Chapter Text
Tommy stood on top of the skyscraper, surveying the city. Downtown S.M.P is generally where all the crime happens, so a prime spot to be a vigilante.
Too much crime to care about the vigilante, and plenty of crime to stop as a vigilante.
With that though, heroes and villians alike would love nothing more than to see your remains spilled on the sidewalk.
An alarm goes off and Tommy snaps his head over to a bank. He hops from building to building to get a closer read on the scene.
Oh, Tommy knew this bank. Midas Hall, planned and constructed by Warden, of course, and where the whole city's money was stored. And Tommy knew exactly what was supposed to go on there today.
Flashes of thin green lines as the police were yanked around like marionettes, and number one on the hero watch list marched through. Dream marched on, barely laying mind to the people around him.
Tommy shouldn't- no, he COULDN'T get involved in that. Not only would he get very easily pounded to a pulp, but he would also here so much about it later.
Surely there was another crime going on, Tommy didn't put on his suit for nothing. His favorite red and white sweater and black gloves for no finger prints, plus a black head band he cut eye holes into. No cape, though he really wanted one, but straps to keep the armour under his sweater in place. Not to mention the electronic voice changer he keeps at his collar line, though he needs a few more of those soon.
Tommy hopped some more buildings away from the bank. As he was passing over an alleyway, he heard a whimper.
"Please!" Someone cried. "I promise I wasn't doing anything-"
"Stay on the Manburg side of town next time you go out," a robotic voice said, pretty much anyone with a secret identity used a voice changer. Tommy peeked over the building to see a masked man in a trench coat, pockets lined with weapons. He was holding some poor man by the neck up off the floor. "The Pogtopia side doesn't take kindly to SPIES."
Trench coat suddenly dropped the man and walked away cooly. The other left gasping for the air back in his lungs. Poor guy probably crossed over a border on accident, the two rival gangs really fucking hated eachother.
Tommy didn't quite get it, but he was slightly pissed off now. Sure, Tommy liked to laugh when people got hurt, but that was mortal danger that trench coat guy just put the other one through. Over a stupid petty gang rivalry, no less.
Tommy stalked away, catching up to the trench coat man, still high above on the rooftop. Tommy got a closer look at the mask, a grayish blue mask with bright red eyes in front of his face, slightly covered by his curly brown hair and dark red beanie. Oh, Tommy knew who this was.
Jubilee Line, leader of the Pogtopia gang. Or "Dirty Crime Boy", as Tommy has taunted him with before. But no matter the effort Tommy put in to be annoying, he knew the villain was not to be triffled with.
"Ok, dickhead!" Tommy jumped down, super cool hero landing style, and pointed at Jubilee Line. "Would it kill you to not be so fucking picky about borders?"
Jubilee Line hissed and snapped his head over to where Tommy was standing. "Why, if it isnt Mellohi. I was just looking for something to beat up!"
Shit.
Tommy barely had time to react as JL sent tremors through the sidewalk, knocking Tommy off his feet. The villain dashed over, knife in hand. He was about to plant it in in the center of Mellohi's chest before-
The knife clattered to the ground as a new fave joined the battle. Or rather no face, the new guy was wearing a good with a black jacket over his head, a black and white medical mask covering his mouth and nose and red and green tinted goggles over his eyes. He had teleported in front of Jubilee Line and swatted the knife out of his hand. He grappled his arm, which pulled back, and he teleported again behind Jubilee Line. The villain turned around to face his new opponent.
"You got him?" The guy called out. He couldn't be more than fifteen, Tommy's age, and he used a voice changer that made him all echoey and glitched.
Tommy was suddenly hoisted up by his abdomen up into the air. He could hear fluttering wing beats behind him. "Getting him out!"
Tommy turned his head up to see a boy in a yellow and black long sleeve sweater. He only wore reflective hexagonal goggles to conceal his identity. He had fake antenna, must be some sort of radio device, and mechanical insect wings. His fluffy dark brown hair covering a voice changer, effectively a popstar's autotune.
"Stay here," the boy said, he was probably also around Tommy's age, and hovered over to the fight.
A cloud of yellow light surrounded him then scattered off into small dots, looking closer Tommy realised they took the shape of bees. The swarm went over and flew in Jubilee's face, not doing any damage but certainly confusing him. The bee boy threw small darts at him, to which Jubilee Line hissed at and tore off. All while the other guy was teleporting around trying to land a hit on the impossibly dexterous villain.
Tommy jumped down and took on teleporting, a simple enough power to guess the guy had. He did his best to get a hit on Jubilee Line, but even with two teleporters it was hard. The other guy looked confused on how Tommy was teleporting, probably not knowing his power to copy other's.
Somehow working his way through the swarm over to bee boy, he swiftly threw a punch landing right on his face. The boy reeled back, even Tommy could hear the crack coming from his now broken goggles.
"WASP!" The guy cried out and ran over like an idiot instead of teleporting. Jubilee Line quickly took the chance to send a tremor through the ground, knocking all three of them over.
"While this is fun," Tommy coukd practically feel the eyeroll in Jubilee Line's voice. "I've got more important things to do to beat up three kids that are in way over their heads. Ciao!"
And with that he left, leaving the three vigilantes to recover alone on the pavement. Wasp got up first, then helping the other two.
"So uh..." Tommy rocked back and forth on his feet. "Thanks for saving me and shit. Can I get your IDs?"
"Wasp, 4th wanted," Wasp extended his hand, using his other to while his bleeding nose. "That's Enderwalker, we're tied on the list."
"Cool..." Tommy debated on what name to give them, he had so many. But he was Mellohi right now, so he should go with that. "Mellohi, number three. I take it you two fight together often?"
"Since day one!" Wasp gave a thumbs up.
"Day five, technically," Enderwalker cut in, dusting off his jacket. "You don't happen to be already on a team, do you? Teleporting isn't very common, and you didn't use it before... What exactly is your power?"
"I can copy other powers," Tommy let go of teleportation and took the energy stuff Wasp had going on. He made a small ball of light in his hand, then let it explode into about ten bees. "And I'm not part of a team."
"Would you like to be?" Both of the other vigilantes asked at the same time.
No. Certainly not. Tommy would only weigh them down. Everyone he had ever worked with had one thing in common, they all thought Tommy was annoying and worthless. Based on how many agreed, they were probably right.
"Uh... gotta go!" Tommy waved nervously as he took teleporting back and teleported to the other side of the buildings towards his apartment.
"This way, I got his heat signature." Tommy barely made out from the other side.
He quickly teleported away farther, frustrated he could only go about thirty feet each time. He didn't hear Enderwalker or Wasp behind him, but surely they respected the vigilante code. Homes and secret identities are off limits, no exceptions.
Tommy ran up the fire escape and through his window into his bed room, going to the living room/kitchen from there. He sat down and watched the news.
"The Sleepy Bois Inc had another successful encounter today, Blade and Crowfather stopping Puppeteer from robbing Midas Hall. Radio, however, was nowhere to be seen."
Just as Tommy turned the tv off and stood up to go to bed, an exhausted looking Wilbur swung the door open and crashed on the couch.
"Missed you on the news," Tommy chuckled. "Your team stopped a bank robbery."
"Couldn't make it," Wilbur grunted through the couch cushions. "Go away, child. I'm tired."
"Got beat up?" Tommy snickered, walking back to his room to bed. He closed the door then yelled. "Wish I could have seen it!"