Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the heart of St. L’manberg City, six blocks down and three blocks over from the hero training center, you’ll find the Gold District. Littered up and down the road are a handful of miscellaneous stores and shops, a significant amount locally owned. The Gold District, also known as the strip between the richer part of the city (The Diamond and Emerald Districts) and the poorer part (The Iron, Copper, and Stone Districts), is home to some of the most kindhearted people you’ll ever meet. 

If you’re ever in the Gold District and find yourself walking along Orchid Avenue, you’ll know you’re in one of the best places in the entire city. Perhaps you’re enticing yourself with the homemade pastries found at Pink Finch Bakery run by Niki Nihachu. Maybe you’ve stumbled into Billzo & Jack’s, the combined retro arcade and bar restaurant with the best soft pretzels you’ve ever had. You could also wander into the Shining Crown Book Store run by the mysterious Eret, or get a lovely outfit from Captain Puffy’s tailor shop.

However, at the end of Orchid Avenue, where it horizontally meets Cornflower Street, is a 24-hour bodega right on the corner. Beloved by the community for its kindhearted owners and beloved by tourists for its variety of stuff to purchase, the Chuckle Sandwich bodega was one of the most iconic landmarks in all of the Gold District. It was also home to the infamous Jambo and Bumper, everyone’s favorite bodega cats.

The Chuckle Sandwich bodega was run by a gold-hearted quartet of generous troublemakers. Charlie Slimecicle, everyone’s favorite punny slime hybrid, was the original establisher of the bodega. A former laundromat that had gone out of business, a 24-hour bodega seemed like the perfect business opportunity for the slime hybrid that didn’t have to sleep. However, he realized that it was a little more than just a solo project, so his roommates would sometimes come help during the day shifts if it got busy.

Ted Nivison quickly realized being a film student wasn’t going to be exactly rolling in the big dollars, so he agreed to work part-time until he could get a proper degree. He was everyone’s grandma’s favorite, a true hero of the people. He earned the nickname of “The Milkman” for the time he accidentally ordered triple the milk that the bodega needed and proceeded to go hand it out on the street to go get rid of it before it expired. He was a legend in the lesser districts that week.

Schlatt, who’s just started his degree in business and finance, was a believer in making sure the bodega was “up to his standards” since he grew up in New York City. He loved to hide a beer or two under the front counter: Charlie pretended he didn’t know, but only because he knew his friend would be a little nicer to customers if he was slightly tipsy. The ram hybrid was a little infamous for the *multiple* felonies and large parties thrown throughout St. L’manberg City, and he also somehow had connections with everyone in the city. He was even friends with Ludwig Ahgren, the most famous superhero reporter in the city.

The final victim employee was Connor, who signed on to do the night shifts. The same guy who once ate an entire pair of pants on a dare was the same one attending the best university in the entire city. The dude was insanely smart and witty. Charlie also knew everything about every upcoming video game and event just from working shifts with this guy. Connor considered himself a night owl and pretty much controlled the aux cord in the bodega at all times. Connor was also the reason that the break room in the back is now stocked up with a cot, blankets, and more first aid equipment than a normal bodega would need. That’s because the combination of having super-speed and a villain blowing up his apartment building led Connor to become the vigilante Sonic. 

Sonic, one of the most well-known vigilantes in the area, used his speedster abilities to reduce the amount of crime in the area dramatically since he began patrolling. He often worked independently, but occasionally he would be seen alongside other well-known vigilantes like Nuke, Ender, and Dimension. One of Charlie’s favorite jokes at the moment was that pretty much every vigilante had a random one-word name.

Charlie remembered the first night that Connor had come back to the bodega in need of patching up. It had been a slightly busier day than usual, but Tubbo, Tommy, and Ranboo had visited at the end of the day. They had seemed exhausted, which the teenagers claimed was a track and field meet at school. Charlie had never taken any of them to be the athlete type but he shrugged and pointed to the Gatorade while telling them about a crazy customer.

At about 3:30 am, when Connor returned with a sheepish smile and a giant ass burn on his right leg, Charlie met him with a giant hug and immediate treatment. He had helped Connor walk to the back room of the bodega, and helped him sit on the countertop. He took out the first aid kit that was, before this, only used when somebody (Schlatt) accidentally cut his finger on literally anything remotely sharp.

“Oh my fucking god. You are Sonic. Connor! Oh my god!” exclaimed Charlie, who had pulled up a chair with wheels at the bottom over to where Connor was sitting. He began unpacking the first aid kit.

“Surprise…?” said Connor with a half-hearted laugh as he grimaced in pain at his burn. Charlie rolled his wheelie chair over to the break room fridge and grabbed an ice pack.

“I have no idea how I didn’t put it together faster,” said Charlie, rolling back and lightly pressing the ice pack onto the burn on Connor’s leg.

“I’m literally just that good at hiding my identity,” said Connor with a sarcastic smile.

“I mean, the super speed and the obnoxiously blue eyes, plus you disappearing sometimes…” trailed off Charlie as he applied the burn cream that he bought when Schlatt had lit a small stove fire.

“Hey, my eye color is a low blow. Plus, the media likes them. One reporter said they were a “brilliant lapis blue” said Connor, making air quotes with his hands.

“Dude, that reporter trying to score a date or something?” said Charlie with a laugh as he wiped the burn cream off his own hands with a paper towel.

“If only I got as many bitches being Sonic as I did being Connor,” said the brown-haired man, forcing another laugh as he fought through the painful sensation that the burn cream caused on his leg.

“So. In exchange for saving your leg from amputation, I have a couple of questions,” said Charlie pushing his wheelie chair back over towards the cabinets to grab a long, wrapping bandage.

“I thought you might, so go ahead and shoot,” said Connor, a smile hiding whatever pain he was feeling. Charlie pushed off the cabinets with his right foot so that the wheelie chair flew across the room back over to Connor.

“I think I get the name easy enough. Sonic, like sonic speed. But can you explain the blue hedgehog costume?” asked Charlie, opening the package containing the bandage. 

Connor was wearing black jean shorts and a dark blue hoodie with fake hedgehog spikes hand-sewn onto the back of it. His normal costume was a onesie, but the hot and sticky June weather did not permit that. He wore a dark blue mask that covered the bottom half of his face, matching the outfit and his eyes, which was removed the minute he walked into the bodega. Finally, a pair of dark blue combat boots, with extremely thick sneaker-like soles.

“I needed like, a thing. The hero Urahara has his green and white stripes, the villain Gasmask has his iconic spear-looking thing and basically owns dark green. It’s based on this really old video game; actually, I stole the name from that game too. It would take too long to explain, but I knew it would be unique enough that people could recognize it,” explained Connor lazily as Charlie wrapped the bandage around the burn extremely carefully.

“Second question! How the fuck did you get this burn?” asked the slime hybrid, who continued to wrap it with extreme precision. There was a distinct pause, a moment of hesitation, and then a sigh.

“Fighting 404 and Ember..?” said Connor, his voice trailing off into a slightly higher pitch. 

“Connor…. oh my god…”

“What, what? Okay, hear me out here-“

“Holy shit! You fought the number #5 and #10 ranked heroes! At the same time? How the hell are you still alive?”

“I’ve gone against them both individually and they weren’t that bad! However, I have not fought them at the same time. That’s where I had issues.”

“Every single news story I’ve ever seen about Sonic is suddenly flashing through my head and now I’m wondering how you’re still alive.”

“I saved a family from getting mugged! I wasn’t trying to pick a fight with those guys!” exclaimed Connor, waving his hands dramatically.

“What?” said Charlie, taking a pause. He felt his immediate shock and worry slowly turning into admiration and sympathy.

“Family of five, there was some ugly guy trying to mug them in the alleyway with one of those weird laser gun things. I was patrolling and saw it, so I saved them and walked them home,” said Connor with a shrug.

“Why are you shrugging like that’s nothing, dude? You literally saved an entire family!” said Charlie, pushing his wheelie chair with his feet over to the fridge to grab Connor some water.

“I mean, I’m not just wandering around trying to get heroes to come after me! That’s what I’m out there to do; use my powers to help the people that the heroes skip over,” said Connor with a smile, watching as Charlie grabbed two water bottles out of the fridge before wheeling back over.

“Okay, so why the hell did 404 and Ember beat you up then?” asked Charlie, his eyebrows slowly moving together in a confused fashion.

“Firstly, they did not beat me up! It’s just hard to dodge Ember’s fire attacks after 404 drops a smoke bomb in your face. Secondly, I’m operating and using my powers without a hero license, which is technically illegal,” said Connor, halfway towards a frown.

“They attacked you because you’re not working for them, even though you saved all those people?” said Charlie, laughing in disbelief.

“I guess so. The problem with working for them though is that you have to abide by their very strict policies, which control where you patrol and where you live and how you live. Barely anybody gets chosen anyways. So on the small chance that I did get accepted, I wouldn’t be helping the people I want to help anyways,” sighed Connor, staring off into space for just a moment.

“I didn’t know they were so strict about that stuff. Is that why-“

“Why the heroes are in the super-rich and super poor districts only, nowhere in between? Pretty much. Why they only go after the big villains and don’t try to stop pettier crimes? Yep, ‘cause the big corporates want the good news coverage or whatever. I’m not an expert,” monologued Connor, like he’d been wanting to rant about for months. He probably has.

“Am I the only person who knows?” asked Charlie, secretly hoping that Connor would say yes.

“Dimension knows. Other than that, just you.”

“Holy shit, do I know Dimension?”

“Yes. Very well actually.”

“No fucking way. Tell me now.”

“Vigilante code, sorry! No revealing any other identities. If they trust you to tell you, they trust you to keep it.”

“Ugh, fine. Is anyone else hired at this bodega a vigilante?”

“Ted is too kind-hearted, and wouldn’t be able to take the violence. Schlatt would rather go sing karaoke than go save somebody,” joked Connor.

They sat in silence for a few moments. It wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable, but both of them just needed to process a few things. Connor felt good to finally let somebody else know about this, and Charlie was just in shock.

They ended up spending the rest of the night talking about Connor’s vigilante career thus far, which ended up having a lot of stories despite Connor only operating as Sonic for about a month. The biggest baddie that Connor’s faced (Lemonhead) and the highest rank hero that he’s encountered (#5 Ember is the highest rank he’s fought, but he saw the #3 hero Rosethorn patrolling one time).

A few hours later, at about 7:00 am, Connor was about to fall asleep sitting up. Charlie, who had joined Connor by sitting on the countertop, smiled and hopped down. He suddenly remembered that there was a cot in the backroom of the bodega from whatever time Ted sprained his ankle skateboarding.

Connor finished drinking his fourth or fifth water bottle when Charlie returned with the cot, setting it down in the middle of the break room. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair to push it out of his face. He nodded to himself before pushing his rectangular framed glasses back onto his nose, complimenting his green eyes. Connor snorted to himself, remembering every time that Tommy had called Charlie “four eyes”.

“You can take a nap on this!” exclaimed Charlie, holding a hand out to Connor to help him down. Connor gave a grateful smile before allowing Charlie to help him down, shifting his weight from off his burnt leg onto Charlie’s shoulder. Connor insisted on getting up onto the cot by himself, which Charlie agreed to, but stuck by Connor’s side the whole time.

Connor positioned himself in the middle of the cot, before adjusting his legs slightly. He double-checked that the admittedly old cot wasn’t about break when he laid down. Continuing to sit up, he flashed Charlie a double thumbs up.

“Thanks, Charlie. I know I’ve told you that like ten times over the past few hours, but from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

“Of course! It’s honestly my honor. I can’t believe you trust me with your secret identity!”

“Honestly, there was nobody better in my mind. If I went to any kind of hospital, I’d lose my scholarship to university faster than I can explain what my powers are. You’re one of my closest friends and I knew you’d help me, you help everybody. You are just so.. genuine and generous.”

“Aww, he’s getting all gushy! I never thought I’d see the day!”

“Actually, I’ve decided to never be nice to you again. I’m going to blast you with a memory ray from Men in Black,” said Connor evilly before laying down and flashing Charlie a loving middle finger.

Charlie turned off the break room light and shut the door, laughing to himself. Connor was always a selfless and kind guy, but Charlie never knew the actual danger that Connor put himself in to be able to help these people. Charlie would probably scream if anybody pulled a gun on him (besides Schlatt and his constant weapon pointing), much less fight a top hero with fire powers.

Charlie walked into the main area of the bodega, positioning himself behind the front counter. The sun had already begun to rise, which meant his early customers would start trickling in any minute now. Jambo and Bumper were napping on top of some cases of soda in a patch of sunlight.

He sat down on the stool that he had bought from Cara of Captain Puffy’s tailoring a year or two ago. It was probably his favorite thing in the bodega to sit on besides the wheelie chair in the break room. He grabbed the TV remote off the counter and aimed it up to the front right corner of the bodega, where a small television was positioned.

He powered it on and unmuted it, where it was set to whatever random sitcom was on at the moment. He pressed the channel button until it switched to the news station, which was just about some boring local school election, so he smiled and switched it to the hero news channel, which instantly lit up with a familiar face.

Karl Jacobs, formerly known as the hero Timeswitch. During a battle against the great Fruitberries (a terrifying villain who could temporarily take away heroes' abilities), he sacrificed himself to save Ember and Duckwing. He was struck in the heart and was hospitalized for months. He recovered well, but Fruitberries powers striking in such a vital place permanently messed up his ability to slow down the flow of time. Now, he works as a correspondent for the hero agency, where rumors heavily suggest he’s now engaged to the two heroes he saved.

Holy shit. Connor battled one of Karl Jacobs’ fiancés. Charlie couldn’t help but laugh out loud in disbelief. He had a feeling that random realizations like that were gonna strike him all day.

“The biggest story of last night!” rang out Karl’s voice throughout the bodega, the only sound besides the bus passing by and the carrying conversation of a group of businesswomen hurrying along in fancy suits. Charlie smiled; he enjoyed peaceful mornings like this.

“The known vigilante Sonic of the Gold District faced attempted apprehension last night by heroes Ember and 404, for violating hero licensing laws and using powers on civilians labeled as threatening. Like most vigilantes, Sonic has stated that, via a note, they are not wanting to harm anyone. However, operating without proper policies further endangers the people, according to hero Ember,” said Karl in a very professional news reporter voice. Charlie felt his mouth slide open into a dumbfounded smile of disbelief.

Suddenly, a photo flashed up onto the television screen. It was an extremely HD photo of Sonic dodging Ember’s flame attack. Sonic was using his speed to slide underneath Ember’s jump attack. Sonic had a line of blue trailing behind him, moving so fast that his powers left a blue shadow temporarily to show where he was before. Ember, the white mask covering his face, had a fireball charging in his hand. 404 was blurry in the background.

“According to a report from 404 after the battle, Sonic was heavily injured in the leg. If you see a person with bright blue eyes, assumed to be a male with brown hair, asking for help with a right leg injury, please help treat them and immediately get in contact with the hero center or authorities,” continued Karl with a smile, well dressed in a burgundy suit.

Charlie felt his face get warm with slight anger as he watched the TV screen. They seemed to leave out the part where Connor saved an entire family. They at least stated what Connor had told him at one point throughout the storytelling, that he had once tied up a bad guy and left a note for the heroes to explain that he was on their side. However, it didn’t do much convincing.

Karl Jacobs excitedly announced something about an interview with the #2 hero Aresblade later that evening before it cut to a commercial break. Charlie muted the television, not wanting to hear the same 5 commercials over and over again. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Jambo began to wake up and stretch in the corner. Suddenly, the entrance bell rang in the front of the bodega, and two extremely tired guys in their early 20s walked in the door. 

The shorter one wore his black, shoulder-length hair tied back into a small man bun at the bottom of his neck. He wore a long-sleeve black shirt with a white t-shirt over top, and at least four or five necklaces. His fingernails were painted black and accessorized with all kinds of rings. He had black jeans and black high-top converse. He had on thin eyeliner, a bruise on his left cheek, and a black circular nose rise on the right side of his nose. He had multiple piercings on both ears. 

The taller one had short brown hair and was wearing white sunglasses on top of his head. Compared to his friend, he was very… un-accessorized. He had small black stud earrings and a short silver necklace. A blue t-shirt with the 100Thieves logo on it and some classic blue skinny jeans and blue Nike sneakers. He had large bags under his eyes and was carrying a backpack.

“Sapnap and George from the Emerald District! Good morning!” called Charlie cheerfully as he recognized them.

“Mornin’, Charlie!” said Sapnap enthusiastically back, clearly in either a good mood or one of those forcefully good moods.

“We just restocked on those energy drinks you like if you’re interested Sap! We’ve got the usual blueberry and green apple flavors but also the new strawberry one,” said Charlie, reminding himself of the shipment that came yesterday morning.

“Oh my gosh, you guys are the best!” exclaimed Sapnap happily as he walked towards the back of the bodega where all the refrigerated drinks were.

“Can I ask you a question?” asked George, while scanning the possible choices of breakfast protein bars available.

“You just did, but I’ll let you have another one,” said Charlie with a smile, still watching Jambo and Bumper out of the corner of his eye.

“Whenever we come in, you say our names, but you add ‘from the Emerald District’ onto the end, is there any reason for that or..?” asked George thoughtfully, eventually grabbing a generic peanut butter oatmeal protein bar and a pack of gum.

“My favorite part about this job is getting to know all the people, so I like to try to remember where people are from. It's easier to remember who's who that way, and it also helps solve for when people have the same name. I mean, it's not that difficult really with names like Sapnap but I think it's still a good way to keep track of everybody,” said Charlie as he punched the gum and protein bar into the cash register. 

“So, you have a really good memory and a really shitty memory at the same time?” laughed George, before glancing at the muted television out of the corner of his eye. They were still covering the fight between Sonic and the heroes. George made a weird face at it: most Emerald and Diamond district people were not used to violence, so it made sense.

“All that heroes versus vigilantes stuff is kinda crazy, right?” asked Charlie simply, attempting to conceal a smile. He knew Sonic and they didn’t. Massive W for Charles.

“You could say that,” grumbled George. He seemed a little off, but Charlie shrugged. He watched as George peered around the corner for Sapnap, who eventually walked back upfront with a neon pink can in his hand.

“I always pick green apple, because it’s my favorite and also the best. However, I had no idea they made a new strawberry flavor. After an entire two whole minutes of deliberation in front of the fridge door, I decided to try strawberry,” said Sapnap, setting down the can on the counter so Charlie could scan it.

“I say that’s a berry good choice!” exclaimed Charlie, which immediately induced happy groans as the pun set in.

“You are suspiciously good at puns. I’ll bet if you had a power, it’d be that,” said Sapnap, whose bruise looked worse now that more sunlight was streaming in the window.

“Sap, is your face okay? Not that it’s my business what happened, but we’ve got stuff to make it heal faster,” said Charlie, frowning at the bruise slightly.

“Oh, uhhh, it’s nothing! Just a little Wii boxing taken too far!” said Sapnap sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck while Charlie broke out in laughter. After ducking behind the counter for a moment and rummaging through a box, he pulled out more bandages and a small thing of bruise color reducing cream

“I got these for bruise stuff if you’re wanting to get it over with faster! Ted’s girlfriend accidentally hit him in the arm during charades one time and this stuff seemed to help!” said Charlie happily as he handed the stuff over to Sapnap.

“Perfect! I’ll take ‘em. Charlie, I know I say this every ten seconds, but you are honestly the best. I don’t understand how you have everything for literally any situation,” said Sapnap, a massive grin on his face as he set the stuff down on the counter. Charlie punched a few things into the cash register.

“Your total is 8.69! Ha, nice.”

Sapnap snorted through his nose and pulled out his wallet while George rolled his eyes. Charlie threw everything into a signature Chuckle Sandwich plastic bag.

“Keep the change!” said Sapnap happily as he handed over a $10 bill to Charlie in one hand and took the plastic bag in the other.

“Aw, Sap, I love you man,” said Charlie with a giggle as he slid the change into the tip jar.

“Love you more man! Best bodega in town!” yelled Sapnap over his shoulder as he and George walked out the door. George shot one last evil look at the television story about Sonic as he left.

Charlie hummed a happy time to himself while writing down some more stuff that he needed to order. After glancing over at Jambo and Bumper, who had both gone back to sleep, Charlie smiled to himself. This bodega had given him some of the best friendships he could ask for, and he walked out around the counter to where the cats had their food bowl. He slowly filled the food bowls, going over the last 12 hours in his head.

He could balance running the bodega and being Connor’s guy in the chair, right? He could deal with just taking care of Connor; he had gone to a summer camp as a teenager that taught him all the basic medical whatever. He knew that no matter what, he would stick by Connor’s side. As long as he didn’t fight a major hero every day, Charlie knew everything would be alright.

That was, unfortunately incorrect. Taking care of only Connor wouldn’t be part of the equation. Two nights later, Connor brought back none other than the vigilante Dimension back to the bodega.

Chapter Text

“Bossman, this is the best smelling building I have ever fucking been in!” exclaimed Tommy excitedly as he, Tubbo, and Charlie walked into the entrance of the Pink Finch Bakery. 

“Have you two ever been to an actual bakery, or have you only been living off my shitty bodega bread?” asked Charlie with a smile, nudging the two teenagers with his elbow.

“I very much like your bodega bread! It melts with my favorite cheese nicely!” complained Tubbo, his eyebrows raising slightly.

“Okay, my bread is good for sandwiches, but Niki’s bread is good for eating. Like, actually enjoying on its own. You two are gonna love it,” said Charlie happily.

Charlie had met Tommy and Tubbo at a charity event that they were all volunteering at to help raise money to repair some historic buildings that were blown up in a Fruitberries attack. For some reason, the meeting organizers put him and Ted in charge of Tommy and Tubbo. At first, Charlie was on the verge of turning around and walking home, but he decided to stay. The four didn't end up getting much work done but they ended up becoming fast friends.

Finding out they lived on the side of the Diamond District closest to the Gold District, Charlie wrote down the name of their bodega for Tommy when the event was over. The two began stopping by every so often, then more and more often as they became better friends, eventually bringing along their other friends like Ranboo and Purpled. 

Two days after finding out that Connor was the face behind the mask of Sonic, Charlie felt content with keeping the secret. It wasn’t as difficult as he originally thought; he just had to act like he did before he found out. He just to convince himself it wasn’t lying, just protecting one of his best friends.

Yesterday, Tommy and Tubbo had wandered in looking for snacks and Charlie was complaining that he hadn’t had time to go to the Pink Finch bakery in a while.

“What’s the Pink Finch?” Tommy had asked, deciding between two chip flavors.

“You did not just ask that!” said Charlie in fake shock, putting a mocking hand over his chest in disgust.

“I like bakeries, but I really only know the okay one in the Diamond District,” said Tubbo, staring at the drink cooler with a $5 bill in his hand.

“Nope, that’s it. I’m taking you to the Pink Finch. What are you doing tomorrow?” exclaimed Charlie suddenly.

“You doing anything, Tubbo?” yelled Tommy across the bodega.

“Nope!” yelled Tubbo back, grabbing a bottle of lemonade.

“If he’s not doing anything, then I’m definitely not doing anything,” laughed Tommy.

So, that’s how they ended up at the bakery down the street from the bodega for brunch. Charlie ended up having to double-check the schedule and saw that Ted was working this morning to his relief. He should start looking at the work schedule before promising to take teenagers out to brunch.

The entire bakery was filled with the smell of chocolate and freshly baked bread. The bakery walls were painted pale pink with white accents, and the entire place had pieces of German artwork and pictures of scenic places in Germany. It felt like being in what Charlie assumed Niki’s mind looked like. The bakery had been there since before Charlie opened the bodega, but he had been stopping by the place way before that, which meant pretty much every employee in this place knew who Charlie was. One time, an employee joked that Charlie should be made customer of the month.

After waiting in line for a few more minutes considering it was extra busy for brunch, a familiar smile greeted the trio. Her hair was cut down to her shoulders, blonde at the roots but fading into hot pink at the tips. She had a dark grey dress underneath a black apron with the bakery’s logo sewn on in pink. 

“Charlie! It’s so lovely to see you! Who are these two?” asked Niki, cleaning some loose flour off of her hands with a hand towel as she spoke.

“I’m their government-assigned babysitter,” said Charlie in the most monotone voice he could muster while wearing a smile, being instantly met with two groans of disagreement.

“I’m Tommy, Charlie’s super big strong man friend!” yelled Tommy, sticking his hand out for a handshake over the counter. Niki shook it with a laugh.

“I’m Tubbo. I’m just Tommy if he had any ability to think critically!”

“OI YOU BASTARD-“ began Tommy before Charlie clapped a hand over the teen's mouth with a smile.

“Nice to meet you guys! I’m Niki!” said the baker calmly, her smile positively radiating around the cute bakery. Tommy responded with a raised eyebrow.

“Do you do anything besides just baking? I feel like I’ve heard your voice somewhere before?” asked Tommy, his deep blue eyes swimming with curiosity.

Niki blushed for a second, looking almost concerned, before shaking her head no.

“I help out at Aimsey’s Flower store on Tuesdays and Thursdays sometimes, but other than that not really,” she said sweetly, her head tilted slightly to the side in confusion.

“Hmm.. alright then. Charlie, let’s order some delicious bakery desserts! What are we getting, big men?” asked Tommy, rubbing his hands together in an evil way.

“Silence, children! This is my specialty, I have an incredible addiction to this place,” said Charlie with an almost evil grin before turning back towards Niki. Tommy opened his mouth to object, but then shut it after thinking about it for a moment.

“So, what’ll it be? The usual?” asked Niki with a smile, but her face switched to a surprised yet happy shock while Charlie shook his head no. Of course, his usual order of two chocolate croissants and a pink lemonade would work perfectly if it was just him, but he needed to expose the children he was babysitting to the full scope.

“We will be ordering three chocolate chip muffins, two buttered croissants, two slices of key lime pie, and half a loaf of raspberry swirl bread,” said Charlie, like he had been thinking about the order all morning. He had. Niki laughed and typed some stuff into the cash register.

“Your total is $26.42!” said Niki, before turning around to talk to one of her assistant chefs. Charlie reached into his back pocket to pull out his wallet before getting instantly punched in the arm.

“Ow, what the hell?” exclaimed Charlie instantly, turning to the blonde gremlin child who had punched him, who was holding two 50-dollar bills in his hand. He smiled wickedly and gave a giggle that Charlie thought was fit for a supervillain.

“Char-ley, you are not paying for this meal, not on my watch! I will be providing the funds for us to feast!” laughed Tommy, wiggling his eyebrows menacingly.

“Where the hell does a teenager get that kind of cash? No, this is my treat, I said I would take you guys out!” argued Charlie, determined to find out what kind of job Tommy had to acquire such money.

“Well, uh, I have my ways!”

“Are you fucking selling drugs?”

“NO-“

“Oh my god, Tommy, I knew it!”

“WHAT?” yelped Tommy, bursting out into laughter at the fake accusations.

“I bet it was Quackity of Las Nevadas, huh? Mr. Casino is sending you on drug expeditions?” said Charlie, pointing an accusative finger at Tommy. When hearing Quackity’s name, recognition and brief confusion flashed on Tommy’s face.

“How do you know who Quackity is?” said Tommy curiously, temporarily dropping the act.

“Schlatt introduced me to him a little bit before I opened the bodega,” said Charlie, raising an eyebrow at the teenager. 

“Purpled works at the casino!” 

“How the hell did Purpled get employed at a casino? He’s 17!”

“Thank you, Tubbo, here’s your receipt!” said Niki, tearing the receipt from the mini cash register printer and handing it to the fluffy-haired teenager. Charlie felt his jaw drop in shock as the two teenagers giggle evilly.

“Oh my god! You two had Tommy distract me so that you two could secretly pay for it? You guys are diabolical!” exclaimed Charlie as they moved out of line towards an open table.

“Charles, everybody knows how selfless you are. You were gonna insist on paying for it so Tommy and I devised a plan beforehand,” said Tubbo with a grin.

Charlie stewed in the silence and shook his head in shame as Tommy and Tubbo laughed at his tomfoolery. How could he be so blind? He had been too kind, and this generosity is how they repaid him. Tommy ran over to the open table and dramatically sat down. It had a white tablecloth with small pink flowers embroidered around the edges, matching perfectly with the rest of the bakery's aesthetic. It was also right next to the large front window of the building, giving them a perfect look at Orchid Avenue.

“Were you serious about Purpled working at Las Nevadas?” asked Charlie with a laugh. He had originally been asked to work at the casino when it first opened, but Charlie turned it down to open the bodega. He was nervous at first that Quackity would be mad, but the beanie-wearing man ended up showing up with a cake as a surprise on the bodega’s opening day.

“Yes and no. Quackity is friends with Purpled’s older brother, so sometimes Purpled tags along and Quackity pays him to work a shift or two,” said Tommy with a laugh. Charlie nodded. Purpled was very mean in a very nice way and Charlie thought he was really funny. Though, he had no idea that Purpled had an older brother.

“Does Quackity pedal drugs for real?” asked Tubbo with a raised eyebrow while Tommy nodded furiously.

“No! I mean, I guess I don’t know that he doesn’t. But I’m 99% sure that the CEO of the city’s largest casino wouldn’t take the gamble on drug money? Get it?”

Tommy and Tubbo groaned in unison at the joke, but both had a smile on their face.

"Well Tommy, if you aren’t selling drugs, then how the hell do you have money?” asked Charlie, staring at the blonde teenager. He knew the teenager often rode the very fine line between responsible and irresponsible, which made him quite the risky hire.

"I, uh, do a lot of... odd jobs? Like dog walking, or house sitting, or whatever for rich people! Yeah, that's it!" said Tommy very quickly, his cheeks lightly flushing pink as Tubbo gave him a slightly weird side-eye. Charlie decided not to press into it, even if the answer was a little sketchy. But c'mon, the only place that would give a teenager that much cash would be the hero academy, and there's absolutely no way Tommy is allowed within ten feet of that building, right?

"The richer districts are a dangerous place. Just... don't get yourself killed doing whatever odd jobs you got, okay kiddo?" asked Charlie, with a smirk, watching the color fade out of Tommy's cheeks. The teenager nodded enthusiastically before giving a hilarious salute in agreement. The true investigation into his career choices would have to wait.

Right as Tubbo opened his mouth to say something, most likely about the lovely decor in the room, a waitress came out holding what looked like their order, two trays with one in each hand. A girl with long, strikingly bright blue hair came out of the kitchen, carefully balancing the trays. She had round, black glasses that framed her face well and a smile on her face. Her name tag read "Gee Nelly" in the same font as the bakery logo.

"Back again, Charlie?" she said with a laugh as she walked over. The first tray contained the muffins and croissants, and the other tray had the two slices of key lime pie. "The raspberry bread will be out in a moment, it's still in the oven."

"Listen, I don't come here that often! I mean, I do, but you don't have to rub it in!" remarked Charlie in a fake accusatory tone. He didn't get to know Gee very well, but he always ended up with her as his waitress whenever when he didn't get his meal to go.

"You were here less than a week ago with your friend Sneegsnag. You also almost spilled a coffee all over the tablecloth!" snickered Gee as she set the trays down on the table, and Charlie could basically see the teenager's mouths start watering.

"Listen. Maybe you should stop making your tablecloths white then!"

"Enjoy your meal guys!" said Gee between laughs as she headed back to the kitchen. Meanwhile, the teenagers were already fighting over who gets what.

"Can I have two chocolate muffins, and then you can have 1 and a half of the croissants?" begged Tommy as Tubbo shook his head in disbelief.

"Guys, guys! We'll split everything equally, okay? We're also still waiting for the raspberry bread to come," said Charlie with an eye roll.

However, they would never end up getting that raspberry bread, because a loud explosion was heard down the street.

"What the hell?" exclaimed Tommy loudly as Tubbo dropped the muffin that he was holding. Suddenly, Tommy's fancy watch started beeping like crazy. His face went red again as he hit the watch lightly with his hand to get it to stop.

"Why is your watch buzzing? Are we gonna die?" yelled Tubbo, as everyone in the bakery started to freak out.

"Uh, it's nothing! Guys, I gotta go-" began Tommy, getting interrupted as another explosion rang out through the streets.

"No way! Nuh-uh, you are staying with me until this all blows over, you understand?" said Charlie, pointing his index finger at the teenager.

"I can handle myself!" retorted Tommy, who looked panicky.

"You are 17. Just because you've taken a self-defense class doesn't mean you're gonna be able to avoid getting hurt by a supervillain or whatever is happening down there," said Charlie, sticking his hands out and grabbing Tommy's shoulders. "I know you're scared and you haven't probably haven't seen anything like this before, but we're gonna be okay!"

Tommy opened his mouth to reply, but he slowly closed it. The blonde teenager had an   'if-only-you-knew'  look on his face, but Charlie felt unsure. There were barely any super villain incidents in the Diamond District, so he didn't know what Tommy's look could be referring to.

"Look out!" screamed Tubbo as a large chunk of sidewalk flew threw the front window of the bakery. It seemed to have been directly ripped out of the ground, little bits of dirt still on it. The chunk shattered the glass of the window as it collided through. The three of them ducked down, but thankfully it flew left instead of right. Little bits of glass rained down on them as Charlie stared at the teenagers to make sure that they were alright.

Upon seeing that they were both still breathing, Charlie slid his glasses off of his face and used his shirt to wipe them off. As the world became clear again when he put them back on, he saw that a lot of people were scrambling to leave as dust clouded the air. He felt his breathing start getting shallower and faster as he tugged on the shirts of Tommy and Tubbo. They stood up awfully fast, and both seemed way calmer than they should be. Charlie just decided that it was the shock factor keeping them from freaking out.

Charlie looked out where there was previously a window, which had basically become an open doorway since all the glass had shattered. He ushered the two teens to climb out the window, and they hopped over the ledge with ease. Charlie cursed their youthful athleticness before hopping over the ledge with less gracefulness. The sidewalk outside was covered in debris and strange blue-colored crystals. Now that the trio was outside, it was a lot easier to see what was happening.

A villain dressed in light blue was using his powers to grow light blue crystals out of the ground, most of the crystals being the size of a fully grown adult. Crystals began to slowly rise, breaking up the sidewalks and roads as they grew. Charlie instantly recognized him as the villain Blood Diamond, a villain who seemingly had no clear intentions but the ability to grow crystals and geodes out of the ground. Blood Diamond's identity had been leaked around a month ago, nobody wanted to refer to him as Skeppy: it felt unnatural to humanize them. 

Suddenly, a large crystal shot up out of the ground towards somebody floating through the air near the villain. A man using rocket boots was flying around the villain, using his hands to create portals to help civilians escape. Charlie watched vigorously as bystanders in the way of harm ran through a red portal and exited out of a blue one. The man with rocket boots laughed, adjusting the glasses on his face: one lens was blue and the other was red. It was none other than the vigilante Dimension.

Dimension continued to fly around to distract the villains while moving the red portal around to the large groups of people needing to get out of harm's way so that they could safely exit out of the blue portal. The vigilante’s abilities were striking to that game Portal that Connor had been telling Charlie about. Charlie had seen clips of this guy on the news but had never seen him in person. His heart suddenly sank as he remembered that Connor said that he and this vigilante knew each other.

Once all the civilians had gotten out of the danger zone around the villain, the portals both vanished. Suddenly, the red portal appeared in front of Dimension and the other portal appeared behind the villain. Dimension dove through the portal and landed a critical hit on the back of Blood Diamond’s head. Another crystal shot up from the ground towards him, but Dimension used his rocket boots to swiftly move out of the way. 

The two continued to battle, Blood Diamond shooting large spear-like crystals out of the ground while Dimension seemingly dodged them with ease. A young girl from the crowd yelled that the hero Osiris was coming, and the villain’s body language changed immediately. The diamonds shooting from the ground suddenly became faster and shorter, aimed less well but more consistently coming up from the ground.

A familiar voice suddenly rang out from behind Charlie, and he turned around to the instantly recognizable voice. Ted was standing out on the front steps of the bodega, yelling at nearby civilians to get inside to safety. He was ushering anybody he could into the bodega, and Charlie felt a slight smile form across his face. Even in an instance as horrifying as this, he felt safe knowing he had a friend like that.

“Tommy, Tubbo! C’mon, let’s get inside!” yelled Charlie, as debris continued to float in the air around them. They suddenly began running towards the bodega, and Charlie looked over his shoulder one more time.

He watched as Dimension landed a difficult hit straight to Blood Diamond’s chest, which made the black-haired man stumble for a moment. The villain screamed in anger and hurled multiple knife-like diamonds at the vigilante. However, Dimension waited for just a second too long to dodge, as one diamond plunged straight into his left arm while another grazed his face, leaving a large gash. Blood poured out of the cut on Dimension’s face.

The villain cackled as the vigilante took a minute to compose himself, and began aiming for the civilians again. Charlie almost turned around to keep running when he noticed a girl about his age who was right in the wake of the attacks. She had dark black hair that was pulled into a bun and very thin silver glasses. She was shorter than average and dressed in a white sweater, pink skirt, and white sneakers.

Charlie suddenly noticed that she was frozen in shock and the ground beneath looked like it was slowly cracking. In a moment of panic, he realized that a crystal was going to shoot out of the ground right where the girl was standing. In a quick fluid motion, he turned around so fast that he had to stick a hand out to stabilize himself. He used that hand to push off the ground and start running faster. The cracks were growing larger beneath her.

“Look out!” he screamed, but she either didn’t hear him over the commotion or didn’t process his words. He felt his arms and legs pumping faster and faster as he ran towards the girl, and he couldn’t even tell if the villain had retreated or not yet due to the threat of a hero arriving. He suddenly realized he was close enough to her that he could jump and push her out of the way. 

The world seemed to go into slow motion as he leaped through the air, his arms outstretched towards the girl. He saw the cracks slowly become bigger and bigger beneath her, and it felt like his lungs couldn’t work. He blinked, felt himself collide with the girl, and successfully pushed her out of the way. They both ended up on the ground, and Charlie finally felt his lungs exhale with air.

Right where the girl had been standing moments before, was a sharp crystal about seven feet tall and three feet wide. The sharp tip seemed to cartoonishly glimmer in the sunlight, as if to prove how sharp it was. The girl’s eyes were wide open, staring at the large crystal. Charlie watched as the girl put together what had just happened and how close she was to getting injured.

Charlie looked up to see where Blood Diamond was but was inside met with direct eye contact with the hero Osiris. He was floating in the air, except this hero didn’t have to use any homemade rocket boots, he had the power naturally. His dark curls wildly sprung everywhere while a mask covered his face. His hero suit was made of nanotechnology, mostly dark grey with dark grey-blue accents. Named for the Egyptian god, the hero's powers were mostly unknown to the public. The #6 hero had recently just risen in the rankings to move Duckwing to the #7 spot.

Charlie watched as the hero’s brown eyes flickered between himself and the girl. Charlie slowly raised a thumbs up and a sheepish smile to the hero, who nodded and returned the smile. Charlie couldn’t help but feel as though the hero’s eyes were burning through him as if he was getting soul searched. After taking one last glance at the girl next to him, the hero flew off, and Charlie felt a sigh leave his mouth.

He pushed himself off of the ground, his head feeling dizzy for a moment. Suddenly, his eyes refocused, and a slight ringing began in his ears. He turned to the girl and offered her his hand so that she could stand up. She accepted it, her legs shaking as she stood.

“You… saved me,” the girl said after a moment, looking at Charlie. Her voice was higher pitched and filled with genuine emotion.

“Uh, yeah. I guess I did,” said the bodega owner, suddenly coughing. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and scanned the road for Tommy and Tubbo, who must’ve already made it to where Ted was. Oh, he really hoped they made it.

“I’m Lily Pichu, I-I’m from the Emerald District, I just don’t know how to thank you,” she said, pushing her glasses back up onto her face before standing up.

“Oh, I’m Charlie. You don’t have to thank me at all, I was just trying to-” began Charlie before she cut him off.

“I could’ve been killed or hurt or something. My boyfriend and friends would’ve been heartbroken. You saved me and the people I care about from so much pain” she said, her voice beginning to crack slightly.

“Do you have a way home? I could arrange something for you, my work is just down the street,” said Charlie, his heart sagging from the weight of the emotions in the situation.

“No, I have a friend who’s coming to pick me up!” said Lily as she shook her head, smiling with so much appreciation.

“Do you want me to wait with you at all?” asked Charlie, looking around the street that still looked generally unsafe. Blood Diamond had fled before Osiris had gotten there, and Dimension had also fled. He thought about what Connor had said about heroes taking on vigilantes because they operated with proper licenses.

“No, it’s okay, I can walk two blocks on my own. Thank you again!” she said, before smiling warmly and waving. She began speed walking in the other direction, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

Charlie laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation and slowly wandered back up to the bodega.

The eventful morning led to the rest of the day mostly focusing on making sure that everyone was okay. Tommy and Tubbo had managed to get to the bodega, and Ted had gotten a lot of people safely inside. Nobody was badly hurt, so Charlie didn't have to really patch anybody up. It was mostly just Charlie and Ted making sure that all the people had safe ways to get home to wherever they lived. By the time 4:00 pm rolled around, everyone had managed to make their way home.

Ted had left to go check on his girlfriend, and Charlie said that he could manage himself. The sign on the front door of the bodega was very rarely flipped around to say closed, but it did this afternoon as Charlie swept up all the debris that had gotten inside the bodega. He felt absolutely horrible for Niki, but he had seen a whole group of volunteers helping her less than an hour after the attack ended. He made a mental note to bake (or make Ted bake) some warm chocolate chip cookies for her, as she shouldn't be the one doing all the baking.

He rubbed his forehead in pain temporarily and wandered to the break room, which was still been a mess from the other night. Ted either ignored it or didn't bring it up, which tracked with his record of just assuming everybody was dumb enough to get hurt. Connor had been able to walk himself home after taking a nap, which Charlie had been relieved about. Connor's leg looked a lot less stiff than when he had first came in, which seemed like a miracle to the slime hybrid.

Charlie really didn't consider himself a hybrid, as appearance wise he was completely human except for his neon green eyes. Compared to a lot of other powered people, he was the least hybrid that you could get. He only had two little abilities that he could really consider 'powers': the ability to never have to sleep, and the ability to sometimes have things stick to him. It was more of an inconvenience than anything, since he couldn't control what stuck to him or when. Most commonly, it results in a pen never leaving his hand. He was always told that slime hybrids have three little powers, but he never really noticed a third one of his own.

He began packing away the water bottles that they had drank into a trash can when he heard the bell of the front door ring. He rolled his eyes so far back into his head that someone would think he got possessed. No way he was going to deal with an annoying customer right now: if it was that old lady who lived on Cobblestone Street he was going to start drinking from Schlatt's bottles under the counter.

"We're closed! Read the sign!" he yelled, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Blurred memories of the bakery ran through his head, the weird looks Tommy gave him repeatedly playing over and over. Footsteps continued coming closer towards the back, and Charlie felt himself let out an audible sigh.

Charlie turned around, expecting to be met with the face of a snotty child or angry customer, but instead with met with the sight of two guys standing in the break room's doorway. One of them being Connor, and the other being someone he wasn't expecting to see. Dressed in the same outfit without the rocket boots, was none other than Dimension. Dried blood covered his face and soaked into his shirt on his left arm. He seemed dizzy, possibly a concussion. The same red and blue glasses obstructed his face.

"Charlie, we need you to-" began Connor, but Charlie felt adrenaline run through his body.

"Let's patch him up and then talk, I think he's probably lost enough blood to wait any longer," said Charlie, his voice echoing throughout the bodega that would usually be filled with customers this time of day. Connor nodded hurriedly.

"I'm going to have to take off the glasses though in order to fix the gash on his face," commented Charlie softly, knowing that he would be faced with knowing the vigilante's identity if he did. Connor looked at Dimension, who just started nodding a lot. Charlie gulped, shut his eyes, and removed the glasses slowly from the guy's face. When he finally opened his eyes, they flew open in alarm and recognition at the person staring back at him. Connor wasn't lying when he said that he knew Dimension well.

"Ayup?" said the guy sheepishly, his voice cracking in pain.

Dimension was none other than Jack Manifold.

Chapter Text

"You have got to be joking with me," whispered Charlie in disbelief as he looked at the familiar face. The second half of Billzo & Jack’s, the restaurant just down the street, was the same guy who was flying around in rocket boots earlier. How many other business owners on this street were vigilantes? (Unbeknownst to him, Charlie will eventually find out it's a majority of them).

“Charlie…” muttered Jack softly, his eyes clearly showing his worry and sympathy. Dried sweat and blood covered the man’s face as he struggled to sit up straight in the chair

“You know, when you said I knew him well, I didn’t think you meant this well,” said Charlie as he walked over to the first aid materials that were still out on the counter from two nights prior. He grabbed the bottle of antiseptic, a few cotton pads, and a roll of bandages.

“What’d you tell him?” asked Jack slowly, looking at Connor with heavy confusion. His body movements were slow, which Charlie assessed was most likely a concussion. It probably was a weak concussion at best, but Charlie still took a major mental note about it in case it got worse.

“I told Charlie I was Sonic two nights ago, after the Ember and 404 fight. I needed help with my leg. He asked who else knew I was Sonic, and I said that Dimension knew. Charlie asked if I could tell him Dimension’s identity. I said I couldn’t, but that he knew you well,” explained Connor softly, looking at Jack with worry.

“I remember that, I saw that you hurt your leg on the news. Thank you for not saying, without asking me,” said Jack quietly, gratitude and pain filling his voice.

“I’m either going to have to take your shirt off or rip a hole in your shirt to get the cut,” interjected Charlie hurriedly. He would love to talk about this once Jack was not close to bleeding out.

“Feel free to rip it, I got like ten more identical ones at home,” said Jack through slightly gritted teeth as what appeared to be another wave of pain shot up his arm.

Charlie carefully tore through the black fabric on the injured arm, careful to not make the hole any bigger than it needed to be. The dried blood that soaked through the shirt made it a little difficult, but the threads otherwise pulled apart easily. The deep gash on his arm was surrounded by red and slightly purple skin, the dried blood a dark ruby red.

He slowly opened the bottle of antisepticeye and poured it onto the cotton pad. He squeezed Jack's arm for just a moment to let him know that the pain was incoming and Jack nodded slowly. Charlie slowly pressed the antiseptic-soaked pad against the gash and Jack gritted his teeth again in pain. The vigilante quickly increased his breathing speed as Charlie cleaned the wound on the arm carefully. The blood quickly soaked up the first cotton pad, and Charlie tossed into the nearby trash can. 

Connor leaned against the doorway with one leg crossed over the other, his deep blue eyes lingering on Charlie. The slime hybrid grabbed another cotton pad and put more antiseptic on it, moving back towards the injury on Jack's face, which was much smaller and less detrimental than the arm injury. Jack grimaced less this time, looking more tired than anything as Charlie attended to him. 

Charlie stood up and walked over to the sink. He grabbed a grey towel, and slowly turned on the faucet until it was running with warm water. He quickly rinsed the hand towel under the warm water and wrung it out before returning over to the injured vigilante. He began using the hand towel to clean off the dried blood next to the wound on Jack's arm. 

"Connor, would you mind grabbing the cot back out from the backroom if your leg isn't feeling too bad?" called Charlie to the man in the doorway, watching as Jack's wound already looked better after the dried blood began to wash away. The skin was still red and slightly purple, but overall the dried blood had made it look a lot worse.

"I'll grab it, no problem," said Connor, and he vanished from the doorway. Charlie quickly glanced at the man's injured leg. The bandages were still wrapped around it, but as if Connor had taken them off and rewrapped it. Connor was walking like there was no injury at all. He quickly snapped his attention back to the vigilante in front of him. He grabbed the roll of bandages off the counter and began rolling out about 2.5 feet of the wrappable bandage. He tore the hole in the shirt slightly bigger and began wrapping the arm gash.

Connor appeared back in the doorway about a minute later with the cot in his arms. Charlie flashed the man a grateful smile before finishing up the wrap on Jack's arm. The injured vigilante had begun to slow his breathing back down again as Charlie wrapped the gash tighter. Charlie tightly tied off the bandage after wrapping it around the man's arm multiple times.

Connor began slowly unfolding the cot all by himself while Charlie went back over to the sink. The green-eyed boy washed off the dried blood from the hand towel, watching as the red-stained water slowly went down the drain into the sink. He continued to squeeze and wring out the towel until the water stayed clear as it went through. He then dug through the drawer next to the sink until he grabbed a large normal bandage and a small bottle of antibiotic ointment.

The injured vigilante now had less of an expression of pain and more one of relief as Charlie walked back over. He double checked the wrap on the arm to back sure blood wasn't seeping through the multiple layers of bandage, and it wasn't to his consolation. He was able to recompose himself from the slight panic and began wiping the dried blood from the face injury. The face cut had been a lot smaller and dried blood a lot thinner than the arm injury, so it was clean in no time. It looked a lot better, but Charlie frowned.

"Do you think he'll need stitches?" asked Charlie with a frown, turning to Connor, who had returned to the doorway after setting up the cot. The cut was nowhere near the arm injury, but he wanted to be a little more cautious since it was on the face. Connor frowned slightly, to Charlie's surprise. The blue-eyed man just shook his head no, not making eye contact. Charlie felt himself stiffen a little bit, but leaned over to grab the antibiotic ointment and the bandage.

He slowly tore open the wrapper on the bandage, and laid the non-sticky side on his leg with the sticky side facing up. Since it was ointment instead of liquid, he was able to place it directly onto the pad on the sticky side of the bandage. He carefully squeezed the small tube onto the bandage until a small amount of ointment about the size of a marble onto the small pad. He carefully picked up the bandage and pressed it onto Jack's face cut, which made the vigilante wince.

"I think you're all patched up! I probably need to be able to learn some more medical stuff besides just band-aids if I'm gonna keep doing this," half-joked Charlie, beginning to screw the cap back onto the ointment.

"I really think you've got what it takes to heal anything," said Connor, his tone playful while clearly trying to get across something else as well. The look that Connor had in his eyes was somewhere between knowledgeable and mischievous, and Charlie couldn't quite tell which. Was there an underlying message there that Charlie was supposed to be understanding? He couldn't quite tell what Connor could be referring to.

"Since when am I a medical expert?" asked Charlie, trying to keep the confusion out of his voice and keep the conversation light-hearted. He was quite unsure at the moment of what was going on.

"Since when do you have healing powers?" shot back Connor with a grin, and both of the other boys widened their eyes at the same time. 

"Charlie... powers?" slurred Jack, quickly confirming Charlie's concussion theory. But even the comedy of that didn't take the tension out of the air between the two lifelong friends. Charlie couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I have healing powers. Yeah, totally, a hundred percent," replied Charlie sarcastically, unsure if he should laugh or not. His green eyes filled with humor and confusion. This was an odd bit that Connor was doing...

"You can drop the act, Charlie. I'm literally the living proof," replied Connor, his voice a lot more soft and sympathetic now as he bent down to unravel the bandage on his leg with a smile on his face. Before Charlie could object, the bandage fell off of Connor's leg onto the ground, revealing what should have still been a large healing injury. But there was nothing there but smooth skin, like nothing had happened at all. No scar or blemished skin to reveal that part of his leg had been burnt just two days earlier.

"Holy shit, Connor. What...?" trailed off Charlie as he took in what Connor was saying. The only way that healing that quickly was possible would be because of a power, and they both knew it. But Charlie lacked any kind of explanation for what was going on, his brain rattling thoughts around with no fact or logic behind any of them.

"Charlie, I am not mad at you or anything, I obviously think this is really cool. I just need to know what's going on," said Connor, bending over and picking up the no longer needed bandage off the floor.

"If I had healing powers, I feel like I would've known by now. Man, whatever you're doing, this isn't funny," said Charlie, tripping over his own words as they came spilling out of his mouth like water spilling out of a broken dam. Is it possible that this is his third power? Do third powers come in late? Shit, he really wished he knew another slime hybrid at this point in time.

"Did you really not know?" asked Connor, his voice laced with concern as his face showed more and more sympathy.

"I don't have healing powers, Connor. Maybe you have healing powers. I don't know, man," stuttered Charlie, his motions panicky as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"I mean, it didn't heal instantly or anything. I don't think your powers make it go away instantly, or not major injuries. But I think somehow, you definitely sped up the healing process," said Connor, his eyes drifting down to his previously injured leg.

"I haven't really patched up anything larger than the cut on Jack's face before I helped you with your leg. Is it possible to not even know I had that? I feel like it's not really possible, maybe only with larger injuries?" rambled Charlie, almost thinking out loud.

"Charlie, I'm sorry for being accusational, but if you do have healing powers, do you know what you could do? This is big news, man!" exclaimed Connor.

"Yeah, get arrested! I don't have healing abilities registered with my file. Not registering one of your powers is, like, illegal!" exclaimed Charlie back, matching Connor’s energy despite the fact that he was nervous while Connor was excited. 

“Me being a vigilante is already illegal, dumbass. We’re basically trained criminals already in this bodega!” said Connor with a grin, making Charlie put his head in his hands while Jack gave a concussed giggle.

“That doesn’t make doing other illegal stuff less illegal! The government has tabs on everyone for a reason, every citizen with powers has to have a fully extended description of their powers on their citizen’s file! You know this!” rambled Charlie, attempting to logically think through the government’s system of identifying civilians.

"My super speed isn't registered. No shot that I would still be here if I did, the police would come bursting the bodega doors down. Super speed's very rare, they would know I'm Sonic almost immediately," said Connor absentmindedly.

"I have m-my other power registered but not the portals!" said Jack slowly, his first time interjecting into the conversation.

"Other power?" asked Charlie with a raised eyebrow.

"If I sneeze during a rainstorm, it'll make thunder, even if there's no lighting," giggled Jack, which caused the other two people in the room to laugh with him. Jack's old gamertag 'Thunder1408' suddenly stood out to Charlie. His mind drifted away for a moment, thinking about every time he had heard an extra loud clap of thunder with no flash of light in the sky.

"You are ridiculous, honestly," laughed Connor, the warmth overflowing in his eyes.

"My face feels funny," muttered Jack simply, gesturing to the bandage on his face. Connor and Charlie both stopped and looked at Jack before slowly turning back towards each other. An evil-happy grin spread across Connor's face as Charlie slowly shook his head no. They held eye contact for a moment before Charlie gave in and walked over to Jack.

"I'm just going to lift the band-aid up to check something real quick, can you hold still for a moment?" asked Charlie carefully, while Jack nodded. He slowly lifted up the edge of the bandage, with Jack wincing as it slowly peeled back from his skin. Charlie kept going until the bandage was about a third of the way peeled off. He suddenly felt his mouth go dry as he took in the injury.

The smaller face cut was almost completely healed already, as if Charlie had stitched it together. A small white line of new skin ran up the side of Jack's face where the cut had been. The purple skin around the cut had almost completely vanished, leaving a little bit of light pink. What should have taken a few days to heal has happened in a couple of minutes. There was really no explanation for what had happened, other than Charlie.

"Holy fucking shit!" exclaimed Connor with excitement while Charlie stood there dumbfounded.

"Did it get worse?" mumbled Jack, his eyes beginning to fill with concern.

"Complete opposite, actually. Somehow, it's almost completely better," said Charlie as he continued to examine the cut.

"Connor was right!" laughed Jack and the two exchanged a quick high five while Charlie continued to reevaluate his entire life.

"Jack probably needs to lay down, even with my, uh, help. The concussion and the arm gash are not a great combo!" laughed Charlie in disbelief, struggling to admit that he had done something in order to speed up Jack's healing process.

Connor stood on one side of Jack while Charlie stood on the other as they helped the man off the counter onto the cot in the middle of the room. Charlie got serious deja vu from the other night with Connor, and watched as Jack gave a shaky thumbs up with his injured arm. After a short lecture from Charlie on why Jack shouldn't move his injured arm like that, the pair left the vigilante to rest in the break room while they walked out to the main area of the bodega.

“Don’t say a word to me,” said Charlie as he sat down in his favorite chair. He really could not take much more processing of information right about now.

“You could probably get a job at hero headquarters for like, millions of dollars bro. Just saying,” said Connor with another laugh, as he walked over to Jambo and Bumper’s food bowls.

The last of the sun's rays began to stretch through the front windows of the store, illuminating every reflection service with streams of orange and yellow as the sun set. The heavy effects of the day wore on Charlie, and he just needed some hours to be able reflect on what was going on. It was odd that this was still the same day that he had agreed to take Tommy and Tubbo to the Pink Finch.

He felt a palm on his shoulder, and the comfort that came from radiated through him. His vigilante friend stood beside him, his signature grin covering his face. Charlie appreciated Connor immensely for everything, even if it was just a small shoulder pat like this one.

“I have an exam early tomorrow, are you okay running the shop by yourself? I want to try to get some extra sleep tonight,” said Connor, as Charlie suddenly remembered that Connor attended the city’s best university. Charlie had taken his college classes while he was in high school, so he graduated with both his high school diploma and associate’s degree.

“I’ve got everything all covered, traffic will be slow!” said Charlie, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, which really couldn’t be further from the truth.

Connor gave Charlie a fist bump before walking towards the exit. He turned around right as he reached the exit, using his shoulder to push open the door as he leaned against it, staring directly at his friend.

“You’ll text me if you need anything, right?” asked Connor, the joking tone leaving his voice in place of a sympathetic one.

“Absolutely,” said Charlie thoughtfully, as Connor nodded and headed out the door. Connor was wearing one of those hoodie jean jackets, and flipped up the hood as he walked east down the sidewalk. Charlie’s eyes trailed his friend out of concern for safety, but only for the few seconds that Charlie could still see him through the window.

A few beats of silence filled the bodega as Charlie was left to sit with his thoughts. This was really the opposite of what he wanted, as his thoughts at this point were the opposite of the attitude he wanted. His desired no worries state of mind was being rudely interrupted by thoughts about getting arrested or getting beat up by superheroes or both.

Osiris, the very hero that watched him save that girl Lily earlier today, could be the very one that would throw him in a jail cell. He thought about the cold eyes behind Osiris’ mask, and how they wouldn’t hesitate to burn right through him. He thought about Ted and Schlatt, who most likely have no idea what’s going on. His mind swam with every thought imaginable until the real world became fuzzy.

The phone on the desk loudly rang and Charlie jumped nearly a foot out of his chair. He had been so deep in thought but the sound of the phone snapped him back to reality. He placed one hand on the cold, smooth countertop to ground himself before shakily picking up the red wired phone in front of him.

“Chuckle Sandwich Bodega, St. L'manberg City’s number one 24 hour shop. This is Charlie, how can I help you?” he said in his best customer service voice, wondering who could possibly be calling.

“Big man! What is going on?! How is everything going for ya?” Billzo basically screamed down the phone, his accent coming in clearly over the phone. Charlie froze for a moment, not really sure how to answer.

“Uh, well, it’s certainly going,” he replied slowly, turning his head towards the break room in the back. Billzo happened to be the former part of the namesake of Billzo & Jack’s bar, while the second half was taking a nap after almost bleeding out in the backroom. One slip up here and he’s officially leaked Jack’s identity after knowing it for less than two hours.

“Crazy world we’re living in right now, where apparently phone wires could possibly be tapped by the government or even the heroes,” said Bill, keeping a cheery attitude while stressing the sentence. Charlie stopped for a moment, slowly taking in what Bill was saying. Was that even possible? He shouldn’t overthink this.

“Not that the government would be interested in us at all, eh?” he said through the phone, his face flushed with color out of nervousness, but he managed to keep a stutter out of his voice.

“Listen, I know about Jack’s… girlfriend,” said Bill, and Charlie pressed together his eyebrows in confusion for a moment before realizing that this has to be some sort of secret code. Oh god, he’d been thrown into this whole vigilante business for less than a week and he was already speaking in code with someone over the phone.

“I’m glad you know, because I was seriously nervous that I was going to let it slip and that’s the kind of thing Jack’s gotta tell you himself,” said Charlie in full honesty, taking out a notepad and pen from underneath the table. Was this going to be like the TV shows where he was going to have to take notes?

“Well, I was just calling to see how Jack was. Connor called and said that he picked Jack up from her house this afternoon, where is Jack now?” asked Bill innocently while Charlie calculated his answer on the other side of the phone. If the girlfriend thing is referring to Jack’s powers, then Bill has to be saying that Connor called when he found Jack after fighting Blood Diamond, right?

“Yep, Connor took Jack here after picking him up from the girlfriend’s house. We said that he could sleep here tonight, he’s all good,” said Charlie carefully, realizing he must sound like an idiot.

“Well, I am glad to hear that. I’m out of town until tomorrow night so he’s gotta run the bar. When he gets up, just send him back here and remind him that we’re opening at 3:00 instead of 2:00, alrighty?” asked Bill with a singsong voice, and Charlie nearly sighed in relief. He scribbled down the information as a personal reminder.

“Yeah, I can definitely do that. You know, I didn’t find out about Jack’s girlfriend until today,” said the slime hybrid into the phone, thinking about every word.

“Jack told me about his girlfriend the day after they went out for the first time,” said Bill almost lazily, like he spoke in code all the time. Charlie assumed he meant that Jack told him about being a vigilante the day after his first night patrol.

“Well, uh, I’ll be here all night, so just call if you need anything else!” said Charlie, watching the final beams of sunlight disappear behind a building through the window.

“I’m going to bed! Night night, Charles!” exclaimed Bill and the line went dead before Charlie could even say good night back. He twirled the wire on the phone for a moment with his finger absentmindedly before putting down the phone, taking in the whole scope of the situation. He just talked in secret code over the phone to protect a vigilante’s identity. 

He really needed a moment of normalcy, so he reached for the TV remote. Before he could click the button to turn it on, normalcy walked in. In through the front door walked three guys, two of which Charlie knew. Not only customers, but friends.

The first guy was the shortest and was a few years younger, with golden blonde hair and brown eyes. He had on a purple hoodie, light brown shorts, and a pair worn in vans. He also sported silver earrings, a silver necklace, and a fancy silver watch. Grayson Purpled, who preferred to go by his last name. Charlie had originally met the witty teenager through Tubbo and Tommy, but the dude was very popular and always coming in with a new group of people. 

The second person was one of Charlie’s oldest friends, and the subject of a conversation he had earlier that very day. Alex Quackity, the CEO of the Las Nevadas casino downtown. He was laughing loudly at something Purpled had said, sliding his sunglasses off his face as he walked through the doors. His bushy black hair was hidden by a navy beanie as per usual, somehow being messy and stylish at the same time. He had navy suit pants and a regular white button up to go with some dress shoes.

The last person was someone that Charlie was unfamiliar with. He was a lot taller than the other two, with lighter blonde hair and a more stocky build than the other two. He wore a simple white hoodie and a pair of light blue jeans accompanied by some very fancy white sneakers from some designer brand that Charlie didn’t know the name of.

“Charlie, my slime! How are we doing?” yelled Alex through the doorway as they walked into the door.

“Quackity from Las Nevadas and Purpled from the Gold District, good evening! How are you, and who’s this?” called out Charlie, a smile immediately crossing his face. Nothing to calm his nerves like seeing his friends.

“Uh, Luke Purpled, but my friends call me Punz. Long story,” said the man in the white hoodie, and Charlie’s eyes widened momentarily before flickering between the two blonde people in the store.

“Yes, he is unfortunately my brother. It’s hard to believe that I inherited all the handsome and smart and talented genes, but I did,” called Purpled from the drinks section, making Charlie and Alex laugh while Punz rolled his eyes.

“Charlie Slimecicle, but Charlie works fine, at your service! Welcome to St. L'manberg City’s finest bodega,” said Charlie, extending his hand out to Punz, who stared for a moment before giving a slight smile and accepting the handshake.

“Charlie knows everything and everybody. But not in a mean gangster way, more like a sweet undercover agent type of way,” said Alex, wandering through the candy section.

“Thank you…?” replied Charlie with a laugh, the supposed compliment warming his chest.

“You know everybody, huh? Does that mean you know when more suspicious stuff is going down?” asked Punz, with no humor edging his voice. Charlie felt his body freeze, concern painting his face.

“Are you talking about villains or family drama? Because I know everything about stuff like Jen and Pat from down the streets’ failing marriage or how Weston Koury is running for mayor again, not stuff about whatever evil is going on,” chuckled Charlie as he punched in the Mentos and Starbursts that Alex held up in his hand into the register.

“Villains or the vigilantes?” asked Punz again, but Charlie could notice slight body movements that possibly meant Punz was less suspicious of him. He never knew anything for sure.

“If I knew anything, I’d take it straight to the heroes. Actually, I don’t really know how that works. Do they just have a secretary or something?” he finally replied, laughing it off.

“Yeah,” said Purpled nonchalantly, before suddenly dawning a look somewhere between i-fucked-this-up-big-time and i-can-maybe-fix-this.

“What, you know the hero headquarters or something?” replied Charlie, and suddenly the older two had weird expressions on their face that Charlie couldn’t quite place.

“School field trip! What, you think I got arrested or something?” shot back Purpled with a smirk before putting two drinks on the counter to buy. The other two seemed to lose the weird expressions so Charlie just shrugged.

“Did you say Jen and Pat’s marriage was failing?” asked Alex suddenly.

“Yeah, the couple that moved over here from Glowstone Avenue. Crazy stuff,” said Charlie, happy for the topic change.

After a few more minutes of conversation, the group of three wrapped up their final purchases and were just on their way when Purpled stopped in the doorway.

“Hey, I left my wallet on the counter, be there in a second!” called Purpled to the other two guys, before turning around walking back in towards Charlie.

“I don’t see your wallet here, sorry man,” said Charlie, starting to look around, before Purpled started shaking his head.

“I lied. My wallet is safely tucked in my incredible looking shorts,” said Purpled absentmindedly.

“You are a worryingly convincing liar,” said Charlie, staring the teenager up and down.

“Listen, Punz is so overprotective that I’m gonna shit my brains out, but I had to talk to you about something. You know Ranboo and Tubbo?” said Purpled quickly.

“Of course, they are my little broskis. Well, I guess not little, Ranboo totally towers over me in height. Is everything okay?” asked Charlie, obviously concerned but trying to thread humor into the situation.

“I think so. But with all the increased violence, they’ve started acting weird, so could you just maybe keep an eye on them, make sure they’re okay? Not that I would ever feel sympathy for them or anything,” remarked Purpled, also trying to keep the comedic balance.

“Yeah, I can totally do that. I’ll let the other bodega guys know too. Especially with the stuff that happened down the street just this morning,” replied Charlie with a smile.

“I gotta get going. Thank you though. I’m grateful,” said Purpled as he walked out the door, the watch on his wrist buzzing. Does everyone have buzzing watches nowadays?

“As much as you don’t want to admit it, you’re a great friend!” called out Charlie as Purpled disappeared onto the other side of the door, and in return, Charlie received a middle finger through the glass from the blonde teenager.

The sun had officially set all of the way, and twilight blanketed the night sky. Charlie still couldn’t believe that the attack that Blood Diamond did had happened just earlier that morning and not days ago. What was the reason for that attack? It didn’t add up at all, not to mention one of the most famous vigilantes was sleeping in the break room of his bodega.

…and since when did he have healing powers? He almost forgot about that.

Chapter Text

Sunshine peered through the front windows of the bodega many hours later. The usual 1 AM rush as people came home from late night outings didn’t occur, as people had either chosen to stay home or taken a different route due to the attack. The lack of customers bothered Charlie not because he was a business person, but rather because it sucked sitting by himself for hours. The downsides of never sleeping.

Jack’s light but consistent snoring had been the main thing that Charlie had been listening to all night beside the local news and the sounds of the cats playing together. The news barely had any footage of the attack, showing the same few phone videos over and over again all night long. One video had Charlie yelling at Tommy and Tubbo in the blurry background, which made him comically exhale out of his nose slightly every time the video played.

However, the repeating footage wasn’t the reason that Charlie kept the news looping over and over, but rather looking for a reason why the attacks happened. Supervillain attacks, while not the rarest thing in the city, often had some bluntly obvious pattern or motive behind it. Villains either clearly stated why they were attacking or had several small attacks leading up to the large one to garner more attention. Blood Diamond, or rather Skeppy, had seemingly just appeared after months of inactivity for no clear reason.

The villain Gasmask, for example, set off several small smoke bombs all over the city for a week leading up to his large attack on the nuclear power plant, the same power plant that supposedly mistreated its workers. There, Charlie saw some kind of pattern and supposed motive. Not that it was justified, but at least it made some semblance of sense logically.

His mind tried to play back the moment he saved that Lily girl over and over again. Was there something that he noticed that felt off at all? It was extremely difficult to pinpoint anything due to the gravity of the situation and the adrenaline that had pumped through him while it happened. Supervillains can’t always be explained or predicted.

The news had yet to play any kind of post-attack interview with Osiris or any other hero for that matter. That’s what he was looking forward to: how much did the heroes know about this, and why was a vigilante able to get there faster? Even if the heroes involved were unavailable, they sent their press secretary JHB out to give interviews. An awkward guy who supposedly had the ability to have a perfect memory, he was charming and usually had great answers to news reporters’ questions.

Charlie sighed again as the news station repeated the same information again and again. One death, ten injuries, and mountains of property damage in the Gold District. Hearing that again sunk a deep feeling into Charlie’s stomach, feeling acid build up in the back of his throat as his reaction to the sort of survivor's guilt that he was feeling.

He snapped out of it as he heard glass smash to the floor beside him, and he jumped into panic mode before realizing that Jambo had just knocked one of Schlatt’s glass bottles of beer off a countertop. His chest heaved as he sighed in relief, his hands still shaking for a moment. The orange cat stared at Charlie with an expression that he could only describe as mischief.

“I’ll bet that you don’t even feel a single pang of guilt, huh?” said Charlie in an accusatory tone towards the tabby, who simply began cleaning himself in reply as Charlie rolled his eyes. He went towards the back of the bodega where a broom and dustpan were hung up neatly on the wall. He stood on his tiptoes, about to grab them both before he realized that Jack’s snoring from the break room had stopped.

Charlie paused momentarily, before slowly and carefully walking over to the break room, not wanting to disturb Jack in case he was still sleeping. He slowly pushed open the break room door, to see Jack sitting up on the cot, poking his injuries with one finger.

“That you, Charlie?” asked Jack as he heard the door to the break room creak open slowly. Through the bit of sunlight creaking in through the cracks of the door, he could make out the slime hybrid's facial features.

“The one and only,” replied Charlie with a smile, flicking on the break room light, to which Jack jokingly hissed like a vampire. They laughed for a moment, taking in the events of last night's situation.

“There are no cameras in here, right?” asked Jack after a beat, showing the same concern for surveillance that Bill had shown the night before. Charlie couldn’t blame him though.

“Schlatt was supposed to install some a long time ago, but it’s Schlatt, so it obviously didn’t happen,” joked Charlie, the warmth in his green eyes shining.

“So you’re a superpowered guy?” asked Jack, a smile forming across his face.

“I could ask you the same question. Well, I tried to last night, but you were a bit out of it with the concussion,” admitted Charlie, giggling a bit as he spoke.

“I remember everything from last night. Well, I think I do, it’s just a little bit fuzzy. But like, hiding healing powers from everyone is kinda crazy,” said Jack with a shrug.

“Okay, first of all, I was not hiding them. I did not know I had them. Second of all, fighting Blood Diamond is a little crazier,” said Charlie, balancing a mix of comedy and sincerity in his voice.

“It was a little stupid, wasn’t it?” asked Jack sheepishly, to which Charlie replied with an exasperated laugh.

“Wanna walk me through the thought process there?“ asked Charlie, leaning against the doorway.

“Well, both the heroes and the vigilantes are struggling a bit right now, huh? 3/10 of the top heroes are off duty right now, with Aresblade having that top secret mission somewhere out of the country while Duckwing and Oceania are on personal leave. Vigilantes in the Gold District weren’t super well either: Connor obviously had his leg injured so he wasn’t in the picture. Ender, Psychosis, and Honeycomb have been off the grid for days. I guess part of me felt like it was all up to me,” explained Jack, looking around the room, almost avoiding eye contact with Charlie until the very end.

“Wait, how do you know if heroes are off duty? How do you know the other vigilantes? There are a lot of plot holes. Well, maybe not plot holes, but maybe some stuff I should get filled in on,” said Charlie quickly, talking a little faster out of excitement.

“Uh well, for the hero part, we’ve kind of got two people in the middle of the heroes and the vigilantes. They’re kind of the middlemen, but they’ve got fame, so it kind of makes it a little difficult,” admitted Jack, watching Charlie connect the puzzle pieces.

“Oh my god. You are getting your information from a superhero gossip channel. You are getting information from Ludwig and Austin from the show Mogul Mail, aren’t you?” laughed Charlie in disbelief. He and Ludwig were mutual friends through Schlatt, but he had no idea that Ludwig was in the business of giving information to vigilantes.

“I mean yes, we are getting surprisingly reliable information from them. I try not to think about it too hard,” replied Jack with a matching laugh.

“Do they know your identity at all?” asked Charlie, his heart skipping a beat for a second.

“No, they don’t. They usually leave an envelope with information every week or so in a designated location, we don’t meet in person. I think they would run the story if they figured it out, but I also don’t think they’re actively looking for who I really am.”

“Wait, how did they even agree to this? I mean, leaking info to a vigilante isn’t usually something a gossip station as big as them would do.”

“Psychosis and I saved them both along with their cast and crew a few months ago when their studio flooded after Lemonhead broke the water pipes in multiple buildings in the Diamond District. The hero Theseus didn’t get there until way after everything happened, so it’s been their way of thanks ever since.”

“Oh my god, do you know the identity of Psychosis?!” exclaimed Charlie suddenly, his eyes shining with curiosity. Something about Charlie’s sentence made Jack’s eyes gleam with secrecy.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. Why do you seem so excited?” asked Jack in reply, clearly milking the situation for his own comedic entertainment.

“Do you know Zach Bizly? He works at the high school and teaches history. I’ve known him since we were kids. Psychosis saved his life along with a few students when the soup kitchen they were volunteering at got hit by Gasmask at Christmas. Never got to say thanks for saving his and his student's lives,” explained Charlie. Psychosis had been his favorite vigilante: until he learned about Connor, of course.

“I do know Psychosis personally. I obviously can’t tell you, Connor must’ve explained the whole vigilante code. But yeah, Psychosis is definitely a badass,” agreed Jack, whose eyes had shown recognition at the story about the soup kitchen gassing.

“By the way, Bill called last night to check up on you. He was talking in this secret code and it took me a minute to figure it out but I pretty much got the hang of it. He wanted me to remind you that the bar is opening an hour later than usual today, which I guess works in your favor,” remembered Charlie suddenly.

“Oh yeah, the girlfriend code. What a little fucking prick Bill is for that one. He said it was the perfect code because there would never be an actual girlfriend to mix the code up with,” grimaced Jack as Charlie burst out laughing.

“How are your injuries feeling?” asked Charlie, walking over to examine Jack closer. The cut on the head and arm, the main injuries, were still wrapped up snug.

“Honestly? My head feels completely better, but my arm still hurts a little bit,” admitted Jack, his body relaxing slightly as Charlie walked over.

“Well, then we will unwrap the head injury first!” exclaimed Charlie, before holding his breath slightly. Flashbacks to last night, including the denial of healing abilities despite a heap of proof, scattered Charlie’s head as he slowly removed the bandage from Jack’s head to be met with shock again.

The skin had healed almost completely overnight. Last night it had looked like it had just been stitched up, but now any other major sign had seemingly vanished. The only sign that there had been some kind of injury was that the injury site was slightly paler than the rest of his forehead. It was so unnoticeable that Jack could easily get through a shift or two without a single person noticing.

“You staring at my forehead like that can only mean that the results are either really good or really bad, which one is it?” asked Jack after a moment, pulling Charlie back down to Earth.

“Actually, it’s really good. There is no sign that you were attacked by a supervillain there yesterday except for the fact that it’s slightly paler than the rest of your forehead,” replied Charlie happily as he finished removing the bandage.

“My forehead got paler? Jesus, I didn’t even know that was possible, I’m already basically a sheet of paper,” said Jack, causing Charlie to laugh to the point where he almost missed the trash can when he threw the bandage away.

“Well, now it’s time to move onto the problem spot, which I’m surprised is honestly not bigger. You did a good job dodging those diamond shard knife things,” commented Charlie as he wiped his hands off with a wet towel.

“It was mostly adrenaline. Also, my badass rocket boots help a little bit,” said Jack with a grin as Charlie slowly unwrapped the bandage that was snug against Jack’s arm to reveal a small purple bruise with the cut having sewn itself shut.

Charlie thought back to what Connor and he had discussed the night before about the possible workings of his powers. The smaller head cut being healed a lot faster than the arm cut seemed to prove Connor’s theory that Charlie had powers that speed up healing, with larger injuries taking longer.

“Well, it’s not completely healed, but it’s definitely a lot smaller and looks really good. I could easily wrap that back up and you could either wear long sleeves or just pass it up as a burn you got in the kitchen,” said Charlie, reaching for the anti-bacterial wipes.

“I’ll probably go with the long sleeves. I’ve got a killer button-up shirt I’ve been meaning to find an excuse to wear,” quipped Jack as Charlie tore open the seal to the wipes and removed one. He used it to slowly clean Jack’s cut in case there was any dirt that he missed last night.

“I’m honestly in shock that all of this is happening, you know. Between the vigilantes and the powers and everything else, I’m just really glad that this is going this smoothly,” said Charlie, throwing the wipe away and reaching into a drawer for clean bandages to wrap around.

“I mean, if it’s healing at this rate, then my arm could be completely healed by lunchtime! You really are and always have been a game changer, Charlie. As a vigilante healer and as a friend.”

The words, while mostly having a comedic tone, made Charlie blush with appreciation. He got to use a lot fewer reusable bandages this time than last night since the cut had gotten that much smaller. He wrapped it around a few times and pulled it nice and tight, but not too tight.

“That feel okay?” Try moving your arm around,” instructed Charlie with a smile, proud of his handiwork.

“It feels great Charlie, thank you so much,” said Jack, clearly meaning it. He lifted himself off of the cot and moved his arm around some more. Charlie began folding up the cot as Jack wandered over to the bridge for a bottle of water. Charlie didn’t feel like bringing the cot all the way to the back room, so he leaned it folded up against the wall.

Jack took a long sip of water, his eyes clearly deep in thought about something. His eyeline kept wandering over to Charlie, and Charlie stood there awkwardly for a moment. He knew, in the end, that even though it was cool, knowing that Jack was Dimension and that Bill was in on it came with dire consequences. However, he was tempted to ask one more question.

“Is Bill a vigilante?” he asked suddenly, making Jack snort into his bottle of water.

“Absolutely not, he’s got no powers and no athletic ability. Even if he did, that son of a bitch is too lazy and too busy making fun of me to go out and do vigilante work. But hey, somebody’s gotta cover for me, right?” replied Jack, poking fun at his business partner.

Charlie smiled and nodded, happy that Jack was feeling better. Cracking jokes the way that Jack has been all morning could only mean that the bald man was feeling like himself again, and Charlie felt a warm pang in his chest of self-appreciation when he realized it was because of him.

“I’m glad you have someone like Bill to back you up! You’re gonna need the support when you rest up the next few days,” said Charlie, but Jack’s face shifted slightly.

“Part of me wants to lay off the vigilantism for a little bit, but I’m scared that there won’t be anybody to step up. Like I know Connor might go back out on the field because his leg is better but a lot of this area’s vigilantes have been on the low-down lately and I want there to be enough vigilantes to protect around here, you know?” rambled Jack, his voice cracking a bit.

Before the other boy could even think of what to say in response, Jack’s arms were suddenly thrown around Charlie in a loving embrace, which Charlie happily returned. When they pulled apart after a second, a grin lined his face and his eyes were squinted slightly from smiling.

“I know I’ve said it a lot, but thank you so much, Charlie, genuinely. It means the world to me and Bill that you not only patched me up but let me stay here for the night,” said Jack thankfully, relief and gratefulness shining in his eyes.

“Feel free to come to bleed out in our bodega any time, as long as you look cool doing it,” said the slime hybrid, even though he obviously hoped that Jack wouldn’t put himself in a dangerous situation like that again. However, it’s also Jack, so that was probably wishful thinking.

A large commotion was heard coming from the front of the store, which made both boys freeze in place for just a second. The overlapping voices of people talking, maybe three or four people, rang out as Charlie quickly placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

“Go out the back door,” whispered Charlie, before quickly leaving the breakroom and scanning the front of the bodega for what he expected to be a bunch of customers or maybe Ted and his friends. However, what he saw was a camera crew of three and a guy in a fancy suit facing the front of the store. A man with a camera, a woman with a sound box, and a guy wearing a headset writing frantically on a clipboard surrounded the guy in the suit.

“Uh, hello?” called Charlie as he made his way to the front, and hoped that Jack would wait a minute or two to leave. The suit guy turned around, and Charlie felt shock ripple through him temporarily as he recognized Ludwig Ahgren, the host of the aforementioned superhero gossip channel, which could occasionally be referred to as news.

Tremors of nervousness suddenly filled his body as he walked closer to the group. Did they already figure out that Jack was here? Did they figure out he was hiding Connor? The number of vigilante laws he had broken over the past few days was definitely arrest-worthy. On top of that, not that he’s bragging about it, but he, his co-workers, and the bodega have a well-known reputation in the community.

“Charlie Slimecicle! Just the man I was looking for! Local hero!” exclaimed Ludwig in his iconic diction, his unique way of talking being of his most recognizable traits.

“Local hero?” repeated Charlie back, his nervousness slowly turning into confusion.

“Charlie, you are beloved by the people of the Gold and Diamond districts, even some of the Emerald district! You’re already a pretty popular guy, but saving Lily Pichu? That’s gotta be crazy!” explained Ludwig, while going over something that clipboard guy had given him.

“When I saved..? Oh. Are you talking about the girl I pushed out of the way yesterday during the attack? How do you know about that?” asked Charlie, relief slowly flooding through his body as he realized that Connor and Jack wouldn’t be brought up.

“The viral video that leaked like an hour ago. Someone was filming the attack from a rooftop nearby and you saving Lily Pichu was more in focus than the actual fight for some reason. But more important than that, Lily is not just any girl needing saving. She’s a former hero and she’s dating the current head of Technology and Weaponry at the Hero Headquarters,” said Ludwig, ranting as he filled something out on the clipboard with a pen, passing it back to the assistant.

“Former hero!?” exclaimed Charlie, his brows resting somewhere between shock and confusion.

“She used to be the hero Heavenwave, the one with music-based powers? Anyway, two years ago she found out her powers were fading, and six months later she could barely muster enough soundwaves to move a mug across a table, forget throw a villain across a city. Now, she works as an offensive trainer for newer heroes at the headquarters. Guess it had been so long since she was in the field she forgot how to dodge, heh,” laughed Ludwig at the end, dusting some dust off his suit jacket.

“So, I saved a former hero, and everybody knows?” paraphrased Charlie, trying to process the sequence of events. He didn’t even know anybody was filming.

“Well, the video hasn’t officially hit viral status yet, but our video analytic trajectory shows that by this afternoon, everyone in the city will have seen it,” explained Ludwig, as the clipboard assistant showed Charlie a bunch of graphs on a different clipboard which seemed to track the views and trends of the videos across multiple platforms.

“You want to interview me for Mogul Mail, the biggest superhero gossip show in the city? Wow, that’s a lot to process, I mean-” began Charlie, before the sound of a door shutting in the very back of the store echoed very softly throughout the bodega, obviously Jack leaving. Ludwig, in his violet-colored suit, looked towards the back of the store. Shit, he forgot that the door always closed a little loud, he would have Ted or Schlatt fix it later.

“What was that?” asked the assistant, as Ludwig gave a questioning look.

“Oh, uh… that door is always weird! I was coming back in through the backdoor when I saw you guys, and I forgot to shut it, it must have just shut on its own..?” said Charlie, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“Dude, my door in my old apartment used to do that all the time, you should get the hinges checked out,” replied Ludwig with a laugh, and Charlie nearly sighed with relief.

“Anyways, the segment shouldn’t be more than like five minutes. A two-minute cover of the history of the bodega and its impact around here. Then, we’ll just do a three, maybe four-minute interview regarding you saving Lily, and just like the attack in general,” said Ludwig, adjusting the cuff links on his suit.

“Oh, yeah, that’s cool! I’ve never been on the news before though. I got interviewed last year when the bodega won the Best Local Business Award but that was published in print,” explained Charlie.

“Listen, listen! You’ll be fine! Take it from me, you’ll be a natural! However, there is someone I want you to meet first! He’s like an expert on this superpower stuff,” said Ludwig, pointing to a guy in the corner.

The someone in question was a really tall, well-built man standing in dim lighting, the whole situation reminding Charlie of a villain in a spy movie. The man was scruffy but still very well put together. His eyes were piercing blue to contrast with his brown hair. He was wearing a dark blue hoodie with a black suit jacket over top, creating a balance of comfort and professionalism. Black pants and black boots completed the look of the man leaning against the wall. A black and brown colored backpack was on the ground next to his feet.

Ludwig used both hands to comically shove Charlie in the direction of the guy in question with a grin on his face as Charlie let himself get pushed over. The mysterious guy suddenly had a matching grin, making him look less like a spy and more like a favorite cousin on Christmas.

“Hi there! I actually love this bodega, I come here quite a bit, but usually it’s a guy with mutton chops and a really thick New York accent behind the counter instead of you. Actually, he threatened me with a pocket knife once. I’m thinking about inviting him to my wedding,” said the guy, laughing a bit.

“Oh yeah, that’s Schlatt. He’s definitely a character. When we first met, I thought he was doing a really long elaborate bit. Despite all that, he’s a really good guy,” said Charlie with a smile.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself, sorry. Sneegsnag Heart, but everyone calls me Sneeg,” the man said, extending his his hand for a handshake towards the green eyed man.

“Charlie Slimecicle!” exclaimed the hybrid, accepting the handshake with excitement, before realization spread across his face.

“Wait, Sneeg Heart? Then you must be Ranboo’s older brother!” proclaimed Charlie as their hands drifted apart.

“Yeah, that’s right! How do you know him?” replied Sneeg with a curious glance in his eyes.

“He and Tubbo come in together all the time, and I also know their friends Tommy and Purpled. They’re all really great kids!”

“Yeah, Ranboo and Tubbo are roommates. Love those guys. Ranboo and I have both been so busy though that I haven’t gotten to see him in a few days”.

“They live together?”

“Oh yeah, they do! Moved in together a month or two ago in this really nice apartment downtown. Tubbo’s parents are kind of loaded.”

“Hey, could you do me a favor and give me their address? I’ve been meaning to visit Tubbo. He and I were together yesterday when the attacks started and I’ve been wanting to go check up on him in person,” said Charlie. He had full intention of checking up on Ranboo as well, but didn’t want to make Sneeg worried.

“Yeah, I could do that. I was just wondering if there was something you could help me with first,” replied Sneeg, reaching down towards the backpack. He unzipped the largest pocket and pulled out an orange notebook and a vanilla filing folder.

“Yeah, anything!” remarked Charlie, watching as the other man opened the folder before his own face dropped slightly.

The inside of the folder was covered of photos of Dimension, with notes and arrows drawn between them. None of them were photos where you could identify Dimension as Jack, but there was one blurry one where Dimension didn’t have his goggles on.

“I’m not traveling around with Ludwig because I’m interested in the news. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the guy, but the real reason I’m here is the identification of vigilantes. I work for St. L’manberg City’s Superpower Safety Division, or SPSD. We’ve been trying to track down Dimension recently since he’s been so active the past week or so,” explained Sneeg, handing Charlie the folder to look at.

“Oh my gosh, yeah. I guess he saved so many people that I forgot he was technically operating illegally,” said Charlie in an attempt to establish himself right off the bat as not anti-vigilante. (Heh, that sort of rhymes.)

“I think a lot of people do, especially in your districts. We’re not interested in shutting him down, we just want to make sure that he’s saving people in a safe and more regulated manner. There are a lot of people at the Hero Headquarters interested in his abilities,” explained  Sneeg.

“You were one of the people closest to Dimension while he was attacking Blood Diamond.  I just wanted to know if maybe you saw anything that you thought could help identify him at all. We really want to help him,” furthered Sneeg, looking hopeful.

Charlie really, really wanted to believe him. He was a really nice guy, and he would love to get to know him better, especially since it’s Ranboo’s brother. But something was gnawing at him about this. That maybe Sneeg’s higher ups weren’t being as honest about the situation as Sneeg was. There wasn’t room to take chances here.

“I really wish I saw something, but I was panicking so much that I wasn’t really focusing on that. His clothes looked really fancy, so they’re probably from the Emerald or Diamond district if that helps at all,” lied Charlie, trying not too feel too bad as he saw Sneeg’s face fall a little bit.

“It’s okay, I completely understand. I mean, you did save Lily’s life, so I know you were focusing on other things,” said Sneeg, scribbling something down in his notebook before tearing it out.

“I wrote down Ranboo and Tubbo’s address, but I also wrote down my phone number. You live in a high-vigilante area, so please give me a call if you see something that you think could help, alright?” asked Sneeg, handing Charlie the piece of paper.

“Of course! Yeah, thank you so much!” said Charlie.

Before Charlie could say any more about it, clipboard guy was suddenly yelling his name.

“Charlie! Charlie Slimecicle! It’s time for your interview!” clipboard guy yelled, clearly distressed.

“Have fun doing your interview!” called Sneeg, who was already halfway out the door of the bodega. Charlie watched as Sneeg exited and walked around the corner, and he suddenly got hit with a lot of emotions at once.

“Coming!” called back Charlie, and he walked over to wear Ludwig was standing, ready to shoot the interview. He placed the piece of paper in his pocket with a slightly worried smile.