Chapter Text
-~Dragon~-
~For people who feel like they don't
fit into any corner of society~
Tommy is not a hero, he never tried to be one, he just didn't fit the hero role. He didn't save cats from trees or hunt down bank robbing clowns, he never did stuff that the big guys like Havok or Iceman, oh and definitely not guys like cyclops or beast. He doesn't do heroic things like saving the world.
Now you are probably asking yourself hey so If he’s not a hero does that make him a villain?"
No it doesn't. He is neither, he is his own man. Or. More like he is on his own, it's not like people like him have a chance in this world. But that was a topic for another day. A day that doesn't include him going to an abandoned parking garage.
He just sighed and continued walking through the abandoned parking garage, metal fences were blocking off a lot of the building but it didn't matter much to him as he just melted through the metal fence with his hand, the molten steel falling slowly to the ground in front of his feet.
He raised his head and continued walking, letting fire travel up our arm up to his elbow as he did, he looked around hesitantly, he didn't know what to expect. Men in black suits? Or someone with dun up hair and cherry red lipstick. He wasn't even given a name, just an address.
Tommy huffed in frustration before calling out, "Hello is there anyone here?" The fire laying on his arm blazed brighter at the lack of an answer. "Hello?" He called again.
He jumped up, stopping his feet hearing the sound echo through the empty garage. Tommy whispered a swear to himself as he shouted. "Did I come out here for nothing!"
Just as he said that he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned around quickly to see a tall man around his age, –maybe a few years older–standing before him, his arms pulled behind him as he looked at Tommy, a faint smile pressed against his lips. He also had a streak of white hair contrasting against his orangey red hair.
"Did you give me this?" Tommy asks, lifting his non-scolding arm up, revealing a small message written on white computer paper, thin black letters telling him to meet here.
"No." The man says plainly a hint of a foreign accent in his voice. A small smirk lifted his lips as he said "but, one of my good friends did." He lifted his face to look over Tommy's shoulder.
There were footsteps behind him. Tommy turned Around quickly to find another man in a suit only this time the man looked less human having small gill suits in his neck and pointed teeth.
Tommy blew smoke out of his nostrils as he looked between the two. The first man he had met chuckled. "Oh Tommy I don't know if that's the best idea."he stepped forward and Tommy didn't stop, he let a growl escape his throat as red scales appeared on his skin following sharp claws, the second man tisked, "are we going to have to tase him?" He asked with a smile hiding behind his words as the first man nodded, pulling out a taser.
Tommy backed off from them all four of his claws scraping against the concrete as he growled, letting puffs of smoke and fire escape his mouth and nose, as the men drew closer Tommy engulfed himself in flames, creating a small shield, the first man rolled his eyes and pulled the trigger on the taser. A gasp escapes his throat as his limbs calloused in on themselves, he falls face first into the concrete and loses consciousness; the last sounds he hears are his own whimpers.
~-♠︎-~
Tommy woke up with a mind splitting headache, trying to lift his hand to his forehead to block the bright lights from hitting his eyes only to find that there was a metal chain preventing him from doing so. He groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. He wasn't processing anything around himself as he pulled at the chains on his arms and legs.
Tommy heard a door on the farthest wall from him slowly creak open revealing a short woman, she had soft pink gills on the side of her neck similarly to the man before only they looked more like scars then gills.
"Oh you're awake." She says with a smile. Tommy groans in response again trying to block out the buzzing light, failing once again.
"Where am I?" He manages to say, the only things he could see were the white calls and light and some of the women, how something was going beside the bed. Was it even a bed? It felt like he was laying on a thin board of wood.
The woman doesn't answer him, only comes near him with a needle. He immediately perks up. Moving as far away from her as he could. "What is that!" He shouts looking at the swirly purple liquid in the needle.
She sighs and steps back. "This will be easier if you just corporate." She sighs plainly, needle still in hand.
"No? Not until you tell me what you're doing?" Tommy huffed, puffing smoke from his nose, warning her to stay away.
She didn't move, "just let me do my job." She says sadly.
Tommy shook his head, letting fire trail up his back and to his arms as she took a step forwards. Her eyes widened and stepped back.
"Tommy please calm down." She says gently. She looked frightened. Good Tommy thought. maybe she'll leave now he grumbled.
Red scales start poking out from his arms and neck as he transforms the silver chains that once banded himself down to the bed snapping and falling to the ground. The woman swallowed while Tommy lowered his scaled body to her height, a low growl filling the atmosphere between them. Tommy's golden eyes watched as she grabbed the clipboard next to his bed and hurried out of the room, shouting something as she closed the door. Tommy didn't remember anything after that too far into the monstrous mindscape.
-~Shadow~-
Purpled sat up when he heard the screams, he wasn't sure where they were coming from. All he knew was that people were scared and running from what was chasing them. He heard footsteps pass by the door quickly, large stomps following after, “what was that?” he whispered as he stood up and walked over to the door looking through the thin glass window. He got a glimpse of a red pass by him, he wasn't sure what it was but curiosity made him want to find out.
He gripped onto the door handle, shaking it slightly trying to get it loose, but it didn't work. He looked towards the camera in the corner of his room and sighed, was he going to risk it? This was a good escape opportunity… it's not like he is wasting it…
Purpled drifted onto teaching, fighting himself on whether this was a good idea or not. But his thoughts were cut when he heard the heavy footsteps making their way back around. This was his chance. He could waste it. I had to go now.
Purpled, held his breath and let his body go through the metal door. When he reached the other side he gasped feeling like he was just run over by a 200 ton truck. But the pain was short lived when he saw the state of the hallways, a thick coat of blood covered the halls, bits of fire were also scattered along the floor, it almost was like the blood put out the flames. But purple wasted no time staring at the red floors and started running, he had no idea where he was going but hoped that he would find an exit and would be able to escape this place, escape the needles, escape the experiments and metal chains.
He could stop the smile that formed on his face as he ran, teleporting forward every once in a while trying to get a head.
You might be asking why he doesn't just teleport out of the building, quickly leaving without a trace and the answer is simple. He couldn't even if he wanted to, he had no idea where this place was, if it was hanging over a cliff that fell into a steaming ocean of lava or if it was in the middle of nowhere, dry as there can be no water in sight. I don't know about you but I don't think he wanted to rise, falling into lava or becoming dehydrated if he could avoid it just a little longer, enjoying the adrenaline that was filling his mind.
Eventually the hallway he was running in came to a end and to a L, he slowed and walked down it, there was significantly less lights here, it seemed like whatever creature came down this way was big, the few lights that were still attached to the ceiling were half hanging off the ceiling the rest of them on the ground and sparking, the fire dancing around the glass.
Purpled carefully avoided stepping on anything, afraid of stepping on the glass and bleeding out, his tail curled around his legs as he walked by the lights. He teleported over most of it, smiling when he saw a door, daylight poking through it welcoming him to come near.
So he ran to it, nearly tripping over his feet when he reached it. He swung the door open and walked outside, shielding his eyes from the sun as he stepped out his purple skin catching the light as he walked backwards. He was looking up at the building, he hadn't noticed the bright red alarm bells shining from the second and third floor. He needed to get out of here before the guards noticed he was gone.
When he stepped off the sidewalk, his feet hit the soft grass, a small smile hit his face as he got distracted with his current alluring issue. He bent down to play with the blades of grass not seeing them in months.
But that's when he heard it. Heavy footsteps and a growl. He turned to see a red dragon in front of him, its scaled head low as it showed its bloody mouth, a warning to get the hell out of its way. But Purpled stayed wonder filling his mind as he looked over the beast.
it was hurt he noted seeing three bullet wounds in its side, Purpled looked into its eyes, the dragon wasn't angry, he was scared. Its golden eyes trying to look frightening when in reality he was the one who was frightened.
Purpled raised his hands in the air as he stayed crochet down, “hey, hey it's alright, i'm not gonna hurt you” he says quietly, but the dragon just growled again, purpled nodded, “its ok, i know you're scared, its ok to be scared i get it” purpled smiled gently. “I came out of there too” Purpled pointed to the tall white building beside them, the dragon eyes the place a deep growl something from it, purple knew it wasn't directed at him.
“Did they hurt you?” Purpled asked, pointing to the gunshot wounds. The creature slowly looked over its shoulder to look at what he was pointing to, still wary of Purpled’s presence, the dragon whimpered seeing the blood.
Purpled sighed, “I can help you take care of those if we get out of here.”
The dragon nodded, letting Purpled stand and head into the forest that surrounded the lab.
-~Dragon~-
Tommy was wary of purpled at first, he wasn't sure if he was trustworthy or not, but regardless of his doubts he let purpled wrap his wounds with his tattered shirt, purpled offered his own to tommy but he refused, he didn't want to take offers despite the cold fall whether making him wish he did accept.
Purpled had stopped the bleeding but mentioned something about a bullet possibly still being inside of the wound since one out of the three did not make its way through the back, he suggested going to a hospital as soon as possible for it. But Tommy just shrugged it off, saying “it'll be fine” causing Purpled to roll his eyes and say, “if you die it's not gonna be my fault or problem.”
Tommy scoffed. “Then why are you helping me-ah” Tommy hissed when Purpled pressed down on the wounds a little too hard.
“Sorry.” purpled whispers, adjusted his hands over the bloody fabric. “I couldn't just leave you bleeding, that would be wrong.”
“Oh what a hero’s move” Tommy laughs, Purpled glares up at him.
“It's not a hero's move to be a good person.” he retorts with a small amount of venom coating his words. He pressed down again and Tommy huffed.
“Will you cut that out, it's not even bleeding anymore,” he says tilting his head to the sky, the treetops blocking out the October sun as Purpled pressed and grazed the bullet wounds with his finger tips.
Purpled sighed. “On the outside they stopped, I can't see the inside you could have nicked an organ. You would be screwed in that case.” he moved his hand again causing Tommy to gasp. Purpled looked up at tommy with empathy, he looked like he wanted to distracted tommy from the pain in his torso, and that is what he did, but he was subtle about it saying,
“So what made you escape, i've never seen you in the halls before.” Tommy
chuckled.
“You make it sound like you've been there for months.” Purpled stayed quiet and he said nothing. His indigo fingers almost completely stopped pressing down on Tommy’s flesh too. “Wait-how long were you there?” Tommy tried to sit up more to turn to him but almost immediately regretted it when his skin pulled and shot pain up his side. Purpled pushed him, stopping him from moving more and causing it to bleed more.
“It doesn't matter, just stop moving.” purple said a hint of a growl in his voice as he spoke. Tommy closed his mouth and nodded, apologizing quietly only for Purpled to tell him to shut up seconds later, his long purple tail flicking with frustration.
~-♠︎-~
The walk through the woods was horrible. Not only did Tommy's side hurt like hell, Purpled wasn't talking to him, not even when Tommy said a joke, he would just ignore him and walk a little faster, if only Tommy had mind reading abilities instead of the ones he currently had. Mind reading for blood thirsty fire dragon powers,
Tommy looked over at Purpled, he was looking around his surroundings like he forgot what a forest looked like. what happened to him Tommy thought to himself. something bad, definitely.
~-Shadow-~
If Purpled was going to be honest he didn't know how to feel about all this, he was seeing things he hadn't in months, things normal people see on a daily basis, and he was experiencing it like it was new.
“What was that place anyways.” Tommy asks quietly like he is going to be yelled at for asking that question.
“A lab.” Purpled answers simply. “They do tests on mutants like us, they try to contain our abilities so we aren't a threat to normies.” he adds when Tommy raises an eyebrow. When he says threat his face scrunches up his tail flicking,
“Oh… do you know what that one shot they tried to give me was, i didn't let them stick me i turned to that before the one woman had the cha…”tommy continued rambling, purpled s shoulders tightened when he remembered being given that shot. He remembers the pain, the screams they pulled from him.
When Tommy stops talking, purple answers his question with “originally it was meant to normalize our powers, basically cure us but then it didn't work, people started mutating again, or their powers got stronger. Some even died.” Purpled stops his voice becoming strain when he remembers the little girl's eyes, blood pouring from them as if they were tears, he remembers her pleas, he remembers just standing there not sure what to do.
“But the doctors didn't care, we are less than them, they are either human, or the ones who were cured.” Purpled takes a deep breath. “You were lucky to get away, not many of the people there are.
Tommy nods not knowing how to react. “Did they give you the..”
“Yes.” Purpled doesn't need him to finish the sentence. “But i was lucky i only mutated slightly, i didn't turn into a blob.” Purpled chuckled expecting Tommy to laugh but he didn't, he just stared.
“What did- what happened to you?” he asks.
Purpled stuck his tongue to his cheek, “well i was already purple, hence my name, and i was already able to teleport i just started to be able to go through walls,” he shrugged. Tommy nods.
“So you're like a shadow?” he laughs.
“I guess, i am stealthy,” Purpled laughs “but you like an actual dragon, fire breath and all, just minus the wings” Purpled laughs again, his smile creating small crows feet in the corners of his eyes.
“Yeah yeah laugh at my lack of wings for all you know i could be insecure about that.” Tommy jokes. But Purpled stops to raise a brow before bursting into a cluster of giggles. Maybe this tommy guy wasn't all that bad.
~-♠︎-~
When they finally stopped walking their feet were sore and Tommy was complaining about his side, but this time Purpled didn't tell him to shut up. He just ignored it and moved on. After all tommy had a fair reason for why he was complaining he had their thumb sized holes in his side, two of which went through to his back, and he possible;y even had a bullet in the one just chilling out in there like it was something fun to do, something to spend time on the weekend doing,
“Jesus Christ, why is the ground so uncomfortable?” Tommy says, trying to get comfortable on the uninjured side.
“Jee I couldn't possibly wonder why the hard ground that is covered in twigs and small rocks is uncomfortable.” Purpled says boredly, bits of sarcasm hidden in his voice.
Tommy throws a pebble at him and says, “shut up asshole, you're not the one shot.” purpled can help but laugh at that, throwing a pebble back at him starting a mini pebble fight,
-~Dragon~-
No one tells you when you're shot that it hurts like hell, well they do, but you don't really care for it. Until your shot that is. And holy mother of earth does it hurt.
Tommy was laid on the ground on his back despite its pleas to move into a more comfortable position one that wouldn't be pressing on his bullet wounds. He groaned once again, earning a kick in the leg from Purpled’s barefoot.
“Will you quiet down, someone is trying to sleep here?” tommy scoffed and kicked him back, missing slightly,
“Yeah you. My side hurts like hell, I can't sleep.”
Purpled groans and sits up. “I told you we need to get you to a hospital, but you need to rest to get there so try harder.”
So tommy did he felt like he only got an hour of sleep when he wakes up again the pain in his side worse than before, he grumbles as he groggily wakes up looking around, purpled was no were in sight, only the dried dead leaves around him and the broken twigs and branches that laid stilly.
“Purpled! “ he shouts, getting up slowly hissing at the pain that shoots up his side. “Fucking nerves.” he mumbles before shouting Purpled s name again.
He hears a rustling behind him so he turns around slowly, standing there with a handful of plants.
“I thought you left me here, alone.'' Tommy huffs sitting back down on the dirty ground, dirt was coating their clothes and skin already, not even 24 hours out and they look like they've been out here for weeks.
“Why would I do that, you're hurt?” he says with a cocked eyebrow. He sat down next to Tommy, his thin purple tail swaying gently in the air. Tommy stayed quiet. “You don't trust me, do you?” he asks, carting a hand through his dark purple hair.
Tommy shook his head as purpled showed him some of the leaves in his hands, “well you're going to at least let me put some of this on your bullet wounds”
“What is it?” Tommy asks, feeling the edge of the leaf, it's not quite rough but it's not exactly soft either.
“Plantain leaf, it will help prevent an infection.” Purpled smiles pointed at canines poking through his lips. Tommy nods. “So can i-” Purpled points to what the two want to call a bandage even though it's just a dirty shirt wrapped around Tommy's waist. Tommy nods again letting Purpled take off the shirt carefully.
He hissed and tilted his head back, trying not to whimper.
Purple leaves the fabric on Tommy's knees. He pressed a finger above one of the holes and tommy growled, purpled recoiled for a moment tommy apologizing quickly, purpled smushed a leave between his hands before putting some of the liquid on the suffice around the bullet holes, gentle pressing down on the skin but avoiding the actual holes tho.
When purple was done he didn't take the bloody fabric from earlier and put that on but instead pulled off his own and ripped one of the seems to get more use out of it. “You didn't have to-”
“Shut up” Purpled stopped him before he could say anything else, he wrapped the discolored fabric around Tommy's waist tightly but loose enough where it wouldn't cause Tommy too much pain.
Tommy hissed slightly when Purpled ran his hand over the top of the wounds trying to get the fabric to smoothen out.
“Thank you.” Tommy huffs, sitting up fully.
“Do you think you can walk?” Purpled asks, Tommy nods.
“I think so,'' Tommy stands without any help, and starts walking without any, but that doesn't mean he isn't in pain, he scrunches up his face each time his side starts to twist and shoots pain up his torso.
Purpled walks next to him and isn't subtle when he puts a harm behind tommy any time tommy groans or whimpers in pain. “I'm fine” would follow his mouth when he noticed. Purpled wasn't convinced but didn't say anything
~-♠︎-~
Eventually they made it out of the forest, the trees parting into a clearing, Tommy's eyes widened as he looked into the distance. Spoke, fire. Either there's a wildfire or-
“There's a town up ahead!” Purpled shouted tail flicking twice as he jumped up and glitched back to the ground. “We need to get there!” he shouted, gripping onto Tommy's shoulder, “they can help you, they can help us!”
Tommy smiled, “yeah. Yeah they can” he said fondly. After a moment of celebration the two continued on
~-Shadow-~
The walk wasn't comfortable, the sun was on each of their backs causing them to each get sunburned, at least in the forest their only issue was walking onto twigs or small rocks. But this walk was worth it in purpleds mind, it meant Tommy could get help, they could tell the townspeople about the lab and maybe they could even get it shut down! Ok that last one might be over the top but it wasn't unlikely? Yeah the place had an inside amount of people backing them in there with guns and syringes full of sedatives. But out here they had to be powerless.
They had to be.
Purpled shook himself out of his thoughts to check on Tommy who repeated the phrase “i'm fine” like he was a broken record playing the same two lyrics over and over again. Purpled just shook his head.
He knew that tommy was in a lot of pain, he could tell because he was going through great lengths to try and hide it from Purpled, every time took a step he kept his mouth shut not letting a single sound come through it, he had stopped talking miles back, not responding to any of the questions with sentence longer than five words,
“Are you ok Tommy?” Purpled asked again. “And don't say you're fine, you don't look ‘it,” he adds.
“I'll be fine,” Tommy huffs, Purpled can tell Tommy hasn't fully trusted him yet and he is fine with that. He didn't expect Tommy to start trusting him on a friend to friend basis yet, but he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
He wouldn't say he trusted Tommy completely, because he didn't, c'mon tommy could turn into a fire breathing dragon for god's sakes! If he wanted to he could try and burn him to a crisp. But then again he hasn't..
Purpled shook himself out of his thoughts and kept walking forwards side by side with Tommy, tail flicking between them. Besides the scolding hot sun behind them the day was nice, the cold fall air stained each others warm cheeks, a slight breeze, it was a 180 to what it was like inside the tiny room, he didn't miss the stiff bed sheets even if that meant he would have to sleep on the dirts cold ground for the rest of his life and didn't miss the dusty vents that let stuffy air through. He preferred the mud that stuck to the bottom of feet over the cool tiles of the hallways.
He didn't miss the building. He wasn't sure if he was going to miss the other mutants, the ones who would wave to him sadly when a doctor was taking him for more tests, the ones who would give him paper origami gifts. He might miss those. But he wasn't sure.
He shouldn't worry about that though, he had to worry about Tommy and getting him to that town so they can help him. Purpled frowns at a thought. what if they don't help people like them. what ifs started to throw through his head, instead of him thinking about things he would miss he started to think about the people in the town, were they against mutants? What if they tried to kill him and tommy? What if he could stop them from taking them back to that place.
He couldn't think like that, he was going to jinx it. But he could help overthink. What if… what if.. What if..
“Are you ok?” Tommy asks, breaking him out of his mind.
“Yeah.” Purpled says blankly, his tail was wrapped tightly as they walked. It was starting to get dark and they both had lost track of time.
“Wanna stop walking for a bit, my sides starting to hurt like hell.” Purpled turned to him, he looked at the shirt bandage and back at his face. Lier was the only thought in his mind at that moment, there was a faint color of red coming through the fabric closest to the bullet holes,
“How long has it been like that?” Purpled cocks an eyebrow, Tommy's face turns confused.
“Wha-”
“How long has it been hurting? I know you're lying about it just starting up.” he manages to stay calm and not get upset. He knows Tommy just wants to get to the town quickly.
But regardless, he did not accuse his stupidity.
“Just a little after we first started walking.” Tommy whispers. Purple groans.
“You idiot.” Purpled scolds, Tommy stood there with a small amount of pink clustering on his ears embarrassed that he was caught. “Well! Sit!” Purpled shouts.
Tommy folds his legs and drops down to the ground, Purpled mimicking the movement. "You are going to be the death of me. I hope you know that." Purple huffs running his hand through his dark purple hair.
Tommy chuckles softly to himself, holding his side gently as he does, the sounds might be causing him to pull on the scabs, he could reopen one if he's not careful, Purpled thinks to himself. a frown settling on his face.
~-♠︎-~
The next morning the two woke up to a bang of thunder, it had started to storm while they were asleep and were slowly being covered in mud. Purpled stood up quickly and grabbed Tommy's hand pulling himself up. Tommy mumbled "well isn't this convenient." Before He pouting and wiped bits of mud off his face.
Purpled chuckled as he smeared some off of his mouth. "At least it will be harder for us to be tracked." Purpled pointed to their foot prints that were being washed away with the pouring rain.
Tommy rolled his eyes as he walked forward, nearly tripping on his feet. "I suppose you're right, but now it's going to be harder to walk through here, not to mention the colds we might catch." Purpled laughed and ran ahead of him teleporting forwards.
"Sucks for you!" Purpled shouts, a sound of thunder interrupting him. Tommy laughed and ran forwards, careful not to fall face first in the mud.
"Why can you just teleport us to town, it would be so convenient." Tommy bends over resting his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath.
"I can't teleport myself and another without making my guts feel like goo." Purpled laughs.
Tommy groans as Lightning strikes behind them. "I guess we better be going then."
Purpled smiles pointed towards the town. "We're almost there just a few more hours and we'll be able to see the towns people."