Chapter Text
The sweltering summer heat washed over Tommy as if he were sitting in front of an oven door. It was stifling, especially with the mask covering the bottom half of his face. The red and white t-shirt and the cargo pants he called his uniform were more forgiving in the heat, but the knee pads, elbow pads, and sturdy leather gloves, not so much. The best he could do right now was try to ignore the heat and the sweat as best he could. His legs swung lazily off the edge of the six-story apartment building, his gaze fixed on the city skyline. Beyond the usual sounds of the city, he could hear electronic humming of the earpiece in his ear and the shuffling of the person on the other side of the line.
“I’m telling you, there’s nothing, king,” that person said, the clacking of keys renewing once again.
“Aaagh! There has to be something, Tubbo,” Tommy said.
“Nothing on the police scanners, twitter, the news,” Tubbo rattled off. “The city’s quiet, man.”
“I hate quiet.”
“You know it’ll pick up in the evening. I mean, criminals are usually more active at night, anyway.”
“I know, but I’m still pissed. I want something to fight.”
“Patience, king.”
“I hate patience.” A soft buzzing sound began to grow louder and louder until a drone swooped past Tommy and slowed down a few feet in front of him. It had a single camera at the front, and its black plastic casing had been crudely spray painted with yellow stripes.
“Hello,” Tubbo’s voice greeted from the earpiece as the drone did a little wobble.
“Hello, bee-boy,” Tommy said.
“Don’t call it that. It sounds weird.”
“I’m calling you that, bee-boy.”
“But that’s even worse! It makes me sound like a stupid sidekick or something.”
“I mean, you sort of are my sidekick, in a way.”
“You know, I could hang up right now and leave you here without any information or any tech support whatsoever.” The drone began to back away.
“Wait! No! I’m sorry! You’re not my sidekick. Please!”
The drone returned to its original position. “Fine, but I–” Suddenly, there was a beeping from somewhere on the other end of the call. “Oh wait! Tommy, I think I’ve got something.”
“Finally! Hit me!”
“There’s been a break-in in a warehouse on the southside of L’Manberg.”
“Just a break-in?” Tommy whined.
“It’s better than nothing.”
“Fine. Send the address,” Tommy said. A few seconds later, there was a buzzing from his watch and the screen lit up with a new location. “Got it.” He got to his feet and pulled the goggles from his forehead and over his eyes. “It’s time to go fast.”
“You need a better catchphrase, man,” Tubbo said through the earpiece.
“Why? I quite like this one.”
“It’s somehow dumber than your superhero name.”
“Fast is a great name,” Tommy said. And with that, he ran. The cityscape whizzed past him in a blur. Cars were as slow as snails compared to him, and the wind was a laughable force in his wake. Tubbo didn’t know what he was talking about; Fast was a perfect name for him. Short and to the point.
He made it from the east side of the city to the south side in a minute and soon found himself standing in front of a large, rather decrepit-looking warehouse. Some sort of alarm was sounding from somewhere in the building. The sidedoor closest to Tommy was open just a crack.
“What you got?” Tubbo asked.
“Not much,” Tommy said. “Door’s open. Must be some stupid criminals.”
“Or some kids looking for fun?” Tubbo suggested.
“Maybe,” he said. “Don’t know why anyone else would try to break into this sort of place. It looks abandoned.”
“If it’s abandoned, then why would there be burglar alarms?” Tubbo asked. “Seems weird, man. Maybe just leave this one to the police.”
“Listen, the door’s already open, I’m just gonna take a peek in and then we’ll decide what to do,” Tommy said.
“I don’t know. I don’t have a great feeling about this place.”
“You’re not even here, Tubbo,” Tommy said. “Your drone hasn’t even caught up.”
“Hey, the drone has a name, you know.”
“Why would you name a drone?”
“It’s called Barnabee.”
Tommy groaned, trying to stifle a laugh. “That’s such a stupid name.”
“Hey!”
Tommy ran to the door and peeked inside. He expected to see some stupid middle schoolers wandering around the empty warehouse. Or maybe a couple of burglars looking for old, rusty machine parts or something. He never expected to see the three most famous superheroes in L’Manberg.
Odin was the first one he recognized. His black-feathered wings folded at his back and his wide brimmed hat were unmistakable; Tommy had seen him in his iconic getup a million times in the news and on viral videos on social media. Slightly obscured by one of Odin’s wings and on the ground next to the wall knelt Pallas. Tommy couldn’t see the hero’s face, but he could clearly make out the pink hair pulled back in a tight braid and the royal-red cape draped across his shoulders. And Ghost, dressed in his brown trench coat, floated a few feet above them, half his torso and legs seemingly inside the wall. Well, not seemingly. Ghost’s matter-phasing powers were no secret to the public. He looked at his two crime-fighting partners with those completely black eyes, the black tear tracks staining his cheeks. Tommy couldn’t help but remember the internet forums that claimed these marks were indicators of some tragic fate Ghost suffered to get his powers.
Tommy pulled back from the door, his heart racing. He’d only been a hero a couple of months. He hadn’t expected to encounter heroes of this caliber this early in his career.
“Oh crap,” he gasped.
“What?” Tubbo asked.
“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.”
“What? What! I can’t see, Tommy! My drone hasn’t caught up yet!”
“SBI is here.”
“SBI? All three of them?”
“Yeah.”
“They all came to stop a break-in?”
“I think they did the break-in, beeboy.”
“Stop calling me–”
“I’m going in,” Tommy said.
“Wait, wait, wait! Let my drone–”
“No time. I gotta figure out what’s happening.” Tommy pulled the door open slowly, trying to keep it from creaking. As soon as the gap was wide enough, Tommy sped inside. He stopped in the middle of the room, behind the heroic trio. None of them seemed to notice him. So Tommy coughed to announce his arrival. They all looked around. Finally, Tommy could see Odin’s black plague-doctor mask and Pallas’s black and gold mask that covered the upper half of his face.
Tommy trained his expression into a smile. “Hello, gentlemen!”
Pallas groaned and then went back to whatever he was fiddling with on the wall, shaking his head. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Odin straightened up. “Kid, it’s not safe here. Get out of here now.”
“Who are you calling ‘kid’?” Tommy snapped. “I happen to be a very strong, very handsome man who gets so many women.”
Pallas scoffed at the comment, not even glancing at him. But Tommy did catch Ghost’s attention. He wasn’t exactly sure how, but Tommy could tell that the hero’s black eyes were looking him up and down. Finally, Ghost jeered. “Go play dress up somewhere else, child.”
“I am not a child!” Tommy shouted.
“Will you all shut up?” Pallas groaned. “I’m trying to concentrate.”
“Fine,” Odin sighed. Then to Tommy, he said, “What are you still doing here?”
Tommy crossed his arms. “I got notified of a break-in in this area. But I didn’t expect to find other heroes committing the crime, much less the SBI.”
“But is it a crime if you commit it against a criminal?” Ghost chimed, a smirk on his face.
“I– what?”
“We don’t have time for this,” Pallas said. “Either one of you get him out of here now, or I’ll take care of him myself.”
Odin stretched his arms over his head, and at the same time, his black wings spread to their full length on either side of him. “Don’t worry, Pallas,” he said. There was a gentle patience in his voice. “I got him.”
Pallas looked up quickly at that moment. “Odin, wait–”
Odin flew at Tommy in a flurry of feathers, arms spread to scoop him up and carry him away. But Tommy simply ran out of the way and to the far corner of the warehouse in the blink of an eye. Odin skidded to a halt as soon as he realized his target had seemingly vanished. He looked around, confused.
“What the–”
Tommy’s blast of a laugh rang through the empty warehouse as the dust settled around him. “Yeah, right. Like I’m gonna let you fly off with me to who knows where.”
Odin glanced back at Ghost, wide-eyed. “That was not what I was expecting.”
“I tried to warn you,” Pallas mumbled.
Odin brushed the dust from his black cargo pants, aiming a quizzical look at Tommy. “Who are you?”
“I’m Fast,” Tommy said with a broad grin.
“We gathered,” Ghost deadpanned.
“That’s my name, idiot.”
“Don’t call me an idiot! You’re the one with the stupid name.”
“I told you,” Tubbo said in his ear.
“My name isn’t stupid, it’s de-scrip-tive.”
“Odin,” Pallas called. “I’ve nearly got it.” Odin immediately glided back to his companion, looking over the caped-hero’s shoulder intently. Tommy, in his curiosity, sped over to the duo and stopped on the other side of Pallas, looking over the man’s shoulder. He was able to glimpse a number pad and a device plugged into it gripped by Pallas. A series of five numbers were on the pad and in the sixth slot numbers flashed across the screen.
“Are you hacking a keypad?” Pallas pulled the device out of Tommy’s view. “Oh come on! I’m not a villain; you can trust me.”
Odin put a gentle hand on his shoulder and then pulled him backwards away from Pallas and the wall. “Trust me, kid, you’re already in over your head. You should leave.”
“You know, he’s probably right,” Tubbo said over the earpiece.
“Oh shut up,” Tommy muttered.
“Excuse me?” Odin said.
“Not you,” Tommy said. He pointed to the earpiece in your ear.
“Someone’s on the other end?” Ghost asked.
“You better believe it, Ghosty,” Tommy said. “I keep tech-support on the line.”
“Oh ha ha,” Tubbo remarked sarcastically.
“What, would you rather I call you Beeboy?”
“Beeboy?” Ghost repeated, raising an eyebrow.
“Stop!” Tubbo’s screams came from the other end of the line, fading into quiet as he pulled away from his desk. Tommy couldn’t keep in his laughter. He didn’t notice Odin and Ghost share an amused glance.
“Well, this is an interesting sight,” a voice echoed throughout the warehouse. Tommy froze mid-laugh as a chill ran down his spine. He recognized that voice from the news. He looked around wildly for the source, until finally he spotted him standing on the catwalk high above them. The neon green hoodie and circular, white mask were unmistakable, and the crude smiley face drawn on the mask was even more unsettling in person than it was on the news.
“Dream,” Tommy whispered. A pit formed in his stomach as the name escaped his lips.
“Did you say ‘Dream’?” Tubbo exclaimed. “Tommy, you need to get out of there, now!” Tommy didn’t respond. His mouth was dry. “Tommy? Tommy!”
Ghost glided from the wall he’d been sitting in and put himself in front of Tommy. “Hey, green boy,” he shouted. “What’s a sleazeball like you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing, Ghost.” Then, the villain looked at Tommy. Or at least, the mask turned in his direction. “Since when do you guys have a sidekick?”
“I’m not a sidekick,” Tommy shouted before he could stop himself. He was shaking.
Dream’s head cocked to the side. “Not a sidekick? Then what are you, kid? A hero?”
“Name’s Fast,” Tommy stammered, trying to keep his composure. “And I’m not a kid.”
“He’s none of your concern, Dream,” Odin said, spreading his wings. “Your fight’s with us.”
“My fight’s with whoever has the nerve to get in my way,” Dream said. “And right now, that’s the four of you.” A loud bang rang through the warehouse as the door Tommy had entered through slammed shut. It was followed by a series of soft clicks as every door and window in the entire room seemingly locked all at once.
“Tommy, what’s going on?” Tubbo screamed in his ear.
“Dream’s locked us in,” Tommy whispered, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Oh no,” Tubbo whispered. “Oh my– Tommy, I’m– I’m gonna find you a way out. Ok, king?”
Tommy watched as Dream lifted a few inches above the platform of the catwalk, glided over the edge, and slowly began his descent to the ground. Ghost pulled out his two daggers and retreated into the iron pillar that stabilized the roof, disappearing like a phantom.
Odin pulled a metal baton from his belt and it extended into the bo staff Tommy had seen him use in many fights on news broadcasts. “Take cover, kid,” the hero whispered, sparing a gentle glance and a reassuring smile in his direction. “We’ll take care of this.”
“Uh… right,” Tommy said. He took a nervous step back.
Dream moved faster than Tommy expected. Not nearly as fast as him, but still. The villain flew at Odin, and the hero met him in the air, wings wide. Tommy sped backwards and out of the way, stopping by the far wall where he’d first seen Pallas, Odin, and Ghost. In fact, Pallas was still there, kneeling beside the wall with that device still in his hands.
Telekinesis was a terrifying power, especially for a villain to possess. And Dream was good at using it. Debris from all over the warehouse constantly assaulted Odin as he swooped in again and again on Dream, battering him with his bo staff. But Dream blocked each blow with swift movements of his arms or with old pieces of pipe floating through the air. Ghost appeared from behind Dream, emerging halfway up one of the iron pillars, though not the one he had first disappeared into. He slashed at Dream with the two daggers and would have managed a good blow too if Dream hadn’t set a rusty sheet of metal between himself and the hero just in time.
An irritated grunt from Pallas drew Tommy’s attention away from the fight. The hero set down the device and pulled himself to his feet with a huff, muttering something about how stupid technology and mathematical algorithms were before drawing his long sword. He glared back at Tommy. “Don’t touch anything!” Tommy nodded and Pallas charged into the fray, shouting at Odin to look out. For what, Tommy wasn’t exactly sure.
Tommy stood for a moment before curiosity got the best of him. Pallas’s device was lying discarded on the floor, still plugged in to the keypad on the wall. All but the sixth number had been locked in. It was still scrolling through numbers, as if unsure which one to finally settle on. Tommy gently picked up the device, looking over his shoulder to make sure no heroes or villains were about to fly at his head. If there was a keypad, maybe this was a door of some kind. And if there was a door, maybe there was a way out.
“Hey, Beeboy, I think I’ve got an idea,” Tommy said. “I need a final number for a six-number keypad code.”
“You what?” Tubbo exclaimed.
“Come on, king,” Tommy said. “The number’s I’ve got are 29837. What’s the last number?”
“I don’t know!” Tubbo screamed.
“Tubbo,” Tommy goaded.
“How did you get the first five numbers?”
“Pallas has this device plugged in. It’s been scrolling through all the numbers, but it’s stuck on this last one.”
“It’s stuck?”
“It’s just whizzing past all the numbers and can’t figure out which one is right.”
Tubbo hummed on the other end of the line. Then he shouted. “Oh! It’s probably the pound sign! It doesn’t count as a number, so the device might not be registering it as a possibility.”
“The what?”
“The one that looks like a hashtag.”
“Oh!” Tommy punched in the five numbers and then the hashtag button on the keypad. The little red light turned to blue. “Big T, you’re a genius!” A section of the wall in front of him, about the size of a door, began to swing open. Tommy looked on with wide eyes as he saw a set of stairs leading down into a dark tunnel.
“Thaaaank you,” Tubbo said. “So what did you open?”
“Uh… Tubbo,” Tommy stammered. He gulped. “I found a secret passageway. It’s stairs that go down.”
“Stairs?” Tubbo repeated.
“Yeah.” Suddenly, there was a loud shattering of glass from behind him. Tommy glanced over his shoulder to see Odin near the windows that lined the upper edge of the room, a few windows now shattered from his impact against them. Pallas and Ghost were swarming Dream, but the villain was holding his own without too much difficulty. Who knew who would come out on top. Either way, Tommy was out of his league. He needed to get out of there.
“I’m going in,” Tommy whispered.
“Are you sure?”
“I don’t want to be caught up in the big leagues yet, big man,” Tommy said. “And by that, I mean I don’t want to get killed.”
“Just be careful,” Tubbo said. “And keep me updated the entire time.”
“Right,” Tommy said. “And when am I not careful?” Tubbo scoffed at this remark. Tommy took a slow step inside, cautiously glancing at the walls for signs of booby traps or cameras. But a loud bang from the fight behind him made Tommy jump, and he dashed a little further down the stairs than he intended. And before he knew it, the door had sealed shut behind him, leaving him in near darkness, save for the faint strip of lights that lined the edges of the floor.
“Uh oh,” Tommy winced. “Uh… Tubbo. I think I locked myself in here.”
Tubbo didn’t respond. There was only static.
“Tubbo?” he whispered again.
Static.
“Tubbo, can you hear me?”
Static.
Tommy groaned, trying to mask his growing fear with frustration. “Great.” Tommy glanced down the hallway. He couldn’t stay standing here forever and he had to find a way out. So Tommy moved down the hall as quietly as he could. He didn’t dare speed at that moment; what if he ran into someone or something he wasn’t ready to encounter. So he moved down the hall slowly.
The hall was lined with a series of nearly a dozen doors. Most were closed, which was a relief to Tommy: no one could see him on the other side of those doors.
But the first open door Tommy passed, he nearly gasped when he saw someone inside. It seemed to be a man with dull, green hair. His back was to Tommy and he was hunched over a table. The room was lit by blinding, fluorescent-white that left no corner of the small room unexposed.
Tommy couldn’t be sure from the back of his head, but based on the green hair and the laboratory, he had a feeling he was standing just a few yards away from Dr. Green. From what Tommy had learned from twitter and reddit, the man had once been a world-renowned scientist, even set up to receive a Nobel Prize in some branch of genetic research. But there were some allegations against him claiming some of his research to be unethical, but nothing like what the following investigations uncovered: unsafe testing conditions, illegal chemicals and drugs, and, worst of all, unsanctioned and dangerous human genetic experiments. He was kicked out of the academic community and authorities tried to take him into custody, but that’s when Dream showed up and the good doctor escaped. He’d shown up here and there ever since, debuting different genetic monstrosities to attack heroes. But now that Tommy thought about it, he hadn’t heard anything about Dr. Green in nearly a year now. Yet here he was, sitting in some secret bunker under an abandoned warehouse.
Obviously it wasn’t as abandoned as you thought, Tommy’s thoughts nagged at him.
Suddenly, Dr. Green stretched his arms over his head and began to swivel his chair around, turning in Tommy’s direction. Tommy sped away before the man could catch a glimpse of him. He ran down the hall, looking for an open door to run through. There was only one at the very end of the hall. So Tommy sped down the hall in a blink of an eye and darted inside. Then he stopped and listened. He could hear footsteps faintly, but they were moving further down the hall and away from Tommy’s hiding spot. Which was good. Probably.
Tommy released a sigh of relief and turned to see what room he had found himself in. But the sight that met his eyes left him speechless, which was a highly unusual state for him.
It was a mostly-empty room. No furniture or paintings hung on the walls. Not even those bright, fluorescent lights Tommy had seen in the other room. The only things in this room were a control panel and a large tube, like something Tommy had seen in sci-fi movies. The kind of tube that usually held a monster or an alien or an experiment. It was filled with a purplish liquid that glowed. He couldn’t tell if it was from the lights or if the strange liquid glowed on its own: biolucent or whatever it’s called. But it was what was in the tube that made Tommy freeze.
Suspended in the glowing, purple liquid was a guy. Tommy would say a man, but the guy looked like a teenager not much older than him. His hair floated lazily in the liquid, one half black and the other half white as snow. The guy was curled in on himself almost like an embryo, a long, black tail curling around his body, a tuft of white hair on the end of it. But despite being curled in on himself, Tommy could tell he was tall . And that was coming from Tommy, who was already a little over six feet. He wore some weird suit that had little tubes and wires attached from it to the top of the large tube.
Tommy immediately started to panic, This guy had probably been captured by Dream and Dr. Green. And now they were doing some ungodly experiments on him. If Tommy didn’t save him now, who knew what those villains would do to this guy. They’d probably kill him.
Tommy ran to the control panel to the side of the giant tube. “I’m gonna help you, big man,” he said. “Just hang on a little longer.” He glanced at the controls for a moment, cursing under his breath that his connection to Tubbo was disrupted. The little tech-wiz would be able to figure this out in a second. But Tommy could press every single button in less than that. So he did. He had to slow down a tad so the machine could even register the commands. But soon, he pressed a button––Tommy couldn’t have told you which it was––and the liquid in the tube began to drain. Then, the wires and tubes connected to the guys’ suit detached. And soon, the guy was lying in a curled ball on the bottom of the tube. Tommy smashed a few more buttons and the front glass panel began to retract, releasing a hiss of decompressing air.
Tommy ran to the tube and lifted the young man’s head into his lap. “Hey!” he said. “Can you hear me? You gotta wake up, king. Come on.” There was no response. His chest was rising and falling, which meant he was alive. At least he’s not dead, Tommy thought. Only this close could Tommy see that tattooed along this guy’s forearm was a series of letters and numbers: R4N-B00. “This just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” Tommy mumbled.
Just then, the guy’s eyes fluttered open for a moment. Tommy thought he caught a glimpse of purple.
“Hey! Wake up, buddy,” Tommy said. But the eyes fell back closed. Tommy growled in frustration. “Oh come on!” He looked around the room frantically. Maybe there was something to help the guy wake up? Or something to help carry him? Tommy was super fast but he was anything but super strong.
But before Tommy could even get up to search properly, he heard footsteps coming closer. Tommy panicked, sped to the door, and slammed it shut. He found the lock easily, but Dr. Green probably had a key, and Tommy didn’t have anything with which to barricade the door. He was running out of time.
“Okay, okay, okay,” he whispered. Tommy looked around the room frantically. He could hear the footsteps stop on the other side of the door. Finally, his eye caught a large grate on the far side of the room. He sped over to it. Below the grate was a rather wide pipe. At least wide enough for people to crouch inside. It looked like an access point to the sewer system. At least, Tommy hoped it was. It might be his only chance. He glanced back at the young man collapsed on the floor. It might be their only chance. He could hear the jingling of keys.
Dr. Green finally unlocked the door to room 6, but as soon as he opened it, he nearly screamed. He pulled his phone from his pocket and immediately dialed the first number. It rang for a few seconds before the person on the other end answered.
“I’m a little busy right now!” There was a loud bang from somewhere on the other end of the line.
“It’s gone! The experiment is gone!”