fighting Dream?"

Tubbo and Ranboo's smiles drop, giving each other an unsure glance.

"I guess, I didn't really think about it." Tubbo murmurs, his gaze going to the floor.

"...I know! He can stay here with me and Henry!" Charlie offers after a few seconds of silence, a carefree smile spreads on his face.

"I don't know.." Ranboo hesitates, glancing at the toddler sleeping peacefully in Tubbo's arms.

"Are you sure you're alright with that?" Tubbo asks the man, but Charlie just laughs him off.

"Of course! I've never taken care of a child before, but I did have a fish once!"

"And you still have him?" Ranboo offers up, hopefully.

"Nope!"

Yep, Tommy is sure that this is going to go great.

-----------------------

"Hey Quackity, can I ask you a question?"

The dark-haired man looks up from his computer screen in surprise, his eyes meeting Tommy's in curiosity.

"Ask away, dude."

"Why exactly are we immune to Wilbur and 'The Egg's' powers? Like, I know that it's because we are 'special' or whatever, but how are we special? Fundy said something about it being connected to the orphanage?"

Quackity hesitates for a second and then lets out a small sigh.

"What...exactly do you know about the orphanage?" Quackity asks the teen making him shrug.

"I mean, not much really. Except for the fact that it wasn't a normal orphanage."

Quackity nods at the words. "We, us kids in the orphanage, were taken there after the failure of project 10b82. Have you ever heard of it?"

Tommy shakes his head making Quackity let out a dry chuckle.

"I figured that you wouldn't, most people don't. Project 10b82 was an experiment done by the government to give normal humans superpowers. They hoped that if it was successful, they would be able to further the human race. So, they took around 100 infants given up for adoption and did trials on them.

The experiments...were far from humane, they were more like torture. I'm not going to go into details about them, but things didn't go how the government expected. The babies were not showing any 'superpowers,' but their DNA was different from a normal human's...I now know that whatever they did to the DNA, made the babies immune to things like mind control.

They didn't want this project to get out to the public, so they decided to create an 'orphanage' for them. Usually, when the kids aged out of the orphanage, they would go back to being test subjects. But I found out what was happening in time, and luckily, I was able to get us out of there. You, me, and Tubbo. We were all lucky to escape."

"Was anyone else able to?" Tommy asks the older boy, making him nod.

"Yeah, as far as I know, one other person was able to escape...Dream. But he didn't escape by running away, he was able to escape by making sure they didn't run out of test subjects. If we are not able to defeat him, not only will he have total control of the heroes and the world, but we'll be sent back to the labs...and this time, we will not be able to escape. "

Tommy nods at Quackity's words, giving him a small smile. 

"We'll just have to make sure we win then, won't we?" 

-----------------------

Chapter Text

Tommy finds himself waking up in the middle of the night the night before the mission, dripping in sweat and hyperventilating.

"Tommy?"

He frantically looks around him at the sound of a voice, relaxing a little when he sees Tubbo giving him a concerned look.

"Nightmare?"

Tommy doesn't answer the boy, he already knows the answer. Tubbo somehow always does.

"...Yeah, I couldn't really sleep either. You mind?"

"Go ahead."

Tubbo gives the teen a thankful smile, crawling into the bed next to him. The boys lay in silence for a few minutes, simply enjoying each other's company.

Tommy's the one who breaks it, rolling over on his side so he can face his friend.

"It was Wilbur and Philza, we were too late. Dream, he...It was too late."

"Oh." Tubbo whispers, going silent for a few seconds before reaching out for Tommy's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"We won't be, Toms. We're gonna save them, we have some of the most powerful people on our side. We'll save them, and then we can go back to their apartment. You can go back to bickering with Wilbur and Philza can cook us meals again. We can even rob a bank after, if you want. Everything will be okay soon."

"...Tubbo, I'm scared."

"I know big man, me too. But we're gonna be okay, we're going to get through this and put Dream back where he belongs for missing with our family. It's going to be okay; we're going to get through this. Together."

"You promise?"

Tommy hates how his voice trembles, how weak he sounds, how small he feels. He doesn't feel like the super-strong vigilante who has looked death in the eye and laughed in his face.

Right now, Tommy feels like Tommy. And that scares the shit out of him.

But Tommy has Tubbo, who doesn't care if he's weak. He's who convinced him to leave the orphanage and made sure he wasn't terrified. He's who used to tell him stories to drown out the constant nightmares.

So, when he squeezes Tommy's hand and tells him:

"I promise."

Tommy believes him.

-----------------------

They leave early the next morning so that they can get to Dream's base just after sunset. Not early enough for everyone in the world to see, but not late enough that it'll be completely pitch-black.

On the car ride over, it's mostly silent except for Quackity re-explaining everyone's roles for the 500th time.

He and Ranboo will deal with the heroes, try to keep them busy so that they can't help Dream or use Wilbur's power on Techno.

Techno and Tubbo will deal with the red-cloaked man and any reinforcements, try to keep them busy so Tommy can do his goal.

Tommy absent-mindedly fidgets with the button in his hands. If he can manage to put it on the egg, it will surround it in obsidian and obstruct its powers.

The problem is Dream.

The four other boys will have their hands full; they won't be able to fight against him. They can cover Tommy until he can get inside of the egg room, but after that, he will have to fight against Dream himself. He can't help the dread deep inside his chest, can he fight against Dream and actually win?

Tommy cuts his thought off, he can't think like that. He has to stay confident.

He's Tommy fucking Innit. He can easily take on the bitch.

Tommy's so deep in his thoughts that he doesn't even realize that the car stopped until the sound of unbuttoning seatbelts fills the air.

"You good Tommy?" Techno asks the boy concerned making Tommy nod as Quackity turns around to face the boys.

"Okay, let's do this!"

-----------------------

Tommy knows that something is wrong when he finds the egg without much trouble.

It takes him maybe 10 minutes at the most and nobody on Dream's side even cares.

At first, he thinks that it's not the real egg, that maybe they found out about the mission and were able to move it.

But then he hears a voice from behind him, and although he doesn't know how he knows, he knows who it belongs to almost instantly.

"Tommy, it's good to see you."

Dream

Tommy glares at the man, making him raise an eyebrow in amusement.

"Not even a 'hello'? Such little manners."

Tommy's not quite sure how he manages to do it so quickly, but before Tommy can even think, one of Dream's blades is going straight for his throat.

Luckily for Tommy, he has good instincts and ducks last minute.

"What the fuck?"

Tommy can't see past the mask, but he's pretty sure that even if he could, Dream's face would be blank.

"You can duck. Good, maybe this won't be so boring."

More blades

More dodging.

"Y'know, it'll be easier on you if you come with me willingly. I'll make sure that you're the poison tester instead of the lab rat."

"In your fucking dreams. I'm not going anywhere."

Tommy tries to slowly edge closer to the egg, trying to make sure not to bring too much attention to it.

Too bad that Dream isn't stupid.

Tommy lets out a pained whine as he feels Dream's blade pierce his leg, losing focus for just a second.

The next thing he knows, he's being shoved against the wall.

Fuck, this isn't good.

Tommy tries to maneuver his body out of Dream's grip, but he can't.

He's definitely done this before.

"Aw, looks like you've lost."

Tommy shoots the man a glare, but he just laughs at the teen.

"A shame really, went through all the effort to escape the orphanage just to end up as a rat anyways.. Oooh, do you wanna know a secret?"

Dream leans in closer to the boy's ear, and Tommy can practically hear the grin on his face.

"The heroes are going to be rats too, after I have them take over the city of course."

No. No, this isn't right.

He thinks about the heroes, the kind smiles that they wear and the excitement they feel when helping people.

He thinks about how much that would break them.

Tommy struggles against the man's grip, a frustrated groan escaping his throat when it gets him nowhere.

Dream seems to enjoy the teen's reaction because he leans back again and studies his face as he continues talking.

"At first, I was just gonna kill them, I figured that it would be less effort for me to just not deal with them anymore. But then I started thinking, they really annoy me. Death would be too easy. So, I'm gonna have them deal with the city, but first...I have to deal with you." Dream loosens his grip a little so he can dig into his pocket. It's not much, but it's all that Tommy needs.

He's able to quickly bring his knee up and knee Dream right in the stomach, the man letting go of the teen in surprised pain.

He finds himself running for the egg before he even realizes that he is.

He needs to do this.

He has to do this.

He feels one of Dream's blades entering into his shoulder, but he doesn't stop, not until he's able to get the button out of his pocket and onto the egg.

"Fuck you bitch."

and then he presses it.

-----------------------

"This is Big Q, he's the one who got Tubbo and I out of the orphanage. He's friends with a man named Charlie, he's slime." Tommy explains, Philza and Wilbur nodding along.

"I see. Well, any friend to the boys is a friend to me." Philza says, giving the man a small smile.

"I wouldn't go that far, Tommy's a bit of a gremlin" Wilbur teases, Tommy rolling his eyes.

"Would you like to go back with us? We can reward you handsomely for your contribution to catching Dream."

"...Maybe just for a little bit, Charlie can come too, right?" Quackity asks the hero hesitantly. 

"Of course, Tubbo and Ranboo said we need to stop by your place to pick up Henry and ...Michael," Philza stops and gives Techno a questionable look, "anyways. We have plenty of room at our apartment."

Tommy listens to them talk with a big smile on his face because, for the first time in a very long time, Tommy isn't worried.

The super-strong absolutely amazing Tommyinnit the Vigilante..is finally happy.

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