Chapter Text
It was dark. Pitch black. For most people this wouldn't have bothered them, most people would be sleeping peacefully and safely in their beds with full stomachs and not a care in the world. Yet perched upon a tall rundown building you could see a silhouette, crouched down, small wings tucked closely to them, blocking the cold breeze that threatened to drive away the autumn giving way to a cold and unforgiving winter.
For a few moments the breeze seemed to pause, leaving silence hanging in the air as though the whole city was holding it's breath. Then a shrill scream cut the silence like a knife.
Tommy's head shot up from where he was sitting on the building, his eyes widened for a second before they narrowed again, shining with determination. In a split second he was leaping across the rooftops, his movements were agile and dangerous, one wrong move and he would have fallen to the unforgiving concrete almost 60 feet below. Still, Tommy knew this place like the back of his hand, and where most 16 year old children would be memorising their school maths equations, Tommy spent his days and nights memorising his streets districts until he had a mental map better than any car sat-nav.
It didn't take long for the dark figure to reach the source of the scream. He leaned over the side of the building assessing the scene in a split second with almost unparalleled instincts. There were two men, one holding a knife which was glinting in the dim street lamp, the other was too hidden to see properly but it was probable he had a weapon too. They were cornering a woman who held a small child in her arms, tears were already running down her face as she begged the two men not to take her hard earned money.
"Please- I need to buy my son food- please I can't affor-"
The men lunged forward cutting the woman off but before they could touch her, the dark figure flung himself down from the building, a small almost invisible wire keeping him from falling too fast. There he landed with his arms raised ready to fight, the two men backed away, momentarily confused.
"Hello folks, nice night for a fight"
Tommy said, raising an arm to the sky as though trying to prove his point before lunging forward and punching one of the men straight in the face before they could react.
Once he had spoken, the men seemed to realised what was happening and started to fight back, it was a blur of movement and seemed to happen too quickly for anyone to see exactly what happened but in just a few minutes only one remained standing, no weapon in his hands and small wings stretched out in victory. In his moment of victory Tommy almost forgot about the woman and her son, he quickly turned back to her
"Hey, are you hurt?"
"N-no I'm fine, are you.. one of the heros?"
Tommy grimaced at her words but it couldn't be seen through his mask, which was a home modified gas mask, slightly battered and hand painted red and black. You see, he didn't have a problem with heros, in fact he used to aspire to be one, but his bitterness came with the matter of who got to become one. People like Tommy couldn't be heros. With his small almost useless wings and powerless self. With his lack of money, lack of a family and lack of social status. The most Tommy could do was his own work, an underground vigilante, it was more dangerous, fighting for the law but illegally. It was more deadly, more enemies and less healthcare, but Tommy wouldn't swap it for anything, other than being a hero prehaps..
Tommy blinked and snapped out of his own thoughts, he didn't want to answer her, didn't want to disappoint her with his own displeasing status but he knew the only way to make a name for himself was to spread the word of the mysterious 77th district's only vigilante. Himself.
"Not a hero, just the district's most handsome vigilante"
Tommy added the last part at the last second, and grinned but thankfully the woman couldn't see, as the situation wasn't really a grinning matter.
"O-oh"
She seemed a little confused.
"Thank you"
She added quickly
"For saving me and my son, he's called Harvey"
Tommy scratched the back of his neck unsure how to answer, even though he was totally swimming in woman he barely had the social skills of a fish. In the end he nodded before lifting his arm and letting his grappling hook release, reaching a nearby building and in a split second he was up above the city again.
Once Tommy was away from the situation he did a quick check over, shaking his legs and arms around to make sure nothing was broken and patting himself down, he cringed as his hand patted down his arm and he realised in the fight he might have been caught with the knife. He lifted his sleeve to asses the damage and thankfully it was just a small flesh wound and nothing the cheap uncomfortable bandages he found near the dumpsters recently wouldn't fix.
You might be disgusted by this, probably concerned too and rightfully so, but the dumpster wasn't that bad... it was cheap and for a boy with only a part time minimum wage job it was an easy solution when he would rather spend his money on food and rent than smaller necessities. Thinking of food made his stomach grumble and he cursed it before deciding it was time to stop by his employer's shop to scout for snacks.
It was just a few minutes later Tommy hopped down from a small building to face the district's best, in his completely totally unbiased opinion, bakery. The lights were off as he pressed his face to the big window, and the shelves emptied of the day's stock, probably for the best too since it was now the early hours of the morning and bakeries don't tend to be open at this time. Tommy went round to the side door of the building, his eyes scanning the ground until he picked up a small white box, flipping up the lid he grinned at the donut inside.
"Niki you're by far the best woman"
He said to no one in particular. Niki was his employer and he was slightly ashamed to say but also the closest person to him. It was a little sad to have a boss as his only almost friend but Tommy didn't care, who needed friends when he had bitches! He chuckled at his own joke and sat down on the bakery step and started to eat the donut. Niki didn't know much about Tommy, she didn't know about his vigilante antics, or his scarily dire money situation. However she wasn't stupid, she could see how skinny he was and even though he insisted he was just fine, she would always try to leave a snack out for him on her bakery step, and turned a blind eye when he would sneak a bread bun into his pocket on his way out.
After finishing the donut, Tommy stood up and shot himself into the air and began his journey back to his apartment. The apartment, it it could be called that, was more of a drugden. It had two rooms, one which functioned as a kitchen, lounge and dining room containing no appliances other than a toaster which looked as though it was about to blow up any day, and a small grey box TV which seemed like it was from a different era, despite this, it did the job which was to entertain and inspire Tommy with the news of his heros.
When he entered the apartment he pushed the door shut behind him and let himself drop onto the big cushion on the floor which at the moment functioned as his sofa. He leaned forward and flicked on the TV, a grin already on his face as he watched two of favourite heros doing an interview. Philza, known as the Angel of Death, and Technoblade, known as The Blood God.
Philza was the number one god, his powers seemed to make ever the most talented god seem like an ordinary powerless civilian. Philza much like Tommy had golden blonde hair and blue eyes, Philza's eyes however were a deep calming blue where Tommy's were like ice and were so pale they almost looked white in the light. Philza also had great obsidian black wings which seemed to shimmer in the light, he had a wing span which seemed as though he could block out the sun for his whole district.
Tommy was so jealous of this, when he was young he would visualise his own pale white wings being able to take him souring into the sky. Nowadays he just wished they would grow great and shiny like his idol, but they stayed too small to fly with, and rugged, almost fluffy and more of a nuisance than anything else, sometimes leaving the dirty scruffy feathers scattered around his apartment.
Then of course Technoblade, his battle skills were something that seemed out of this world, he would move with such deadly accuracy his enemies wouldn't get a chance to fight back before they lay crumpled on the floor. He was the Blood God for a reason. Technoblade wore a terrifying pig skull over his face, and a seemed to dress like someone from the monarchy, black trousers, cream blouse and a deep red cloak. His hair too was peculiar, it was long and went down his back and was a pink colour. If it was anyone else Tommy would have definitely made fun of them, but he decided to make an exception for one of his favourite heros.
The interview on the TV was dull, and Tommy's eyes were starting to shut and his head starting to drop until he heard a question from the interview that made his heart stop for a moment and a thrill go through his whole body.
"Now we know the law's opinion on vigilante's, so what is your plan for a small vigilante in district 77 who seems to be rising in popularity in the recent months?"
Technoblade looked at the interviewer and his eyes seemed to harden but before he could reply, Philza spoke up, his face level not showing any kind of emotion, good or bad.
"Well he is on our radar, and we plan on starting to increase our patrols in that region, we're hoping to prevent the vigilante from continuing as the law decides, and to make sure the people of the district aren't left without defence we will be making sure to lower the crime rates"
Tommy scoffed at this, he didn't believe the heros cared about his rundown and crime infested district, it was one of the lowest and dirtiest districts which people liked to pretend didn't exist rather than deal with it. Still, it wasn't this that made his childlike eyes glow with excitement, it was The Blood God's next monotone words which did.
"We believe Theseus to still be a beginner vigilante and we plan on bringing him to justice soon"
"Theseus?"
The interviewer asked
"From the Greek myth, Techno thought it seemed fitting, but i don't really know the details on that one"
Philza explained with a soft smile. The interview continued from Tommy and moved onto more boring politics leaving Tommy buzzing with excitement on his cushion.
"The Blade gave me a name" he said his hands shaking with the excitement of making one of his idols not only knowing his existence but giving him a name.
His thoughts continued to race as he got out of his suit, plain trousers, a red and white hoodie with the sleeves ripped off, and a plain black tshirt underneath. All of these had seen better days but there wasn't much to be done with them, he would sometimes try and stitch them up messily but with the later nights he didn't have the energy or willpower to sew. Once he was undressed he sank into the dirty mattress on the floor functioning as his bed and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep.