Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The knife was lifted up and down, each stab into a soft torso spurting out blood onto the killer's face.

They heard the sirens outside, they heard the heavy boots and the cocking of guns, a police  shield rubbing up to the one next to it.

“Drop the knife, villain!” The most annoying voice in the entire world, Phantom, a hero who had thwarted his plansmany times before, was here to thwart this one too.

He was on his knees anyways, so he let the knife slip from his hands with a clatter.

Phantom walked forward, “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in….” the hero gradually got quieter, their eyes locked on the familiar mask below.

“Is that…” Phantom paused, he turned around, staring into the heroes mask. They shuddered, as if the gaze was felt behind the mask.

“It’s Dream.”

✵

He drummed his fingers along the grey desk. Admittedly, awaiting to be questioned wasn't as fun as he’d thought it would be when nobody was in there with him. Something about the anticipation of the onslaught of questions, mostly about why on earth he would attack, let alone kill Dream. Someone that he has been seen working side by side with for three years.

The one-sided glass freaked him out, he didn’t like the feeling of not knowing what was behind it. But just as he was about to do a synopsis on why he didn’t like the one-sided glass, the inconspicuous grey door on the wall swung open, and Phantom stepped in.

“Matrix, I have what’s on your file. We just need your statement of what happened to proceed in the court case.” Phantom slid into the seat across from him, a manila folder with barely any paper rested on the table.

“Is he dead?” Matrix asked, tilting his head to the right. Phantom’s mask eyes went wide. “I…No, he’s not. He’s in the ICU. Monitored, of course.” 

Matrix rolled his eyes back and rested his head on the chair, groaning loudly as he did so. “Well-“ his head snapped straight up “Bummer. I’ll get ‘im next time.”

Phantom just stared at him. Despite Matrix being unable to see his face, he could tell the hero was confused. “So that’s it? You just killed your mentor?” Matrix scoffed, “I wouldn’t exactly call him my…mentor.”

“What would you call Dream?” Phantom enticed.

“Kidnapper, murderer, child murderer, abuser, manipulator, stupid idiot….” Matrix listed it out on his fingers, body slouched like he was remembering all the crimes committed by the villian.

“You don’t exactly like him then, do you?” Phatom opened the manila file; thumbing idly between between the three sheets of mostly useless information 

“I thought I did for years, but there was no point in fooling myself.” Matrix shrugged.

It was funny, seeing a standard grey outline for the face of the person that was sitting in front of you.

Matrix wasn’t exactly..likeable. He was a notorious side-kick to the villain Dream.

Dream liked to kill innocents for fun, maybe just to get out some pent up anger or maybe another reason, but Matrix was tilting onto the opposite side. Most innocents that were caught up in whatever trick he had pulled survived. At least Matrix wasn’t that insane.

There wasn’t much about Matrix personally in the file. No name, no age, no date of birth.

He glanced up, hoping to get some sort of age range for the maskless villian idly picking at his nails infront of him. Phantom hadn’t really had the time to examine the guys face since the dramatic arrest.

Too young.

Way too young.

Phantom’s mind sparked with immediate questions like a fork in a socket. Matrix himself had said that he never liked Dream, so why was he staying with him? Especially when Matrix himself didn’t look a day over twelve.

“I need to know your date of birth so we can testify you in an adult criminal court.” Phantom crossed over his hands. 

Matrix raised a brow. “Can I invoke the 5th?” He tried. Phantom chuckled, even though it was against some kind of conduct.  “We need to know, it could affect your case.”

“What case? I am literally a Super Villian’s sidekick. I don’t need a trial. I’ll still end up with a twenty year sentence no matter what what case I build.” Matrix stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Phantom sighed. “Look, I’m just going to tell you straight, kid. I know you’re very clearly under eighteen, alright? I just wanna know your date of birth so I can have this whole case done and dusted as soon as possible.” 

“Excuse you! I am eighteen and proud. Don’t be a hater because you’re twenty-one and have smile lines.” Matrix raised his top lip in a snarl-like fashion. But it was dropped as soon as it came.

 “You don’t..have it on a file or something?” Matrix questioned. 

“No. There’s barely anything on your file.” Phantom said bluntly.

“If I stay silent will you attack me?” Matrix joked, however the twinge of worry he carried bled through his words without his permission.

“It’s not something we can avoid. Your age will determine how heavy your sentence will be.Villain or not.” Phantom said sternly, avoiding looking at Matrix’s uncomfortable expression.

“I mean, if you want to get a lawyer you can. Even if you are somehow eighteen- a lawyer will help your case.” Phantom suggested, blowing out air behind his mask.  

 “I don’t- I- I can’t afford one.” Matrix’s ears went red.

“Unfortunately, since well- you are an associate of a villain, we can’t provide you with a public defender. They are usually only available for low-profile cases” said Phantom.

“….” Matrix mumbled.

“What was that?” Phantom raised a brow. Even his enhanced hearing upgrade in his mask didn’t catch that. He doubted the hidden tape recorder did either.

“Fourteen.” Matrix muttered- barely louder than a whisper.

Phantom couldn’t help but gasp as quietly as he could. “You- you’re fourteen? ”

Matrix had first been seen around 3 years ago- so that means at eleven years old, he was out burning down rich people’s homes, robbing banks, stabbing and what not.

God, what was Phantom even doing at that age? He was pretty sure he had just started learning guitar at that age- his twin began fencing.

“I need a break.” Phantom slid off his chair, striding out of the room.

He shut the door quietly behind him, the door that led to the viewing room behind the one-sided glass swung open, his pink-haired twin rushed out.

“Are you serious, Wilbur? Why didn’t you ask more questions?” He accused. Wilbur looked appalled. “Are you deaf? Did you not hear what he said?”

Technoblade sank down slightly. “My book was gettin’ too good to put down. Niki was watchin’ him. I think.” As if on cue, Niki stuck her cotton pink head of hair out of the viewing room, giving Wilbur a quick wave before returning.

“We currently have a Super Villain sidekick in that room, and you were too busy getting lost in a book?! That you could read any time other than now!? ” Wilbur whispered. “Well- when you put it like that-“ Technoblade nervously chuckled.

“That boy is literally fourteen years old.” Wilbur gestured towards the room, before thunking his  head  against the wall, dragging his hand over his face before sinking to the floor. Techno sighed, moving down the wall to sit next to him.

“I just- I just don’t know what to do, Tech. He’s just a kid.” Wilbur mumbled into his sleeve. 

“You’ll pull through. No matter if he’s a kid- or a supervillain you defend him like a lawyer. The whole way through.” Techno offered.

Wilbur pulled his head up, glaring at Technoblade. “That’s the problem. He’s a kid! But at the same time he’s heavily associated with a villian that killed a whole bunch of people.”

Techno winced.

“I’ll just try to defend him the best I can, and whatever the verdict is what’ll happen.” said Wilbur. He got back up, took a deep breath in and prepared himself for the inevitable.

Well, to say the least, he didn’t prepare himself for that.

Some sides of the courtroom exploded into quiet chatter, that built its way up on the decibel scale, some people gasped others just straight up cheered- which quickly died down after being given many odd looks.

A prison sentence. The jury had said that “execution was too merciful” - And Wilbur- Wilbur couldn’t belive his eyes.

The fourteen-year-old next to him wasn’t phased, he was only glaring at the judge. Wilbur shivered. This child’s glare was like a solar flare,it could destroy everything in its wake with an unbearable heat,or just waft right past.

Life in special confinement.

Worse than isolation.

For a child?

No way.

“Hold on-just- just wait a minute.” Wilbur spoke loudly over the sound of the rest of the courtroom. “This boy, right next to me is a child! Fourteen years old, simply following the orders of someone he viewed to be a guardian!” He debated.

The judge shook her head lightly. “Mr.Phantom, you must understand the nature of the multiple crimes and murders he was associated with.Child or not, he has been trialed as an adult, and was found guilty.” 

Wilbur deflated. Looking down at the kid beside him, he sat back down. About a dozen guards stepped out of a next to the witness stands, tasers, batons and even guns in pockets or holsters.They stood the kid up, hooking him by the back of his arms.

“Don’t worry your little head, Phantom. If I’m lucky, I’ll  be out in a week.” Matrix winked, quickly being shoved out the door with a push of his head.

As Wilbur began to pack up his things, he couldn’t help but wonder more about the situation. Matrix was barely fourteen years old. So young, yet he had already chosen to go down a life of crime. Maybe he hadn’t had the choice to choose- with Dream clearly having a heavy, almost familial influence on the teenagers life, he must have had a big part to play in getting Matrix this far. If Dream had done so much, what had driven him to attack his mentor so violently? Was it over a disunite? Was it planned ?

He waved his hand to an oncoming taxi.

He simply couldn’t tell.

“So?” Techno was laid across the couch, legs slung over the arm, remote in hand- flicking over various channels.

Their father, Phil, the (now retired) hero Phoenix, was stirring a mystery substance on the hob. Wilbur knew it was a mystery what he was cooking as soon as he stepped in as his father- in his own rights- was a shit cook.

Wilbur sucked in a breath before answering. “Not good. Not good at all.” then, Phil answered. “Ah! Hi Wilbur, mate. Do you want to try my bone broth?” 

Wilbur winced. “No thanks dad. I’d actually rather not.” He stalked over to his twin, flipping his legs over the back of the couch, and flopping down onto the no-longer-so-soft material.

Technoblade flicked onto the news channel, two rather bored looking newscasters looked straight into his soul, reporting on the court case that he had just been at, saying something stupid like “Matrix’s face will not be revealed due to the intense nature of his crimes.”  Wilbur groaned

“Life?” Techno folded his arms, barely raising his eyes to look at Wilbur. Wilbur whined, turning his head into the sofa cushion. “Yup.” He lifted his head upwards to look sombrely at his twin. “Not just life- life in special confinement.” Technoblade whitsled lowly. “Tha’s a rough one. Especially rough for a kid.” 

Especially rough for a kid.

Wilbur repeated what Technoblade said over and over in his already worry-ridden brain. Even as he sat eating his Dad’s toilet water tasting bone broth. Matrix is only fourteen. 

Wilbur had never been to prison. His twin Technoblade had for fighting somone. Even if it wasn’t prison it was still county jail for about a day. His father had been too back in the revolution days- so he really didn’t have a clue about how he would be treated in a prison like Pandora.

The most horrible of people would be thrown in Pandora. Child murderers, cult leaders, serial killers- you name it, they were in there. But did Matrix really and truly deserve to be in there? Isolated all by himself until he died? While truly evil men were in there, in better conditions with a slap-on-the-wrist sentence?

“Wil? You're barely touching your food. Everything alright?” His Dad asked, gesturing with his spoon. “I’m just- I’m just thinking about that kid. He’s all alone in Pandora, you know? I’m just worried about how harshly they’re treating him.” Wilbur spilled.

Techno shrugged. “Dad was alright when he was there. If you want to see how he’s doing you could go straight to Pandora. I’m pretty sure you can. Since you're his lawyer and a hero after all.”

“Yeah, but dad was in there for a week at most- Wait. I can go see him?” Wilbur stopped in his sentence, spoon freezing mid air.

“Yup.”

Wilbur nodded slowly. “Am I able to bring others?” “Yeah, mate. If you want, Techno and I can go with you?” Phil suggested kindly.

Wilbur felt his anxiety drip away. If he went with powerful figures, like the great past hero Phoenix and the current top hero, Kratos,there would surely be no hassle. He quickly finished his food, and later helped Phil with cleaning up. He couldn’t help but feel the twinge of excitement at seeing the stubborn boy in the morning. Who could blame him? Anyone would get a little attached after spending multiple hours with the kid listening to him ramble on about how great an Indian curry is.

Wilbur awoke with a start. Sunshine pouring into his room (and more importantly, right into his eyeball. Which was highly effective in waking him) from the sliver of a crack between the curtain and the wall. After only being awake for a few seconds, his brain already had a list of things that he needed to complete before heading to Pandora.

By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs after finishing his mental list, his father and brother were already pulling their coats on. 

Phil was pulling on a deep navy sailors jacket, a casual, but warm green jumper for the oncoming winter months. Wilbur would say he looked exactly like the man on one of those canned tuna ads. Of course, he wouldn’t say that to his dads face. He didn’t want to be exposed to the flash of sorrow in his dads icy blue eyes, and the down turning of his lips at Wilbur’s assault of his outfit.

His twin, Technoblade- well he dressed like Technoblade to say the least. 

Arriving at Pandora was far less of an excitement than what Wilbur was expecting. He felt his gut churning, legs turning to jelly and brain fuzzing with cotton as his dad spoke to the Warden.

Techno must have noticed Wilbur’s odd fidgeting, and slowly slipped his hand into Wilbur’s. Wilbur looked up into Techno’s ice cold blue stare (much like Phil’s in all honesty) a tiny little hike of his twin's lips was all he needed to slightly calm the wave of nerves crashing into him.

The Warden was an entirely intimidating man. A dark grey gas mask covered the entire lower half of his face, only leaving his menacing bright yellow stare towering over whoever was in front of him. 

A large puff of what could only be described as steam wafted around Phil’s head as The Warden began to speak to him.

Wilbur wasn’t listening per say …. it was a little boring to be honest. He probably should be paying attention to what his dad was talking about in a low voice, but his attention was only pulled back down from the clouds when Phil waved the twins over, pointing to a large agreement waver and a pen, which was pushed towards the family.

It only explained the risks of being in Pandora, even if only for a few minutes, they still had to sign it. Even if there was any more terms and conditions, Wilbur didn’t read them.

Wilbur signed it with a dash on the ‘T’

The three heroes, current and past- were ushered around the entire building, the heat was unbearable. A layer of sweat clung to Wilbur’s skin as they seemingly decended deeper and deeper into Pandora. 

The Warden seemed to be dragging them in all different ways, simply brushing past the questions of “Is this the way to Matrix’s cell?”

But The Warden kept on talking. “It’s a completely safe facility, so any villian put inside these walls will certainly never esca-“

Phil gently put his hand on The Warden’s shoulder. His dark, forest green hair swayed slightly as he turned down to look at Phil. 

“I know this is a ingeniesly built prison, but that’s not what we’re here for. We are here to visit Matrix, and discuss his situation.”  Phil nodded forward gently. 

The Warden sighed quietly, a puff of steam coming from his mask. Nobody could argue with Phil when he put his hand on your shoulder. When Technoblade and Wilbur were younger, they were convinced it was a perk that came with his powers.

Without any more resistance, The Warden turned around the complete opposite direction, winding around hallways that became smaller and smaller, thinner and thinner, until eventually they had to walk in a single file line.

A large, bank-like inforced door  was at the end of a nearly pitch black hallway. 

After twisting and twisting for what felt like a hundred times in each direction, the door opened- to a cacophony of screams.

Phil immediately winced slightly, yet they all stepped inside what could only be described as a zoo exhibition.

There was a small standing space, encased in an extremely thick layer of glass. 

The scene in front of the four was less than amusing. Kneeling atop a grate was Matrix, twisting and twinning against large industrial metal chains that had him attatched to large wooden pillars sparks jolted out in every direction, most likely due to the amount of friction the fourteen year old was causing between the chain links.

Flipping himself backwards out of pure rage, he let out another low growl of anger that dissolved into a scream of anguish, tears gushing down the child’s cheeks.

Suddenly, Wilbur felt his own blood begin to boil. 

“Are you serious? Do you really think that this is humane in any way?!” Wilbur demanded, looking straight into The Warden's eyes.

“I am aware of your concerns, but considering the amount of crimes and the severity of the crimes that he has committed, precautions had to be taken.” The Warden replied coolly.

Wilbur’s eye twitched.

“He’s still a child! A fourteen year old! You wouldn’t even put an adult in these conditions! It’s torture! Just look at him, and tell me that he’s having a great time in there, restrained, in an unbearably warm room 24/7.” Wilbur raised his arm, pointing to the child who was hunched over, visible tears rolling off his cheek and onto the grate beneath him.

“This is the isolation part of his sentence. He was very aggressive towards any staff who attempted to interactso we had to-“

“ Had to?” Phil cut in, his eyebrow raising.

The Warden paused, sighing. A puff of steam adverted three stern gases from three heroes momentarily.

✵

Wilbur was not expecting to be back in the same court, his family behind him with the fourteen-year-old surrounded by guards in a chair not too far off from them just four days after Matrix was originally sent to Pandora.

It was a much less tense atmosphere inside the room. They weren’t listening to horrendous crimes committed by a minor over the span of three years, possibly more. This time, they were deciding whether or not Matrix could stay in a protected environment with the heroes Kratos, Phantom and Phoenix. If good behaviour persisted for a long period of time inside their home, he could be cleared to stay with them.

Wilbur didn’t mind. He’d rather this for Matrix than whatever that holding cell was any day. He felt pity for the kid every time he glanced in his direction. It must have been easy for Matrix to forget his age. Wilbur knew distantly that he probably didn’t have any chance to be a child.

After speaking about the more than torturous conditions, the judge,  (who this time had more sympathy in her cold, tiny heart) was quick to agree to the new terms.

After all, these new terms mean that the family of heroes will protect the greater public. Even if it means risking the new ‘guest’ in their house.

As soon as the court was adjourned, the three heroes were told to go home, an armoured vehicle would be transporting Matrix later that day.

Wilbur sighed slightly when he got into the car, feeling the rumble of the car turning out of the car park beneath him.

Phil and Techno were idly chatting in the front, but a swirl of thoughts swallowed Wilbur up whole.

What had he just done?

Chapter Text

It was the evening when the knock on the door froze the entire house.

Phil was swirling onions around a pan, frying them. Technoblade was busy taking the meat from the oven and Wilbur- Wilbur wasn’t allowed in the kitchen.

Wilbur jumped up from the sofa, sprinting to the door, tripping over the rug, catching himself just as he opened the door.

He straightened up, blowing hair from his face and smiled the brightest grin he could muster.

Techno and Phil arrived behind him, Phil’s hand resting softly on his shoulder.

Though when he was expecting to be smiling at a persons face, he was met with empty air. He looked down.

There was Matrix.

By himself.

“What?” Matrix deadpanned,

Because of his height, Matrix had to raise his head in order to even see Wilbur standing there.

“I- where’s the armoured vehicle? And guards?” Wilbur quiered.

Matrix still had a blank expression, nothing to even hint about his feelings. “Oh no, I just walked here myself.”

“You…walked?” Wilbur enticed, but was quickly cut off by Phil. “How did you get our address mate?”

Matrix pushed the three stunned heroes, walking into the house. “Turns out, soldiers aren’t that good at talking quietly.” He turned his head. “Your onions are done.” Phil shook himself out of his daze and rushed to the pan, Technoblade following after him to continue with cutting the meat.

Wilbur closed the door quietly.

“Nice place you got” he put his hands on his hips, head raised to the ceiling, turning slightly in a circle. Everyone besides him in the room was silent.

Phil was the first person to break that silence over the sound of sizzling vegetables. “Wilbur, would you show..Matrix..to his room?”

Wilbur looked at his own father in distress.

Matrix turned to Wilbur with his mouth slightly agape , index finger pointing at him, elbow bent. “Your name…is Wilbur?” He began to laugh as Wilbur’s shoulders hiked up to his red ears.

“Alright move it- move!” Wilbur began shooing Matrix up the stairs as he still went on and on about how it was a ‘farmers name’, laughing all the way.

Where Matrix was going to be staying for the foreseeable future wasn’t that bad. The floors were clean and new, the walls were a stark white, along with the bedspread and other items inside. The only tinge of colour within the faux hospital room was the warm evening night spilling through the window.

“You can decorate it however you like-“ Wilbur paused. “Where are your bags?” Matrix froze. “Why on earth would I have bags? I’m not staying here for long. You should know that.”

“You said the same thing before you went into prison. It didn’t look like you were planning to get out any time soon.” Wilbur drew back in a short breath. He felt the atmosphere drop from joking and light to heavy. Very heavy.

Instead of pulling out a dagger from god knows where and attacking Wilbur, Matrix simply scowled, pushing past Wilbur, knocking shoulders deliberately. Well, it was more shoulder to arm. Height difference.

They all ate dinner in moderate silence. Technoblade, Phil and Wilbur sat at their large dining table, eating the broth that Phil and Techno had spent a large part of the day making, while Matrix sat, crossed legged in front of the tv, eating extra spicy curry pot noodles.

Wilbur glanced over at Techno.

Technoblade opened his mouth to say something, but his words trailed off as he furrowed his brows at Matrix.

The kid was slowly eating his noodles, eyes fixed on the tv as it quickly flicked past channel after channel. A cacophony of words from each presenter and show, an automatic laugh tone coming on briefly before the channel was switched.

“Matrix?” Phil called. “Hm?” Matrix answered, the tv immediately switching back to a normal broadcast when Matrix turned to look at the three.

“…Nevermind.” Phil shook his head and slightly smiled. Matrix turned back to watching the tv. Three heroes glanced at each other wearily.

Wilbur’s closet wasn’t filled with any clothes that suited Matrix’s taste. He raised his head in disgust when he saw the multitude of sweaters.

“What? They’re nice.” Wilbur pulled out a red one with embroidery of a college Matrix didn’t recognise. “I’m not touching that. It probably has…rabies.” Matrix said slowly, figuring out what disease to say.

“Well suck it up. We’re the closest in size so you’ll be wearing my clothes until you get your own.” Wilbur pushed the sweatshirt into Matrix’s folded arms, pulling out a basic pair of sleepwear shorts and placing them on top.

Matrix was ushered into his new room, getting changed inside while Wilbur waited outside with the door shut.

After a short interval of time, the door clicked open. Matrix stood there, an angry look in his face that made him resemble a disgruntled kitten. Wilbur raised his hand to his mouth, in a position that made him look like a proud mother.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was met with a middle finger and a door slam.

The next morning, Techno had an early patrol, which usually meant the whole house woke up with him.

But now there was an extra uncalculated percentage- Matrix.

Noise began usually around 6:35 am, Phil would be up first seconds later, however, Wilbur is a slow riser, waking up at about 6:50.

Matrix was an enigma.

His sleep schedule was unknown, but Wilbur assumed he would sleep early. Mostly due to the fact that there was nothing in his room, and the boy shockingly did not own a phone.

Or any electronics for that matter.

Techno headed for the hero tower at about 7 o’clock, Wilbur would be in at an average time of anywhere between 9-10 am. Phil’s time of going in was long behind him.

By 12pm, Phil had stretched his back, did some exercises and did a better job than yesterday at cleaning the house. And-

Matrix wasn’t awake.

And Phil was concerned.

He stood up, ready to go marching into an empty room, searching the house and then inevitably calling Techno.

Until he heard the familiar click of a door opening.

Matrix came down the stairs, one hand holding the wooden rail, the other rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

His hair was dishevelled, pointing out every which way, one sock was higher up than the other.

Matrix reached the bottom of the stairs. By then, Phil had cleared his cheeks of the embarrassed pink flush and was pretending to be reading a very interesting newspaper.

“Hello, Phoenix.” Matrix greeted, standing by the door awkwardly. Phil raised an eyebrow, glancing up from his fake newspaper reading session.

“Hi, Matrix.” Matrix began to walk into the kitchen. Phil stood up- “Your alright mate, I’ll make you breakfast.”

Making the breakfast was an easy task, Matrix sat at the breakfast bar, head lying on his arms as he watched intently at the eggs being formed. Phil wasn’t exactly sure on what the kid was allergic to and what he wasn’t, so a basic meal of toast and eggs it was.

Over the silence of the eggs cooling and the bread being toasted, Phil broke the ice. “What’s your name? Your proper name, I mean.” He enticed, Matrix lazily lifted his head. “Calling you Matrix is beginning to become a hassle.”

“It’s Tommy. Well Thomas, but I don’t like that name.” He answered easily. Phil was taken aback. He hadn’t told anyone his name.

Not even Wilbur, and Wilbur was undoubtedly the person he spent the most time with.

“Okay Tommy, would you like pepper on your eggs?”

✵

Tommy was a… pugnacious child.

He was a spitfire, to say the least. Never missing a chance to passionately express his opinion. He regularly argued with Wilbur across from his seat in front of the TV, or joining Phil out in their vast garden.

They lived in an old Victorian style house. Although it was very, very old and rickety, even Tommy could tell they had lived in it for a long time- because of the homely feel.

It was painted in a slightly lighter forest green, the small beams that split up the exterior into all its Victorian grandeur was beige, with a grey roof.

A house like that wasn’t much to Tommy’s taste, but he liked the interior. There was undoubtedly a vintage feel inside, and a very dark wood polish choice made it even darker. The abundance of lights and windows significantly brightened the house.

Tommy’s room, however, was still a stark white. Unlike his personality.

In Tommy’s taste, there would be an absurd amount of posters across every wall, the room would probably be painted a burgundy colour, with white ceilings. If he had lived there since birth, anyone could be certain there would be multiple mysterious stains on the white ceiling. To the point where it would be debatable if it even was white.

Tommy had snooped in Wilbur’s room for a brief moment or two during his now two week stay at the hero's own home. It wasn’t all that impressive. Honestly, it was quite messy. And mustard. Oh so very mustard.

He hadn’t dared crossing the threshold of Technoblade’s room. Technoblade was scary. Tommy had no particular opinion on him, only that he was a behemoth of a man, and Tommy was surprised that he had ever managed to get a hit on the man during fights.

Phil- well Phil had personally shown Tommy his room. It was sickeningly old. From his odd obsession with forest green, to his vast amount of antiques, Knick knacks, and shiny things. Can’t forget the shiny things.

Tommy wouldn’t say he was settling in well- per say. He was just growing..used to the family.

He knew what he was here for after all.

Being in the garden with Phil was a pleasing experience. Being so used to bombs and guns and shouting and screaming and blood and-

It was loud.

And when it was silent. It made his ears ring.

But it was comforting, the heroes lived on the outskirts of Manburg. Which essentially meant the roar of a car's engine,motorbike- or any other mode of transport used in the heart of the city was to a minimum. Really, all Tommy could hear was the slight whistle of birds in the morning, or the coo of wood pigeons annoyingly waking him up.

Phil was the real worker, always out there, trowel in one hand, bag of bulbs in the other. Tommy lay on the grass more times than not. He liked digging his fingers into the ground. It was like he could feel the hum of the earth beneath his fingers. The hum of electricity was always a comfort, no matter where he was.

Tommy had only helped once, and he used his hands. It was a carrot. And supposedly your not supposed to eat a carrot straight out of the ground with dirt on it.

Today was quiet. Like most days, Wilbur and Techno were out doing their work, leaving Tommy and Phil to their own devices.

Tommy liked Phil a lot. He was calming, his voice was soothing. Tommy liked it when he would wave him over, pointing at a little ladybug or butterfly climbing on a flower or vegetable.

Parting out the dirt with his hands, brows furrowed as he hit it more roughly, wondering why it wasn’t becoming solid like the way Phil had it. Phil chuckled, taking his hands in his own.

“No mate, you can’t smack dirt like that. You do it like this-“ Phil held Tommy’s hands very gently, guiding them into an odd kneading like motion.

“Oh.” Tommy tilted his head.

Phil released his hands, peacefully turning back to his own flower bed.

Tommy now had his own little flower bed. He was working very hard on growing his little flower collection. He has a large book on flowers that Phil had gifted to him a couple days ago. Tommy had poured over each page in that book day and night.

“So, Tommy.” Tommys head perked up, and his hands slowed. “The judge had said that it is important for you to be implemented back into normal life. And… a part of that is attending school again.”

Tommy’s entire face dropped. “No. Not happening. Everyone in school are little rats, I don’t want to be near any of them.” He spat. “You hear me old man? I'm not smart enough anyways.”

Phil tilted his head. “You'll make lots of friends quickly. I know you will. Then you can have somewhere to go during the day, instead of being out here and gardening with me.”

“But I like being out gardening with you. I just know I’ll flip my shit if a teacher annoys me. Let alone a whole bunch of people my age.”Tommy whined.

“Oh but Tommy-“ Phil leaned over, making a high pitched voice, going to pinch Tommy’s face. “No- Phil! Phil!” There voices overlapping as Tommy swatted Phil’s hands away while he refused to stop cooing at him, unfolding himself from his cross crossed position as they continued to shout and laugh and coo.

✵

Tommy was not happy.

At all.

He was cleared to attend a public school near the centre of Manburg, along with 1,200 other students. The school was supposedly very big, but Tommy knew in his heart that it would still be claustrophobic inside.

Tommy was this close to strangling Phil.

When it was brought up again at dinner time, Wilbur started to laugh, overlapping with Tommy’s groan from the sofa.

Tommy dragged his feet while waking around the store. Rows and rows upon clothes that barely deferred made him want to vomit. All three of the heroes had fought him before, so from his outfit choice, could they not tell this was absolutely not his style?

He was betrayed.

It was deep rooted in his heart as they walked into a store. The white blinding lights made him want to scratch his eyes out.

But he liked looking at the home wear when Phil and Wilbur sneaked away, leaving poor old Tommy with Technoblade.

He immediately began drumming his fingers against eachother, fidgeting as he walked into new aisles. A large, firm hand rested on his shoulder. “Don’t steal anything, I can see everything.”

Tommy whipped his head around and scowled. Despite Technos stone cold exterior, Tommy could tell he was making the older more and more agitated as he continued.

He turned back to the aisle, picking up a flamingo. “This is you.” Tommy held it up to him- “Wait no,” Tommy put it on the ground and used his two index fingers to make angry eyebrows over the flamingos inanimate black dot eyes.

“Alright, Alright, move Tommy.” Techno stayed cold. Phil and Wilbur had both lightened up to him, treating him almost like a sibling, someone meant to be there. Technoblade still treated him like a prisoner.

Tommy cackled, shuffling down the aisle.

They met up with Phil and Wilbur after Tommy was done pointing at random pink things and preaching that they greatly resembled Technoblade.

Tommy’s ears began to turn red with embarrassment when he saw the amount of things Phil began to load up for the cashier to check out. Even the worker seemed a little pale at the continuing pile.

Tommy crossed his arms and turned away, shifting from foot to foot as the cashier began scanning.

He couldn’t bear to see the price go up and up.

Walking out of the large store, Techno was beside Tommy again, almost brushing shoulders. Technoblade raised an eyebrow as Tommy reached up his back.

He pulled out the large pink flamingo. He must have seen the look on his face because Tommy began hysterically giggling.

Phil continued to push the red cart forward, but Wilbur turned around, watching as Techno began to drag Tommy back into the store, still waving around a…..was that a pink flamingo????

Chapter Text

That night, Tommy tossed and turned.

He didn’t want to go to any type of school- he saw no reason for it! It’s not like he would need it to ever get a job when he’s older, most likely by the time he’s 50 he’ll be stuck in Pandora.

Phil would only be driving him to school for his first day, other than that, he would be all alone on the bus to school.

An idea sparked in his mind, something little- just to cool his nerves.

It’s not like Phil was stalking his every move, right?

But after the deed was done, it wasn’t Phil Tommy should have been looking out for, it was Technoblade.

The fire burned bright infront of him, glistening in the reflection of his eyes. Technoblade arrived beside him. Tommy didn’t stir.

After a few beats of silence between the pair over the sound of a crackling fire and wood beams snapping, Techno asked a single word question.

“Why?”

Tommy turned and looked up at him.

“I can’t help it.”

Techno took his hands out from his coat pockets, wrapping one arm round Tommy’s shoulders, walking them both away from the burning shop.

Although Tommy wouldn’t dare speak it to another soul, he leaned into Technoblade’s warmth. Even though he was right in front of a blazing fire mere moments ago, the bristling wind still chilled his skin.

When Tommy walked down the stairs the next day, he was tense.

His muscles tightened even further as he sat down at the breakfast bar, watching as Phil cracked eggs over a sizzling pan.

“Morning, mate.” Phil smiled softly.

Tommy squinted his eyes, suspicious of Phil’s calm exterior. Who could tell what was brewing inside? Surely Phil wouldn’t be very happy at the villain he’s supposed to be supervising, sneaking off to burn something.

“Did you sleep well?”

Tommy bristled. “ Yeessss…. ” Tommy dragged on. “What the fuck is going on?” 

Phil plated the eggs and sausage. “Techno told me about last night.” He handed the plate over to Tommy. All of a sudden he wasn’t in the mood of eating anymore.

“Uhm.” Was all Tommy could squeeze out as he struggled to meet Phil’s icy gaze.

“Well-“ Phil started, turning away from the fourteen-year-old. “I’m not mad at you, I know it’s hard to get out of old habits.” 

Tommy sipped the orange juice from his glass, still eyeing Phil as he did so. “..Alright.” He stabbed his knife into the fried egg.

Phil picked up the news paper from the counter that had obviously been dropped by either of his sons, walking into the living room and sitting in his large turquoise armchair to read the paper

He ate slowly and cautiously- weary of the man behind him.  This family was weird. Although it felt like he was slowly being  accepted as one of them, Tommy still felt slightly alinenated. In terms of heroes vs villains, Tommy was on the opposite side as all of them.

He wasn’t like Wilbur- or Techno, he was a villain. A so called ‘bad egg’ among other. Tommy couldn’t help but go out and burn a building or two- he was born and raised that way.

The two brothers were perfect examples of golden children, Tommy could just tell from the photo frames hanging on the wall that he had been quietly studying over the past week he’d been in the household.

Wilbur was obviously somekind of guitar genius, and Technoblade was almost always pictured with a sword in his hand or nearby.

They both didn’t seem like the type to run wild either. Perfect and poised in each photo. Except one, where they seemed to be having a picnic, Phil smiling wildly as he snapped the photo, and Wilbur about to tackle Techno on the blanket.

He put his almost clear plate on the kitchen sink. As he turned around, he nearly jumped a mile high in the air when Phil was right behind him, black school bag in hand. 

“Phil! What the fuck!? Jesus Christ man, give a bit of a warning before you go behind me like that!” Tommy exclaimed, holding his heart as if it was about to explode.

“Sorry. Force of habit.” Phil rubbed his neck with his free hand sheepishly. “C’mon, let’s get going. Your school bag is packed.” He handed the black school bag to him.

“What’s in it?” Tommy asked, zipping open the bag as Phil walked towards the dark brown front door. 

“Just copies to write school notes and homework in. Your teachers will probably give you your textbooks.” Phil grabbed heavily accessorised keys off coat hooks on the wall beside the door.

“Boo.” Tommy frowned-following Phil out of the door towards a modest family car. You wouldn’t expect they were heroes with massive salaries from their car situation.

Tommy shifted uncomfortably in the leather seat.

He didn’t like being stuck in a car,where he wouldn’t be as easily able to dive out the window as he would in a house, or better yet, outside.

“But Phil, what if I can’t write? I won’t be taking down any notes if I can’t write.” Tommy said smugly,waggling an index finger at a now driving Phil. 

“I know that you can write. And I know that you can draw too. I’ve seen your neon graffiti on capital buildings first hand.” Phil corrected, a slight smile on his face as he did so.

Tommy slumped back down in the beige leather seat, the seatbelt rising to graze his neck.

“I already hate school.”

“You’re not even in school yet mate, you’ll be fine.”

The drive had been a quiet one. Phil has switched on the radio the second Tommy refused to talk to him and sighed dramatically like the teenager he was.

Bright trees faded away into concrete buildings as they entered deeper and deeper into the city, further away from Phil’s quaint family home on the outskirts- where it was easy to get away from the city that had suffocated him since he was born. 

Phil pulled into a small parking space in front of the school. It could only be described as your average American high school, two floors and big concrete steps leading up.

Tommy stayed perfectly still for a moment, twiddling his thumbs together. Phil removed his hands from the steering wheel and placed them in his lap, turning to face Tommy.

The silence was tumultuous.

“If you really don’t want to go to school, Tommy, we- we can always try to homeschool you?” Phil urged.

Tommy took a deep breath in. “No. Losers stay off from school. And I’m not a loser.” Tommy immediately opened the car door and stepped out, dragging his bag along with him.

He could see a small trail of students heading up the steps, anxiety began to churn in his gut and he heard Phil tell him a quiet ‘Good luck!’ From inside the car before it was silenced by the slamming of the door.

Tommy stilled as he slung his bag over his shoulders.

He was really and truly, 

Nervous.

Even as he was told to complete a mission of possibly the biggest heist in the history of Manburg, he was able to easily shake any nerves from his shoulders.

A maelstrom of anxiety threatened to swallow him up.

Pushing open the front doors, his ears were filled with a swarm of voices from all around each point in the hallway. Apparently, he was supposed to make his way to the principal's office.

Tommy’s equilibrium was knocked back into balance as he turned around students, using his skills to not touch anyone else. 

As he approached the office, he nearly tripped over stray emos, but managed to regain composure as he opened the door.

Sparing one last glance at the dark haired, nihilistic teenagers, he was greeted by a recognisable smell. A smell that only official buildings that had a vast amount of fine dust on the carpets had.

The sausage-curled secretary looked up at him. Tommy was a tad distracted by her abnormally long, hot pink acrylics.

“Thomas, is it?” The secretary drawled, staring up at him lazily through her thick framed, small lense glasses.

Tommy responded, “Yep.”

She nodded slightly, pressing a bright red button on a contraption that Tommy was not bothered to understand.

“Sir, Thomas is here.” There was a short response that Tommy couldn’t even hear. 

It was a wonder this one-foot-in-the-grave secretary could hear whatever was said.

She did a slight throw of her head towards a door just off the main office. It was inviting, with plants in the small area with two chairs side by side. It was small, but the hanging frames, plants and small window allowing golden morning light through made it all the more homely.

When he opened the door to the principal's office, he was met with an…odd shade of hair. 

And Tommy thought Techno’s was wild. 

Apparently not, because the fully licensed principal of this school had dark forest green hair. He gestured to sit down. 

“So Thomas-“ “Tommy.” Tommy corrected. The principal paused for a second. “Do you prefer, Tommy?” He asked quietly.

Tommy gave him a look. “Duh. I wouldn’t have told you a different name otherwise.” The principal nodded.

“Okay, well my name is Mr.Dude-“ Tommy snorted. “And I am principal of this school.”  Mr.Dude sounded a little unsure of himself. As if his license to teach was fake.

“I know you are probably very nervous to be going into a new school all by yourself, but rest assured we will do everything to help you settle in.” Tommy sunk further into his chair. Folding his arms as he did so.

Mr.Dude slid a piece of paper across the table, it  just seemed to be a bunch of time  and names.

Mr.Dude quickly explained, “This is your timetable, it shows you your teacher, what subject you have, the time you have them and the room your in.” 

Tommy picked up the sheet of paper, raising his upper lip as he saw the first thing he had was maths.

God, he hated maths.

“I think from your face you’ve figured out what you have. Room 11 is just down the hallway and to your left.” Mr.Dude used hand gestures to point out of his office.

Tommy stood up, turning to leave the office.”If you have any questions please ask any staff members!” He called after him.

Tommy rolled his eyes, stepping out into the hallway to find it empty. He stood still momentarily, recalling Mr.Dudes instructions.

When he reached room 11, he saw that all the students were sitting down. Paying attention to the odd amalgamation of numbers and letters.

He easily opened the door, the teacher was mid sentence. She turned to look at him- Tommy shut the door behind him, slightly leaning his weight against it.

“Are you..Thomas?” She asked, a mildly puzzled look on her face, “Tommy, yes.” He supplied. The teacher nodded slightly. Then she raised her finger, Tommy followed where she was pointing until he saw a boy with a completely nest of light brown hair, sitting surreptitiously.

“You can sit beside Tobias, I don’t mind if you need a little help with what I’m teaching, but ask Tobias in a whisper, please.” Tommy began to walk forward, the teacher turning back to her teaching.

Tommy slowly made his way to the back, the eyes of other students darted up to him, acknowledging his face.

He turned to sit in his seat, quietly noting that Tobias had his eyes closed. Like he was sleeping. The loud scraping of Tommy pulling out his chair, however, made the boy open one eye, his pupils seemingly twinkling with recognition.

Tobias turned and smiled at him. “Hi, I’m Tubbo!” He said excitedly, in a voice that Tommy definitely did not expect a very.. antisocial emo looking teenager to have. 

Tommy raised an eyebrow at him for a moment, before schooling his odd expression back to a normal look. “Tommy.”

Tommy then realised that there was a zig-zag shape of a scar snaking up the left side of Tubbo’s face, the colour was light and barely reached his eye, but Tommy just knew a scar like that would cover the whole left side of his body.

Tommy also realised within the two second window of his realisations about the boy that would probably be sitting next to him permanently in maths, that Tubbo had a hearing aid.

He vaguely gestures to his ear, “You have a hearing aid?” Tubbo nodded excitedly. “I don’t have to learn sign language..do I?” Tommy looked scared for a moment, but Tubbo recoiled slightly. “No? What the fuck?”

Tommy raised his arms in surrender. “Okay! Jesus…”

He didn’t know how to act. Tommy hadn’t been around people his age in..a long, long time.

“Whatever- “ Tubbo scooted his desk and chair closer to Tommy’s. By now, he had already gotten a red lined copy out. One from the six others that Phil had given him.

“Basically, we’re learning how to multiply brackets, but there are algebraic bracket expressions.” Tubbo then looked up from Tommy’s page, where he had written down the sun with his own pen.

Tubbo looked at him like it was as simple as the alphabet. 

But the jokes on him, Tommy didn’t even know the alphabet!

“Huh?” Tommy raised his lip, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He looked straight into Tubbo’s hazel eyes. Tubbo rolled them, pointing at the page then at the board, slowly explaining to Tommy what everything meant.

By the time Tommy had partially understood a question, the bell had rang.

In what could only be described as a languid manner, Tommy sank down in his seat as Tubbo gathered his things, slowly pulling out his timetable.

“Oh for fucks sake!” Tommy bashed his fists down on the school desk, not too quietly, but not loud enough to make people’s heads turn.

“What do you have next?” Tubbo hovered over him. “Fucking science man!” Tommy groaned, slinking up from his seat, picking up his bag. 

Tubbo cracked a smile at him, “I love science! And we’re in the same class again!” He walked backwards out of the classroom and into the busy hallway.

“It’s just this way-“ Tubbo said, weaving through the crowds of people. Tommy struggled to catch up. 

He bumped shoulders with a relativley tall guy with a bright, almost neon purple hoodie. As the kid turned around to glare at Tommy, Tommy swore he could see a purple glint in his eyes.

Tommy furrowed his brow and raised his top lip.

Tubbo pulled him into a science lab, it reeked of an odd smell that seemingly no one could place their fingers on.

They both slid into a seats right at the back, Tubbo turned to a boy beside them with odd hair, and began chatting.

Tommy sat in silence for a moment, waiting for the teacher to come in. He pulled out another random copy. This time, it was a turquoise blue.

He leaned over, looking right at the guy Tubbo was talking to. “Do you have a pen?” He asked simply.

The guy looked bewildered, staring at Tommy for a beat in time, glancing at Tubbo before stuttering out “Yeah.. I-I think so?” He sounded unsure of himself.

In a second or two, he pulled out a ballpoint black pen, passing it to Tommy without fuss.

A teacher with a very tight bun and a tall, slim shape walked in. Laptop in hand, she began to teach.

For once in his life, Tommy was actually completely silent. No leg bouncing, fidgeting or humming. Tubbo and the odd haired guy were speaking quietly, Tommy wasn’t bothered to listen.

“Thomas? I know it’s your first day, but you really have to pay attention to this class. You’ve missed half the year.” A nasally voice called out to him. In his peripheral vision, he saw Tubbo’s head swivel around to look at him. 

A mild look of fear crossed his face.

“I am paying attention though?” Tommy raised his eyebrow, sinking back in his chair. The teacher widened her eyes, before they hardened.

“Was that cheek young man?” “Duh?” The teacher began a big long spiel about how a tone  of voice was so important, and the line between respect and cheek was very thin.

Tommy just rolled his eyes. “I’m not sure why you are rolling your eyes Thomas, you’ll be learning  about this in English soon enough.”

Tommy scoffed quietly.

“Me and you did not get off on the right foot,Thomas. I hope you can change that very quickly.” The teacher narrowed her eyes.

“You just can’t get it through your thick skull that I’m bored out of my mind in your class. You can’t teach.” 

He cackled at the teacher positively fuming at him all the way to the principal's office.

Tommy had only been in this exact same office about an hour and a half ago, and he could feel the disappointment radiating off of Mr.Dude.

Blocking out the loud teacher who was physically spitting all over the desk was easy. And when he looked up at Mr.Dude asking him a question, all he could say was 

“Huh?”

✵

Tommy slid into the leather car seat. Phil quietly drummed the steering wheel as he went to reverse out of his parking spot, careful not to run over any stray children.

“Well, what happened?” Phil looked at him from the corner of his eye.

Tommy folded his arms, looking out of the car window at the grey buildings zooming past.

“Nothing much.” He shrugged. Phil sighed. “I got a call from Mr.Dude about a particularly angry science teacher?”

Tommy let out a huffed laugh.

“Something about you telling her to get it through her thick skull that you were bored?” Phil looked at him as they stopped at a glowing red traffic light in the evening sunset.

“I was right.” Tommy glared at Phil. “Why care anyways? It’s not like I’m trying to get to college or anything.”

“Because I want to see progress.” The car engine tumbled back into driving. “I want to see you grow, and learn. I want to see you become a kid again.”

Tommy stilled for a moment as the grey buildings morphed into green trees while his attention was elsewhere.

“I don’t change. You should know that by now.”

Chapter Text

The days of school floated past  Tommy. Just like a train speeding past a station.

Any and all conversations he and Tubbo had had during that week were just as futile and fast as the week. It was clear that Tubbo was trying, trying to form some kind of communication, but Tommy was simply not having it.

Everything was itching at him to explode, use the buzzing of the lights against his Science teacher, to watch her explode after being fizzled from the inside out. He knew what he was capable of. Electricity manipulation was a useful power when you knew how to bend it to the limits of the human body.

Tommy just wasn’t sure what had set him off. It could have been the constant scraping of Wilbur’s fork on his ceramic plate that even Tommy could hear all the way from the couch, even if the TV was on.

Or maybe, it was the ankle bracelet that he constantly had on, that also constantly hummed with purple electricity. He had resorted to winding strips of kitchen roll over the light, but it didn’t work half of the time.

He was itching to use his powers, to make just one light blink for longer than what was normal, to make someone convulse wildly before dropping to the floor. And if Wilbur did not stop eating specifically Tommy’s curry pot noodles, he would be on the receiving end of that electrical shock. 

At breakfast that morning, Phil had somehow noticed Tommy’s constant foot tapping.

“You alright mate? You keep on bouncing your leg.” Phil questioned softly, turning to Tommy, his odd amalgamation of fruits and yogurt left to the past for a moment. 

“Yeah? Why wouldn't I be?” Tommy prayed that Phil did not just see his eye twitch involuntarily. Phil winced. Yeah he noticed it. Unfortunately.

“You’ve just been a little jumpy lately. Is there something bothering you?” Phil urged on gently. “Oh I don’t know, maybe I’m just in a random ass school, I’m a villain away from home, in someone else’s home and I’m not allowed to use my powers?” Tommy soat back.

Phil recoiled backwards. “Okay, well, how can we work on this together? How can I help you?” 

Tommy raised a very judging eyebrow at him. “Which Facebook mom therapist did you get that line off of?” He hopped off the stool, slinging his bag over his back.

“Thanks so much Philza Minecraft, but I think I’m going to walk to school today.” Tommy was halfway out the door, still keeping an eye on Phil, who was now sitting alone at the breakfast bar,he shut the door.

Tommy arrived in his Monday morning science class in a bit of a mood.

Tubbo was ranting in his ear about something to do with the mechanisms of a car door lifting up, an image of the ‘Back To The Future’ car flashed in his mind. When he was younger, Dream almost forced him to watch the three original movies with him.

Normally, Tommy would shockingly be interested in Tubbos early morning science rant. But his mood was at a considerably low point.

“There is a clutch at the bottom of the door, and-“ Tommy turned his head to Tubbo, effectively making Tubbo look straight into his cerulean spheres, trailing off his sentence. “Tubbo, man, I’m just really not in the mood today, alright? I’m trying my best to listen but I’m just not into it.”

A small look of hurt crossed Tubbo’s face. Tommy thought he worded his words gently, but maybe not. “Oh! Okay. Sorry, I’ll stop.”

Tommy nodded appreciatively, just in time for his No.1 enemy, Ms.Prenderghast to walk in. 

Unfortunately for Tommy, his irritated emotions did not disperse after Tubbo had stopped talking. And someone decided it would be a great idea to throw their burst pen into the bin. From their seat. While Ms.Prenderghast was close to it.

Ink spewed from the pen and into her hair as it collided with her forehead. The person in question's eyes were blown wide, Tommy just snorted, he could bet that the cogs were turning in their brain for an excuse to use.

A snorted laugh was apparently not the right move to make for this science teacher, because she immediately shot her head up, pointing a bony finger straight at Tommy.

“ You! What on earth makes you think you should throw a pen at a teacher!?” She spat, under the light you could see the spit particles flying in the air.

Tommy’s face painted into a disgusted look, he raised his hands in defence. “Miss, I appreciate the flattery, but do you really think I could toss a pen that far from all the way back here?”

“You cheeky little brat! That is no way to speak to a member of staff! I can get you suspended for that!” She curled her lips inwards, still jabbing her finger in his direction with every word.

Tommy, for once, contained his laughter at the face.

A nervous voice sounded from near the front. “Miss? It wasn’t Tommy, I didn’t mean to throw it at you.” The teacher only spared them a glance before her attention was right back on Tommy.

“No need to defend them, Delilah. We all know that Tommy is the main trouble maker in this school.” She came down from behind her desk, walking through the class and straight up to Tommy. He folded his arms.

“Where are you from, Thomas?” She asked calmly, resting her forearms on Tommy’s heavily doodled desk.

Tubbo sank down in his seat. “Why do you need to know?” He raised an eyebrow. The teacher looked smug. “I know people like you- what are you? European?”

Tommy scowled. He had a feeling that she was going to go down a route that would end up with him in the principal's office again. Tubbo went to open his mouth, but Ms.Prenderghast raised a silencing finger at him.

“I know, people like you, Tomas. You steal, you rob, you murder. But that’s just not going to be tolerated here. You’re in America now, alright? And right now, you're going to shut up, and learn some since, mkay?” She turned around on her heel and started up the lesson again like nothing had happened.

The zapping within his body began to quickly accelerate through his nerves.

His right eye twitched. The light at the front of the lab blinked. 

Tubbo reached over, possibly to comfort Tommy by placing a hand on his shoulder, but with the click from beneath the desk and the soft clank of something metal and heavy being dropped on the floor, Tommy was up and out of his seat.

Ms. Prenderghast turned around from the board, facing Tommy’s angry face. 

She sighed and shook her head, “What is it now, Thomas?”

Tommy grabbed a conical flask from the desk, and smashed it right into her face.

He could specifically hear Tubbo shouting “What the fuck!” From the back of the room. Star student, Delilah, stood up, rushing over to the teacher. She pulled out her phone to call an ambulance as Ms.Prenderghast twisted and twined in pain on the floor.

Tommy turned his attention away from the commotion, and  made his way out the door. Tubbo ran up behind him, Tall Guy  also appeared seconds later.

“Tommy! What the hell did you just do?” Tubbo shouted, closing the door to the calamity that was occurring just behind it.

“I gave her exactly what she deserved. Bitch.” Tommy scowled, continuing on his way to the Principal's office. Tubbo trailed after him, Tall Guy was a little slower, but he was still keeping up. “Tommy you can’t just smash a teachers head open because you don’t like her!” He whined as the secretary gave them all a wide eyed look.

He sat down in the chair in front of Mr.Dudes wild hair. Tall Guy and Tubbo stood at his side. “Tubbo, Tommy, Ranboo. What can I do for you guys? I’m pretty sure you're supposed to be in period one.” Mr.Dude started.

Tubbo immediately spoke up. “Tommy’s after smashing Ms.Prenderghast’s head open with a conical flask.”  He jabbed a thumb in Tommy’s direction. Ranboo just held his wrist awkwardly.

Mr.Dudes eyebrows raised in surprise. “Oh my god? Is she okay?” Tubbo nodded. “Yeah, he’s fine.” He lied. Very much a lie. Mr.Dude slowly turned to Tommy. “Anything to say for yourself? I think we all know what the next word that comes out of your mouth should be, Tommy.”

“Fuck? Because I was thinking more of a sentence than just a word.” Tommy shrugged, sinking down in the seat. “The use of bad language is against our school policy.” Mr. Dude narrowed his eyes.

“U-Uh sir? I think attacking a teacher is also a very big breach in the school's policy.” Ranboo tried, his voice barely above a whisper. Tommy leaned forward in his seat, palms gripping the chairs arms. “Shut up Ranboo!” He hissed, aggressively narrowing his eyes.

“Tommy, it’s unfortunate that I have to say this in front of your friends, but if you keep up this dangerous behaviour, the authorities will be getting involved.” Mr.Dude spoke sternly. The morning sun had been covered by a cloud, casting a slight shadow over Mr.Dudes face- causing his eyes to glimmer as though they were neon. Although Tommy hadn’t noticed, Tubbo and Ranboo glanced at each other wearily.

Tommy raised an eyebrow at Mr.Dude’s statement. “How are they not already involved? Swear I just made a teacher blind like 10 minutes ago.”

Mr. Dude suddenly stood up, pressing his hands against the desk to help himself up. “Right- out Tommy.” Tommy gave him a puzzled look.

Tommy sat in reception alone for around an hour. 

He saw the paramedics rush through the school hallways, later coming out with Ms.Prenderghast. She was moaning and groaning about how much pain she was in, and when they passed the reception, Ms.Prenderghast faced his way. Tommy gave the best insult he could think of, a little wave goodbye to his favourite science teacher.

Not too long after, Phil showed up. Not just him though, Technoblade and Wilbur were also there. He could feel the embarrassment radiating off Phil. Something began to stir up in his gut, and his head began to feel too full, like a frontal headache was beginning to form. Wilbur gave him a slight look of disappointment before turning to go into the office, following after his family.

When they returned from the deep depths of the Principals office, Phil look mortified. Wilbur was clearly itching to say something, and Techno? Well he was Techno. Completely blank faced.

As they began to walk out of the school,Tubbo ran up to him, stopping him right at the door. The family walked ahead. 

They were both silent for a moment,the quiet sound of the breeze distracting them from their thoughts as time ticked past in the millisecond. A contrast from the grey, red and beige insides of the school to the open grey pavement, sunny skies and quiet trees drastically changed the lighting on the pairs faces.

“Tommy-“ Tubbo grabbed his forearm gently, “Promise me, that you won’t use your powers against the innocent.” He leaned it slightly closer, whispering just next to Tommy’s ear. 

Tommy’s gut stirred viciously. Tubbo had seen his power restrainer break in the science lab.

Tommy gulped, nodding softly.  

“Tommy! Come on!” Phil called him from outside, Tommy whipped his head around to Phil, who was leaning on the open car door, Techno and Wilbur were already seated inside. Tubbo let go of his arms, leaving Tommy to quickly walk down the steps, glueing his eyes to the concrete steps as he approached Phil.

Tubbo shook his head, folding his arms and turning on his heel. “Woah!” He stumbled back a little. Ranboo stood right in front of him, quickly raising his hands in surrender. “Sorry- I didn’t know you were going to turn around that quickly.”

“Whatever, it’s alright.” Tubbo jerked his head in the direction of a random hallway. “Walk?” He asked. Ranboo nodded his head following Tubbo quietly as they walked.

“What are we going to do? Will we tell the rest of them?” Tubbo whispered, desperately pleading for Ranboo’s help in the midst of his moral battle. 

Ranboo looked confused for a beat, furrowing his brows- opening his mouth, insinuating that he was going to ask ‘what are you talking about?’ However, his expression quickly changed. “Oh. Are we really going to talk about this here?”

Tubbo rolled his eyes, dragging Ranboo into a nearby janitor's closet. “This better for you?” He spat into the darkness, Ranboo’s glow-in-the-dark red and green pupils was the only thing that gave the indication that he nodded his head.

“I don’t know. I mean- a massive villain being able to use his powers again after smashing glass over a teacher's head? Not so good.” Ranboo shrugged to the darkness.

Tubbo sighed. “He hasn’t gone immediately to running away and blowing shit up, so I think that’s a sign he's changing?” Ranboo gave a small warble of doubt. “Oh! I have an idea! What about he goes to the tower? To see how the heroes work! It might inspire him.” Ranboo suggested excitedly.

“Are you joking? That’s a joke, right?” Tubbo was stupefied by his partner's stupidity. Ranboo wilted, his bright eyes darting to the floor.

“I don’t think letting a villain into where heroes work and live would be a bright idea. He’s a total hellion.” Tubbo flicked his hand out to no one in particular.

The sound of the bell was muffled.

“What will we do? We technically just let him walk free with no power suppressor on.” The worry leaked through Tubbo’s voice. He rested an arm on the arm that was wrapped around his torso, biting on his already short nails.

“Maybe this is a good thing? Maybe it will make him less uptight, maybe accept the situation he is in- see it as something less of a blockade to his future, but more as something guiding him to the right path?” Ranboo said softly.

Tubbo scoffed. “Right, out you go Jim Rohn.” He lightly shoved Ranboo out of the abyss of the janitor's closet and out into the endlessly dirty school hallway.

A student gave them an odd look, looking up from their phone. “Homosexual activity in the janitors closet is wild.” They shook their head, continuing on the way down the hall.

Tubbo made an awkward face to Ranboo, the one where you show your bottom teeth after something awkward has happened.

“Fuck.” Was all Tubbo said.

Chapter Text

A door slam sounded throughout the quiet Watson household.

Phil threw his keys down on the little dish on the drawers next to the door. The dish also held Techno’s keys, which had a little crown, a yellow ribbon and a squid keychain. Wilbur wasn’t allowed a car. Not after what happened in 2018.

“She was a right twat! I gave her what she deserved. “Tommy seethed, pointing an index finger right at Phil as Wilbur and Techno stood at either side of him.

“It doesn’t matter what she was like! You can’t just put a teacher into a hospital like that!” Phil held out his hands in exasperation. Tommy sat up at that, glaring at Phil with the might of UY Scuti.

“You don’t understand! She fucking- ugh.” Tommy groaned, flopping back onto the sofa.

“You need to grow up, Tommy. You can be mad at everyone and fight anyone in your sight your entire life.” Wilbur spoke calmly from the kitchen, where Technoblade was behind him, making a coffee while he was making a cup of tea.

“Yes I can! Watch me! I’ll actually do that until I die just to spite you, Wilbur Soot.” Tommy narrowed his eyes, turning around to lean his arms on the back of the couch.

“You know what? Tomorrow, you can go with Techno and Wilbur to the tower. Maybe seeing their maturity-“ Phil’s mouth closed for a moment. “Techno’s maturity will help you make wiser decisions when someone annoys you.”

“Ey?” Tommy was dumbfounded.

“Yup. I bet you’ll learn something educational inside the heroes tower.” Phil nodded to himself, congratulating his mind for conjuring up a smart idea to settle a rowdy, obstinate child. He moved into the kitchen, scanning the cabinets for something to make for dinner.

Curry maybe? They had a surplus of rice thanks to Wilbur’s terrible online grocery shopping skills.

“Are you joking? Wilbur has the backbone of a chocolate eclair! He won’t teach me anything!” Tommy protested, standing right on the border of the kitchen.

Technoblade chuckled, quietly moving past Wilbur- towards the living room with a steaming hot mug of coffee in hand.

“Hey!” Wilbur exclaimed at his twin in dismay.

“Well if not Wilbur then Tech, or any of the other heroes in the tower. Even the janitors of secretaries or assistants will teach you something!” Phil sang, taking down a packet of microwaveable rice. Curry it is then.

Tommy huffed, turning around on his heel and stomping up the stairs. “I’m never ever leaving this room! You can’t make me go to that ugly, shiny, dick-shaped tower!” Tommy yelled, presumably inside his room.

“You’re still going to have to come down for dinner!” Phil called back up to him, a visible grin on his face.

Banter like this ceased when Techno and Wilbur grew up, it was nice to have a younger s̶o̶n̶ person in the house.

“Fuck you!” The door slammed.

Phil laughed at that.

✵

Tommy made it known he was upset by very, very loudly groaning from the backseat of Techno’s large black BMW.

Phil stood at the door like a proud mother, waving them off while holding a tea-towel at his waist.

“Your jobs are shit.” Tommy grumbled, folding his arms and sinking down in the seat. Wilbur turned around to face Tommy from the front seat. “It’s just not though, we help people, we hold charity events- we even sometimes donate our salaries to charities and orphanages!” He argued.

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Do you actually though? Or is that the orphanages closer to the higher districts? Are those charities just donating to people who have enough money to cure their sicknesses by themselves?”

Wilbur’s mouth opened to retort, but it closed. He turned back around in his seat and didn’t open his mouth again the entire trip to the tower.

Technoblade drove the group into an underground car park, the yellow overhead lights shone across Tommy’s face as they found a parking spot.

Tommy hugged his arms tightly round his torso as they stepped out of the car- Techno locking it with a loud “beep!” and a flash of the lights. The air was stale and stagnant that far underground, and Tommy couldn’t help but feel the chill as the three of them walked towards a small, rickety elevator at the end of the car park.

A yellow light cast over them, and the mirror was too dirty to check yourself in. “Is this like the poor persons lift? Why is it so shitty in here…” Tommy questioned, scrunching up his nose.

Wilbur rolled his eyes. “They put too much money on the upper floors. Wait till we get up there, you’ll see the difference.”

True to his word, when the big metal doors slid open, Tommy’s ears were met with voices of coversation and the hustle and bustle of the hero tower.

Something akin to excitement settled in his heart.

Wilbur stepped forward out of the rickety elevator, which was carefully placed out of view from the regular commuters in the tower. He placed an arm on Tommy’s shoulder, making the kid still for a moment. In his peripheral vision, he spotted Techno going towards the clock in machine next to the elevator that led to the upper, hero populated floors.

“Don’t even think about trying a single thing, Tommy. There are cameras all over the place.” He whispered, directing Tommy towards the large receptionist desk in between the two elevators.

“Hey, Wilbur. Who’s this?” A round-faces woman with ginger hair and slight green eyeshadow pointed at Tommy.

“Hi, Cleo- this is Tommy! He’s going to be with me and Techno today.” Cleo nodded, looking away from Wilbur’s face and to her computer screen, wordlessly typing away with her forest green acrylic nails.

She nodded slowly, before sliding a visitor card over the top of the marble wall that left the rest of her body unseen. “Have a good day in the tower, Tommy.” She smiled.

Wilbur walked ahead, taking a card from his pocket and sliding it through a machine, which gave a tiny bell jingle to indicate that Wilbur had clocked in for the day.

In the much cleaner elevator, with a much cleaner light and mirror, the silence was resounding. Until a certain nihilistic teenager broke it.

“So, Wilbur Soot, what am I doing today?” Tommy asked innocently, interlocking his hands and shifting back and forth onto the balls of his feet.

“Just sorting papers, we might even let you meet some heroes later.” Wilbur glanced at him. Tommy, despite the scowl facade he was showing Wilbur, was buzzing beneath his skin.

The light- the light just above him,combined with the energy his own body is creating, could create enough energy to put Wilbur into a coma.

He could even cut off the electricity powering the elevator, making it plummet down and down and down-

Ding!

The elevator doors shuddered open, revealing a wide, white corridor with doors lining each side. Another elevator faced him on the other side.

Techno was already out in the carpeted corridor, stack of manila folders and report sheets in hand.

When Tommy and Wilbur approached him, Techno attempted to drop the stacks into Tommy’s arms. Tommy watched them fall to the floor next to his red converse.

“I’m not picking those up.” He pointed to the stack.

Much to his dismay, Technoblade made him pick up each and every paper, and bring them to their office room.

The office room itself was nothing special, a projector at the top of the room, a mediocre amount of plants dotting around each corner, and a large grey meeting situated in the middle. The only thing that really caught his attention was the large picture window, spanning the entire length of the wall on the right side.

He let out a quiet ‘woah’ at the bright skyline. It was early in the morning, but the skyline was nothing short of beautiful. “Is this what you guys look at every morning?” He turned to the two brothers, who were busy organising other miscellaneous papers. They both turned to him at the same time. “Yeah?” Wilbur answered before Technoblade could even think.

“How could you ever be sad? This should be a painting.” Tommy spread his arms wide, indicating to the two other men in the room what he was looking at.

“We’re not sad, the only thing I’m anguished about is having to sort all of these case files from A-Z” Technoblade slumped down in his chair “I don’t even know what that means, but I have nothing else to do so I’ll help.” Tommy slipped into his own chair…approximately seven away from Wilbur and Technoblade.

“Why the fuck are you sitting so far away? We need your help with these, child.” Wilbur narrowed his eyes, splitting the pile between himself and Technoblade.

“First of all, not a child, second of all, you too seem infectious.” Tommy jabbed a finger in both of their directions.

Wilbur rolled his eyes, his head going with him as he once again split his and Technos pile, siding the sheets down the table to Tommy. “We literally know your legal age, and you are barely a teenager.”

“Die.” Was Tommy’s brilliantly thought of response, as he began flipping through: “CASE FILE: ROBBERY ON CLEMENTS STREET, 2.34 AM”

It was pretty mediocre in Tommy’s well refined, teenage taste. Nothing spectacular happened. Phantom shrieked once, and the criminal went running. Within about three case files almost identical in details, Tommy grew bored.

“Why don’t you ever play any music? It’s absolutely fucking miserable in here.” Tommy shared his thoughts, noting as a storm cloud began to roll in over the city skyline. “Too distracting.” Was Technoblade blank answer.

“Surely you guys have some music taste?” Tommy questioned, while his legs swung over the spinning office chair. “Classical.” Techno shrugged. “I like too much music-” Techno scoffed. “I suppose I like rock, and indie bands.” Wilbur nodded thoughtfully to himself.

Tommy opened his mouth to reply, but Technoblade stopped him. “You don’t even have to say anything, we know you like music.” He said, waving one file report around.

“Woah- is that mine?” Tommy exclaimed in awe, racing around the table to snatch it from Technoblades hands. To his delight, it was his file. The top read: “CASE FILE: MATRIX”

On it was the details of an incident that happened when he was 12. Apparently, spray painting a government building with a bright, neon zombie drawing that stretched across the entire front of the building was a federal crime. Also playing loud music while doing so was a crime.

Tommy chuckled to himself. “Yeah, I remeber that.” Wilbur groaned, speaking, but not looking up from his work. “Don’t even talk about that, I’m still traumatised from the amount of work it took to scrub off that spray paint.”

Techno chuckled. “If you look closely, some of it is still in between the brick.” Tommy looked amazed, “Are you serious?” He asked in awe. “Do you not feel any remorse?” Wilbur raised an eyebrow. Tommy’s face contorted. “No? It was funny- for Halloween. Duh.”

“Right well, you can sort all of yours then if your so funny-“ Wilbur began, but was cut off by Tommy. “No! What the fuck! I’m just a poor, innocent boy! I can’t sort out all of my- emphasis as all- fucking- report thing!” He complained, standing up from his chair.

Wilbur’s mouth stretched into a dark grin “So you're admitting that you are just a little boy who doesn’t want to do work?” Tommy paused, mouth opening- and then closing. He scowled at Wilbur, before rooting through a stack of papers.

They sat in a comfortable silence for half an hour- comfortable for Wilbur and Techno, uncomfortable for Tommy. There was the occasional funny report, one where he had strung a hero up by the back of their costume onto a lamppost- but others Tommy would much rather not sort out.

“Why are you sorting all these out? Surely you don’t need to- most of these are like, three years old. Wouldn’t they already be sorted?” Tommy asked, agitation bleeding through his voice.

“They’re doing a system update or something- preparing to move non-important incidents online.” Wilbur shrugged, grabbing another from the pile just to place it in another. Tommy raised an eyebrow. “And the more important ones? Where are they going?” Wilbur thought for a moment. “They’re going down to the newly built government building a couple blocks down.” Tommy bummed, nodding his head as he flicked a paper over.

He didn’t see Technoblade giving Wilbur a stern look, while Wilbur silently mouthed ‘What?’ with his dark brown eyebrows furrowed.

Tommy snorted “Hey this one is funny-“-

Fat drops of rain rolled down the window.

Tommy’s wrists hurt.

And he was hungry.

Technoblade and Wilbur had sorted out the massive stack they originally had into neat, alphabetically sorted piles. Apparently, all you had to do was scan in reports, but that was for the Tech department, who were currently working on the ancient ‘Hermit’ file reports, from the old heroes.

The old heroes were already dead and gone, they were at their peak in the late 70’s and early 80’s, but after the death of Mumbo, everything went downhill.

Apparently, there weren’t any heroes for about 12 years, vigilantes doing what they could, where they could along with the police force. And then it was Phil’s time of heroes, and now Wilbur and Techno’s.

Speaking of Phil, Tommy wonders what he is doing in the house. Has been left alone for like, six hours after all.

Technoblade sat the last “Z” lettered file on top of the stack, letting out a long sigh as he did so.

“I’m hungry.” Tommy complained, swinging his feet off of the chair. (His feet didn't actually touch the floor, but Tommy just chalked that up to the fact that all the heroes are giants.)

Wilbur hummed in agreement. Techno stood up. “I'm going to get some food from the canteen, do you want anything, Wilbur?” Technoblade asked, pointedly ignoring Tommy.

In his mind, Tommy was still a criminal.

A heartless villain that used his childish demeanour to worm his way into people’s hearts, make sure he’s left his mark, attempt to get what he wants and then he dips. Or kill them. Since he is a villain that has killed before. A part of him was happy that Wilbur made him sort out all of his incident reports, as Techno made sure he had included some of the worst cases in there- maybe it would smarten the kid up, make him realise that villian life isn’t all it’s made up to be. Technoblade had watched him closely, watched for a slight change in expression as he read the reports, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

All Tommy did was laugh at his own stupid deeds that inconvenienced innocent people.

“No,” Wilbur shook his head. “You know I can’t eat half of that stuff. I hate the food anyway.” Techno shrugged “Suit yourself.” “Take whatever you're getting to go, me and Tommy will lock up, get food and take the bus home.” Wilbur shouted after his brother, he got a noncommittal grunt in response.

Tommy looked expectantly at Wilbur. “You’re not just gonna…lunge across the table and attack me are you?” He asked hesitantly. Wilbur looked dumbfounded, giving a short, surprised laugh. “What? No? If I did want to kill you, I would’ve done it in the comfort of my own home.” Wilbur looked over his shoulder as he shrugged his denim, sheep fur collar coat on his shoulders.

“I don’t know. What if you don’t want a vengeful spirit haunting your gaff?” Tommy followed Wilbur out of the room, switching the light switch. The lights on the hallway were much more blinding in the evening sun as they were earlier.

“Jesus, Tommy. We’re not the new Sam and Colby.” Wilbur shook his head, opening nearby doors to make sure nobody was still in their section of the building. “Who?” Was all Tommy said, with his hands behind his back, leaning forward next to Wilbur.

Wilbur turned to him, opening his mouth to say something, but he then shook his head. Realising that Tommy wouldn’t exactly understand what ‘Youtube ghost hunting’ is. “Nevermomd.” Was the last station his train of thought ended at.

Tommy shrugged it off as they made their way towards the elevator. Once they stepped inside, Wilbur’s stomach rumbled. “What do you want to get to eat?” Tommy paused, thinking very hard for a moment.

“I don’t know.”

Wilbur raised an eyebrow. “Like Chinese food, Indian? Take away or something?” Tommy have him a disgusted look as the elevator began to descend. “No, man, I’m not eating fucking sushi.”

Wilbur laughed. “That’s Japanese, Tommy.” Tommy looked thoughtful. “I don’t even know where Japan is. Actually, I don’t even know where India is.” Wilbur gasped quite loudly as they entered the mostly empty lobby, only a few stragglers dotted around on some sofas.

The warm sun had mostly set by now, but Tommy didn’t mourn the loss. He liked the city better at night. Especially when it was raining.

“Right then, geography lesson when we get back to the house.” Tommy whines loudly. “No bitch! I’m hungry- I want food not geography.” Wilbur rolled his eyes.

“Fine then, we’ll just go to McDonalds.” They both walked out into the cool air, night wind gently moving across their faces as cheeks grew rosy. “Oh? the one with the big ‘M’?” Tommy asked, drawing an M in the air with his index finger.

“You’ve never been to McDonalds? It’s like the staple food of America.” Small drops of rain began to patter down onto the grey pavement in front of them. “What is it? I mean like- like what food do they have?” Tommy questioned. “Hm. Burgers, chips- nuggets. I don’t really know how to explain McDonalds to someone who’s never been there before.” Wilbur answered, pulling Tommy’s hood over his blonde curls, blocking him from the rain.

“I won’t get seriously ill from their food, will I?” Tommy’s brows furrowed as he thought through each outcome from eating from the mysterious food chain.

Wilbur shrugged. “You might. I suppose we’ll both know if I hear you shitting your guts out tonight.” Tommy cackled, knocking against Wilbur’s arm as the smell of salt overtook his sense of smell. “Ew, Wilbur.” Wilbur smiled down at him.

The place was mostly empty, save from a few groups of teenagers loitering around tables. Box of 20 nuggets woefully empty, having been devoured in 5 minutes or less.

“I’ll just get a happy meal for you. It’s like the most basic meal you could order here.” Wilbur said aloud, folding his arms as he looked at the menu, even though he didn’t need to.

“Will it make me happy?” Tommy looked expectantly at Wilbur. Wilbur shrugged yet again. “Depends. Nuggets or burger?” Tommy looked at him in confusion. “What?”

Wilbur laughed. “Do you want to have a cheeseburger or nuggets?” Tommy’s cheeks heated up in embarrassment as he turned away. “Oh. Uhm, nuggets I guess.”

Eventually, their number was called out into the empty store.

It was a wonder it was so empty, but to be fair, they had walked quite a while away from the Heroes tower. Wilbur didn’t like restaurants in the big city, they made him begin to feel agitated and anxious. But Tommy didn’t need to know that.

Tommy looked at the bright red cardboard box in his hand with an indescribable feeling.

It was something so stupid and small- literal food.

But to Tommy- it was a small sliver of freedom. A small break away from Dream.

Away from his childhood- one where something as small as getting something to eat from a fast-food chain restaurant wasn’t allowed. Ever.

The pair began to walk slowly towards the bus stop, food in hand, with Wilbur digging for the bottom of the bag chips. Their bus back to near Phil’s house was in about- half an hour. But that was okay. They would enjoy the walk.

“Well? How’s your first taste of the American diet?” Wilbur nudged Tommy, but he didn’t advert his gaze from the batter-coated nuggets.

Tommy nodded in response- still happily chewing away on his chips.

Comfortable silence enveloped the two as they sat down at an empty bus stop, a single, sad light built into the shelter roof illuminated the desolate street, only the occasional car driving past dim shop windows.

“Hey,” Wilbur rested his hand on the fourteen year olds shoulder. “You okay?”

Tommy’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. “Do you like me- As in- do you like me as a person?” Tommy asked softly, letting his vulnerability be shown to Wilbur- unbeknownst to him, though.

Wilbur chuckled. “Yeah, I do. Some rando in school say something to you?” Tommy idly kicked his feet. “No. School’s fine. I mean- you let me into your house, you just got me food and you're taking care of me.” Tommy paused.

“Do you not know who I am? What i’ve done?”

Wilbur’s brows tightened, a pit began to open in Tommy’s stomach. He should really just keep his mouth and thoughts to himself.

“We’ve all done bad things, Tommy. Sure, some may argue you’ve done worse.” A panicked expression washed over Tommy’s face. “But you haven’t known any difference.”

“I’m going to be perfectly honest- I barely know you. I know you don’t like sitting at the dinner table, and I know you don’t like waking up early. I also know that you like loud music- and eating the spiciest noodles you can get your hands on.”

“I don’t know you, but I’ve figured out that you’re not a bad person. I didn’t want to accept the person behind the villain when we first met, but I know now that you’re capable of being your own person, capable of knowing that anger and destruction is not the only thing you're capable of.”

Wilbur stopped his rambling, looking down at Tommy- who had small tears running down his cheeks.

“Jesus- sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry!” Wilbur panicked, raising his hands defensively. Tommy let out a wet laugh.

“I’m not crying. They are tears of laughter from his many times you said ‘but’” Wilbur scoffed good-naturedly. Knocking shoulders with Tommy in a brotherly manner, their bus pulled up in front of them.

“Yeah, yeah. Focus on that, why don’t you.” Tommy scrubbed his eyes and the two of them sat at the back of the bus, laughing and joking about whatever came to mind until they reached their stop.

That night, Tommy settled into the silence of the guest room contently. Content with the relationship he had finally recognised with Wilbur- and content with his new found love for McDonalds.

Not so content with the fact that he had to face school again tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Sliding into the seat next to Tubbo and Ranboo just before the roll-call was more than embarrassing. Tommy seethed with bubbling anger as they both looked at him, gobsmacked.

“What? Take a picture and I’ll fucking last longer.” He spat, glaring at the two.

“Tommy, we thought you got expelled!” Tubbo exclaimed, and the teacher stopped at the name “ayesha” for a moment, looking at the trio at the back before continuing.

Tubbo shrunk down in his seat- Ranboo picked up where he had left off. “Dude, you smashed a teacher's head in!”  

Tommy rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t hard, I could literally see her scalp with how thin that hair was, not to mention the bald spots-“ “Thomas!” The teacher shouted from the front.

Tommy perked up, looking at his annoyed teacher. “Yeah?” His teacher shook her head. “You have to say ‘here’ when the roll is being called.”

“Can’t you already see I’m here though? Surely you know my face by now, it’s kinda hard to forget.” Tommy grinned. “Don’t get smart with me young man, you already have enough eyes on you with what you did to Ms.Prenderghast.”

Tommy raised his hands in defence “My bad.” He conceded.

“Did you not get in trouble with your Dad?” Tubbo asked, leaning over his desk. Tommy paused, his brain refusing to compute what Tubbo had just asked him. But Tommy doesn’t think, he talks. “He’s not my-“ never mind, he did think.

Tommy was 110% sure that these two regular civilians didn’t know that the man they had seen at the school the other day was not his Dad, and in fact the retired hero Phoneix.

He also did not want the two possibly freinds he had ever had in his life to figure out that he was the reckless murderer villian Matrix, who deserved to be in the tiniest cell that Pandora could offer.

“My dad wasn’t really that mad. He was just disappointed.” Tommy settled on, he folded his arms and began to swing on his chair against the wall.

He closed his eyes, not noticing the fact that Ranboo and Tubbo glanced at eachother, a small smile tugging at Tubbo’s lips before he schooled his expression back into a neutral one, thanks to the terrified look that Ranboo gave him.

“Really? No way. I would probably get battered if I ever cracked my teachers head open.” Tubbo sighed, slinging his bag over his shoulder as the bell rung, signalling for every student in the school to begin their commute to first period.

As Tommy walked out, he knocked shoulders with the purple hoodie kid. The purple kid turned around, shouting “Watch where your going, blondie!”

Tommy raised his lip. “Fuck you! You’re blonde too!” He shouted over the waves of teenage voices. Purple kid just made a face at him, Tommy stuck out his tongue in retaliation. Maybe it was childish, but he didn’t care all that much. He did it to Phil and Wilbur all the time.

He quickly caught up with Tubbo and Ranboo, just before the teacher said whoever came in after him was late. 

The next three classes went by in a breeze, and before he knew it, it was time for lunch. 

Sometimes, he brought a snack from Phil’s house, other times he bought a roll or something from the canteen, before joining his only two friends at a table somewhere in the vast space of students.

Today though, he had a nice, juicy red apple for lunch. He never paid attention to what Tubbo and Ranboo had, though he just assumed they ate.

(they didn’t, they got food somewhere else after school, but Tommy wouldn’t notice. Not for a while at least. “You two never eat, it’s freaking me out.” “We do eat, just not in school.” “Okay you weirdos. School food too good for you?-“)

Ranboo and Tubbo were talking about something random, probably something about computers, or another thing that they spoke about in code, and when Tommy asked about it, neither of them had a straight answer.

Tommy was zoning out, biting into his apple slowly, chewing and swallowing languidly- when someone came up to their table, their own group of friends.

Tubbo and Ranboo’s conversation teetered off. “Can we help you?” Tubbo asked, raising an eyebrow at the purple hoodie wearing boy.

“Nah, this isn’t with you.” Purple hoodie turned to Tommy. “You think you're funny? Do you?” They spat.

Tommy barely looked up from his apple. “I mean, I hope. What’s your deal?” Purple hoodie frowned. “Making a scene in the hallway is your idea of funny?” Tommy rolled his eyes “No, you're just weird. And man that we barely touched shoulders.”

Purple hoodie put his hand on the table, leaning over Tommy. A cacophony of ‘oohs’ emanated from behind the purple clad teenager.

“Listen here blondie, you may think that you already rule this school-“ “i literally came here like 2 weeks ago-“ “but you’re only new meat. And people like me and my friends-“ he turned around to gesture to his friends. “Will eat you up.”

Tommy let out a small laugh. “That’s weird as fuck, don’t say that.” The guy receded back, pursing his lips as a flush of embarrassment washed over his cheeks.

“Stop acting like you're going to break into song and dance about how much you don’t like me. I don't care about you. We literally just brushed shoulders in the hallway.” Tommy said nonchalantly.

He felt the wind of the punch before it collided with his nose.

Tommy groaned, Tubbo pushed himself up from the bench, a very clear “What the fuck!” exploding from his mouth.

Tommy’s head reeled back. He felt hot, sanguine blood run through his enclasped hands.

“What’s wrong goldie locks? Somebody spit in your porridge?” Purple boys friend laughed, distantly, Tommy heard him say “Good one, Walli.” “Oh look! He’s running off. Bet you hit him too hard, Purpled.” So that’s who it was, Purpled.

Tommy grabbed into a metal food tray, a drip of his blood stained against it. “Stupid fucking name.” Tommy muttered, blood from his nose going through his teeth as he talked.

His powers activated beneath his fingers, racing through the metal.

Purpled turned back to look at him. Arms folded, looking smug. 

He could see Tubbo approaching him, hands raised as if he was going to stop Tommy, Ranboo stood beside their bench, looking more than nervous.

“Tommy don’t-“ Tubbo started, but before he could finish his words, Tommy had already hit Purpled over the head, sending electric volts through his entire body.

Purpleds group including Walli backed away, covering their mouths as their friend flopped onto the ground, each hair on his body standing on end.

With blood now dripping onto his hoodie, Tommy glared at Purpled’s friends.

They each began to feel weak with worry, some holding their stomachs as anxiety took over each and every of their thoughts.

One by one, as the anxiety intensified, they began to sprint to the bathroom, likely to throw their worries up in a stall.

Tubbo grabbed Tommy by the arm, ceasing his gaze on the group of friends, Purpled still sprawled out at his feet, unconscious from the amount of energy that had fried each of his cells just moments ago.

“Tommy! What the fuck- are you okay? Is- is he okay?” Tubbo whispered the last part, looking around- weary of all the eyes on the group of three, (four, if you included Purpled’s unconscious body) at the centre of the canteen.

By now, somebody had already snitched to Mr.Dude, who now looked very disgruntled at the doors of the canteen. 

He held one door open, gesturing with his head for Tommy to follow him out.

For the second time in a week, paramedics rushed past him to collect someone who he had injured, to bring them to the hospital.

Tommy dragged his feet all the way to the nurses office, wiping his bloody nose on his sleeve angrily.

He sat on the small bed, the nurse silently, cleaning and wiping his bloody nose.

Mr.Dude sat in a chair next to him for a couple minutes- just- staring at him. 

Every once in awhile Tommy risked a glance to the principal, only to recede back as his stare turned into a glare.

All he said was “You keep going in this direction, you’re not just going to be expelled, you’ll be going back to jail.” 

Tommy shivered, but the nurse said he was okay to go back to class. And if any nose-bleeds happened again, that he should come back to the office.

Tommy didn’t go back to class.

Infact, he didn’t even stay in school.

Tommy just walked out of the front doors of the school. 

Something in the back of his mind told him that Mr.Dude was behind him. There was no calling if his name- or even a simple shout. So Tommy left, and walked all the way back to Phil’s house.

✵

When Phil turned around over the back of the sofa towards the door, his first question was: “What are you doing home?” Then filllowed by “How did you get home?” Then “What happened to your nose?” 

Tommy, as per usual, did not think before he spoke.

“A kid punched me, so I electrocuted him.”

“And maybe made his friends shit their pants.” Tommy moved his head to the right slightly, eyes raised towards the ceiling, like he was recounting the events comedically.

That statement was proven to be true, as Phil stood up from the couch, Tommy let out a small chuckle, arms folded as he remembered the looks on the friends faces.

Before Phil could ask any questions, Technoblade asked the question the two (three now, if you included Wilbur, who was standing on the stairs, a mystified look on his face) men were all thinking.

“What do you mean by electrocuted?” He raised an eyebrow, walking towards Tommy, with his arms tightly folded in a menacing manner.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop by a degree or two, Tommy was unclear whether that was from Techno’s power, or if it was the result of his own feelings.

“Well- I hit him over the head with a tray- created static electricity.” Tommy decided on, shrugging his shoulders.

Wilbur piped up from the stairs, now slowly step by step approaching the house entrance. They were boxing him in. “Not quite sure that’s how static electricity is made, Tommy.”

Tommy’s head whipped over to face Wilbur. “Science is tough though, innit? Possibly could be a reason I also hit my science teacher over the head with something.”

All at once, it was as if each pair of eyes in the room darted to his  ankle. 

Tommy had the feeling that he needed to cross his legs over.

“Tommy, mate, where’s your power repressor?” Phil asked gently, but there was an edge of steel to his voice.

“Uh- what power repressor? Philza, king, retired hero, favourite member of this household- swear to god I’ve never had an anklet.” Tommy said sheepishly, something odd stirring up within his chest.

Something that screamed lying was wrong.

Suddenly, Technoblade moved Phil by his shoulder, whispering something in hushed words to him.

Wilbur came down the stairs, his equilibrium clearly knocked off kilter.  He approached Tommy with an air of confusion. “What the fuck did you do?” 

Tommy raised his hands in defence, “Nothing bad, I swear, Wilbur.” He was trying to hold onto what Wilbur said next, but he was too focused on reading Technoblade’s lips.

I…told- yo…you

He zoned out Wilbur’s voice of questioning- and also his frantically waving hand.

That he is 

Fuck- Wilbur’s stupid hand got in the way of Technoblades mouth- so Tommy grabbed it, a little harsher than he would have liked.

We should have just left him in that prison.

Wilbur has too much of a soft heart.

Wilbur receded back in pain, waving his hand about in the air frantically, like he had just been burned.

“Tommy! What the fuck! Ow?!” Wilbur exclaimed incredulously.

Tommy glared at Technoblade, his face set in a frown with his dark eyebrows furrowed. 

He began to step down the tiny steps that separated the rest of the house from the entrance, the stairs and the kitchen- the lights flickering as he went.

Tommy pointed a finger right at Technoblade chest. “Right then you little bitch . You go get locked up in a prison then you tell me what it’s like.” He spat, before quickly reeling back, his hand gestures wild and untamed.

“Actually, do me one better, you have your arms in the air by chains for like a day, with hot metal under your knees and people coming in by the hour to annoy you, then come back and talk to me.”

Technoblade kept his cool exterior intact. “I could if I wanted to- but there is a real difference between us, Tommy.”

Tommy scoffed. “Yeah? And what is that? My hair is blonde and yours is pink? I have blue eyes you have-“

“You are a villian. You deserved to be in prison for the rest of your life.”

Tommy moved backward, but his flame relit the second it was doused with water.

“Fuck you! You little pinkie-pie fuck!” Tommy began to stomp towards the door, breezing past a stunned-still Wilbur.

“You haven’t even experienced a real prison in your life- or a fucking crime! Your just a hero, who helps a couple elderly people cross a rode, saves a couple kittens, makes the government look good for a couple hours, the fucks off back home!” He yelled.

“Actually- it’s a wonder you even have a family to go back to, since you're clearly a heartless prick!” The door swung open.

“If I was your family, you’d already be thrown out to an orphanage, and stuck with someone horrible for the rest of your life- like me.” 

The door slammed shut.

Chapter Text

The door swung open.

Technoblade came charging out, ignoring the shouts from his two family members inside the house.

He quickly caught up to the raging teen, and grabbed him by the wrist.

“Don’t you think you’re going anywhere-“

Tommy’s head turned around to face him, a dark look in his eyes.

It wasn’t like any other glare he had playfully given during car rides- or when they spotted each other before Technoblade had to go to work.

No- this one, was pure anger.

Pain zapped up Technoblade’s spine, but he barely faltered. A wince of pain farting across his usually stoic facial features.

He was too focused on the pain wracking his spine, twisting him out of good posture to notice his head snapping back, a result from a punch from Tommy.

He immediately dropped the teenager's wrist, leaving him to march off to wherever he liked.

Techno fell to the pavement in pain, his entire back flaring with warmth- the warmth of a pain that simply wouldn’t go away- not for a while at least.

Phil rushed to his side, helping one son to quell the fountain of blood coming from his nose- while the other attempted to chase after the rogue teen- before Phil called him back.

Tommy was violent, angry and demented that was for sure.

But a feeling saved in his heart for his two sons told him that the newcomer was not cruel- not wicked, and that he wouldn’t take his anger out on anyone else.

“You okay, Tech?” Phil pushed a small tea towel against his son's gushing nose. Wilbur just looked ahead, Tommy’s figure already out of sight.

Techno nodded, getting back up on his feet with the help of his father. Wilbur looked back to his twin- a wince on his face as if he was feeling the pain too. “Well at least you're matching now?” He tried, leaning to the side slightly.

Phil chuckled quietly, but there was no humour in it. He patted his sons on the shoulder. “Come on, boys, let’s get off the street.”

✵

Tommy huffed angrily, scuffing his shows against the pavement, kicking a couple stray rocks into the road.

Tommy liked Phil- liked his house. It wasn’t too far away from the city, but close enough that the drive to school was barely 10 minutes. 

Fields of long, dry green grass surrounded him, the sun setting casting a peaceful faded blue across the sky. The occasional car passed, the occasional house with a bright white mailbox, Tommy didn’t pay it any mind.

He just felt sick. 

Not because he punched Technoblade square in the nose- he felt sick because they were discussing sending him back to prison.

Back to being locked up in metal chains, wearing himself and his powers out with every minute- each second that ticked past.

He kicked another rock, keeping his head down.

He knew he should have just behaved. Maybe thrown a couple of dirty looks peoples way, maybe even Tubbo’s way so he didn’t talk to him, so that he would be isolated. Isolated so that he didn’t bother anyone else.

A prison away from prison.

He kicked another rock, a little harder this time.

Technoblade was probably right. “ You’re a villain. You deserve to be in prison for the rest of your life.”

Tommy’s face contorted, he angrily glared at the ground. Fuck him. Fuck Technoblade for even thinking that he could say that to him.

He kicked the rock again.

The three heroes would never understand. Sure, Tommy was only fourteen, but even he could see that the heroes were inexperienced. Never once in his life had he seen them stop any real- seriously life threatening crime.

(Although something in the back of his mind hissed that Dream had never exposed him to the work the heroes did)

Even when he went to visit the heroes own tower, where he was supposed to see all their “hard” work- when in reality, it was just paperwork. Reports upon reports upon reports of useless bullshit.

Tommy was angry. He was really fucking angry.

He kicked the rock again, letting out a shout of frustration.

The pale grey rock hit against something this time- a fence. A chain link fence. That was protecting where more than half of Manburg got their electricity from.

Well- as the sky faded into an ombre of oranges, yellows and purples- Tommy definitely knew he took a couple wrong turns.

Lucky for him, there was already a cut in the fence.

When he felt the familiar warmth of endless surrounding electricity soothe his aching bones, Tommy felt right at home.

✵

Wilbur bounced his leg up and down beneath the dinner table. Having lost his appetite for honey chicken and fried rice a long time ago, which just left his worries and thoughts to swallow him up whole. The family was silent, Phil and Wilbur mourning the loss of the little thing- the loss of the hum of the television, or the kettle boiling for another cup of hot curry noodles.

Phil opened his mouth- “We should go and find Tommy.” Wilbur blurted, wilting as all the eyes at the table snapped to him. Techno immediately shook his head. “No. He’s clearly shown his true colours. I don’t know why it took him punching me for both of you to realise who he really is.”

“Tech, don’t be so harsh. He’s just a kid- and I think we can all agree that he didn’t have the best of upbringings.” Phil placated, closing his eyes briefly as he spoke.

“How a child is brought up changes them for life. And if Tommy was brought up from birth to hate and to destroy- he’s only going to get worse from him.” Techno spoke vehemently, forcing a sigh from Wilbur’s chest. 

Maybe his twin was right.

Tommy has shown time and time again from the things he says to how he acts out in school that the chances of him changing his ways- growing as a person are slim.

But that wouldn’t stop Wilbur apparently- because moments after Technoblade had spoken, he was slinging his trench coat over his shoulder, and grabbing whatever keys he could from the little dish by the door.

He immediately heard the scraping of a chair on wooden floors- then saw from around the corner that Phil was rushing towards him, a deep green house coat billowing behind him. “Wilbur!- Wil!” He heard Phil calling out from behind him.

“You know you’re not allowed to drive, Wilbur!” Wilbur opened the door to his brother's car, sliding into the driver's seat. God- he hadn’t driven since he was sixteen. 

Phil looked more worried than angry, but to be fair, Wilbur had never really seen Phil truly angry. The thought of that would give him shivers if he currently wasn’t driving away from said man to go find his….friend?

It was already night by now, and Wilbur was getting pretty restless. Turns out driving behind a wheel wasn't as comfortable as he remembered it to be. (But something in his mind tells him that it wasn’t supposed to be comfortable, that he was just trying to get out )

Music blasting inside was making a mild job of helping him concentrate. Wilbur drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, all the while anxiety- maybe even fear was zipping from the tips of his toes all the way to the last strand of hair on his head.

Wilbur still wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to be friends with the petulant child- or if he just wanted to understand him.

Tommy was a tricky one to understand. Barely anything was known about the fourteen year old- the only thing he did know was that Tommy was born April 9th, 2012. His brother..? Or was it caretaker? (Wilbur didn’t know, all he knew was that Tommy had a brotherly bond with Dream) took care of him, and Dream was definitely less forgiving than others.

Wilbur didn’t know- didn’t understand Tommy’s powers. He didn’t know the ins and outs of the boy, and it was getting to him. Tommy was an enigma in Wilbur’s mind, an itch he couldn’t scratch. Wilbur wanted to know, needed to know more about him.

Maybe that’s why he bolted out of the door, leaving his true family behind to chase after this kid.

Actually, speaking of Wilbur’s family, where are they now?

Wilbur turned around as he was driving. Sure, it was ridiculously dangerous, there weren't really any cars in his way, so why not?

Just as he had expected, right behind him. Phil gave him a stern look. Harsh, but to be expected when your son steals your other son's car to go find your ( other son , his mind fills in the blank. ‘Not sure about that one yet.’ Phil replied to his own thoughts.)

Wilbur simply huffed and turned around again, taking a sharp right turn. He swore he could hear Technoblade’s anxious shout of surprise at the movement- Wilbur was definitely more than a reckless driver and he did not want to pay insurance on that car.

The car began to smoothly drive past a long chain-link fence. It seemed like it was stretching forever, its silver steel wires crossing over and back in the moonlight, fading into the deep blue sky.

Wilbur squinted, trying to get a better look at whatever structure was inside. A sudden bright spark of yellow illuminated it for him.

An electricity grid.

Tommy’s earlier words crossed his mind: “A kid punched me, so I electrocuted him.”

Electrocuted?

How on earth could Tommy conduct enough electricity to take down a teenage boy? Static electricity maybe? But that didn’t make much sense-

An entire new gear shifted in his mind. 

He quickly pulled into the side of the road, on the borderline of a random field. 

It was plain as day- Tommy’s power was clearly to do with electricity! Wilbur mentally kicked himself for not noticing sooner.

How else would he be able to flick through tv channels so quickly? Why else would his villain suit be made out of rubber? Why else would anyone be in an electric power grid without any safety, at the dead of night?

Dream clearly knew the extent of his powers, knew how dangerous they could be in a city environment. How useful it is to have a power like that, surrounded by technology and electricity. No wonder he kept it hidden.

Tommy acted as his secret weapon. 

Only using combat skills, his weapons and explosives. Never once using his powers. Although Wilbur hated Dream, he had to admit it was a smart move 

The rhetorical questions bounced around Wilbur’s brain as he ducked underneath the cut in the fence. He heard Phil call out his name from somewhere behind him. Wilbur wasn’t bothered to answer.

He was more concerned about his safety.

One simple brush against the high voltage towers would stop his heart- a hand or two pressed to it would make him spontaneously combust into flames. That wasn’t exactly a pretty thought.

“Tommy?” Wilbur called out at a volume of just above speaking. No answer returned to him, though.

“Tommy..?” He tried again, albeit quieter, but his voice still bounced from pole to pole.

“What.” A voice responded from a little further away from Wilbur. “Jesus Christ Tommy, do you really have to go to the most dangerous place to get away from us?” He rounded the corner, spotting Tommy sitting on top of one of those high voltage boxes. 

Tommy looked down at Wilbur, scowling. “So what? You came in here to give out to me, then drag me back to your family, ay?”

Wilbur rolled his eyes, although he wasn’t sure if Tommy could see it in the darkness. 

“No, I just don’t really want to be at threat of blowing up.”

“You are always at threat of blowing up.”

“How so?” Wilbur responded matter-of-factly, keeping his distance from the voltage.

Tommy didn’t verbally explain what he meant- suddenly it was as if his bones became alight. His hair seemed to glow brighter in the dark, lifting up slightly, like when you wind rub a balloon on someone’s hair and  illuminated  his entire face. The same could be said for his usually cerulean blue pupils. They became a neon shade.

Wilbur stumbled back, the zapping noise of electricity- like the faint buzzing of an electric fence was ten times louder. Great big yellow sparks of energy jutted out every which way from Tommy’s body, unbridled and uncontrolled.

Then, the storm was over. 

Tommy’s hair settled back down, and the energy was pulled back inside of him.

“Cool light show Tommy, now come down here. You know I can’t go near you.” Wilbur folded his arms, taking a measly step back. This only seemed to anger Tommy more, his eyes became sharp and brows furrowed.

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Tommy- don’t act immature about this. I’m only trying to help you.” He tried. A faint hint of the energy returned.

“Help? Help me? You have done absolutely fuck all to help me. Even as a villain, you didn’t stop once to think ‘Hm, maybe this person who is no taller than the average ten year old and still has the voice of a child even with a voice changer, is actually a child?’”

“I-“

“You are supposed to be a hero. Someone who- who helps people when they need it the most.” The poles surrounding them made an odd acceleration sound.

“Even out of being a villian, I looked up to people like you- to heroes. Because when I realised that what Dream was doing to me wasn’t normal- I thought that you were going to help me too.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Tommy, Heroes can’t pin-point who needs actual, physical help all the time. We only get radioed out to places that need assistance- a burning building.” Wilbur attempted to placate, however it had no effect on Tommy, who had  jumped down from the box.

This is what Wilbur wanted- but now- all he could feel is the thrum of fear beneath his skin.

“Is that all you do? Wait for a phone call, stay up in that tower of yours and sit around for a bit more? Maybe wait for another charity event to come by?” Tommy asked condescendingly, stepping closer to Wilbur.

“All you do is sit there and look pretty and flashy in your suits, help a couple kittens,then you’re home free. Leaving the people to burn.” 

Wilbur took offence to that. “You clearly have never seen the work heroes do. I don’t know who drilled into your little head that we do no work- actually, no I do have an idea. It was Dream, wasn’t it?”

Tommy’s hair began to glow brighter now- Wilbur simply ignored it.

“That little bastard made you hate heroes, didn’t he? Didn't let you see the real work we do?”

“Dream didn’t need to show me anything, I already knew myself.” Tommy spat.

“Oh really? But I thought you needed saving,huh? Saving from the heroes you didn’t like?” 

Tommy wilted.

Wilbur pressed forward.

“Well here’s a big question for an infant like you, if you are so high and mighty and above everyone else in the world, why didn’t you save yourself? You clearly don’t need any help from any other heroes-“

His tiny arm hairs stood on end.

Tommy let out a roar of anger, pouncing for Wilbur with the might of lightning behind him.

A great big blur came in from the side, tackling Tommy to the ground as he twisted and twined beneath them, each pole around them sparking dangerously.

Wilbur felt any fight drain from his body, his father coming up beside him to pull him into a hug.

“Wilbur, son, are you okay?” Phil cradled the back of his skull. “Yeah- yeah, I’m okay.” He said softly into his father's chest.

They soon released each other, turning to the constantly moving child beneath Techno’s iron grip.

“Tech- maybe don’t freeze his fingers off?” Phil winced, making Techno let up his grip slightly, Tommy still stuck beneath him. He shouts in anger, writhing- while sending small jolts of electricity up Technoblade’s arms. “Get off me you dick!Get off!” He shouted.

A wave of nausea washed over Technoblade’s gut, making him tense up- face going a slight shade of green. “I can’t hold him anymore-“ he veered off to the side, throwing up while trying to get it away from the kid.

“Jesus-“ he heard Wilbur from behind him.

Tommy scrambled away, back hitting the chain link fence. Thick, red blood dripped from his nose, gathering on his Cupid’s bow.

Phil immediately rushed over to his pink haired son, rubbing circles on his back, a slow anger rising within his mind. There was no possible way Techno would just suddenly be a wave of sickness, unless that child’s powers had affected his boy.

Wilbur slowly approached Tommy, a mixed look on his face. 

“What are you doing?” Wilbur asked into the silence. (Well, mostly silence. Techno was still retching in the background.)

Tommy parted his mouth slightly, a large puff of smoke emitting from his mouth. Wilbur’s face contorted once again, before smoothing out once again.

“You just hurt my brother. My other half. Literally.” Wilbur growled lowly, crouching down to reach Tommy’s level. 

“You are getting in my way. You are just keeping me in your home like a little lab rat, to see what annoys me and what doesn’t.” Tommy spat, glaring straight into Wilbur’s eyes.

 “Don’t think that I haven’t seen you reporting back to whoever’s above you, checking my every movement.”

“I’m not stupid.”

“You have no idea what’s going on around you.” Wilbur furrowed his brows sternly, a nefarious grin splitting his face.

Tommy looked at him darkly, his eyes swirling with something that couldn’t be described. Like the anger had settled, but one single push and it could explode all over again.

“So what? You’re just going to take me back to that stupid white guest room? Put another suppressor on me?” Tommy turned his head to the side as he spoke, shaking slightly.

Wilbur opened his mouth to reply, “You are not welcome in my home.” Phil spoke. 

A silence washed over the electricity grid. The buzzing has stopped. The faint buzzing of Tommy’s power disappeared in an instant, like a carving in the sand when the tide destroyed any evidence it had been there in the first place.

Oh.

Tommy was going back to prison.

Back to where he belonged.

Never mind his own anger being pushed over boiling point, in the background, Phil’s kindness had all been picked apart by each passing day.

He didn’t want this ‘rowdy ‘ child in his home anymore- No, he didn’t want a criminal in his home anymore.

He didn’t want the harm to his children to stay in his home anymore.

Tommy stood up in an instant. Turning his head to Phil. 

“That’s it then? You give me a couple weeks of a normal person's life just to be thrown right back from where you took me from?” 

“Precisely.” Phil said, not an ounce of sympathy in his voice.

“Does that not seem a little cruel? Heartless maybe? Actually, I don’t even know why I’m saying this to you. I should’ve already expected this.” Tommy waved his hands around.

“All heroes are the fucking same, they go about with happy smiles on their faces, clart a couple petty villains, attend a few charity galas then go home without any regret or worries.”

“Holy shit! It’s all coming together now, isn’t it.” Tommy laughed without humour.

“You are not human. You are crafted to have no sympathy for anyone. “ He said darkly.

“You don’t care how many people you have to kill, as long as you save the one person with the most money, right? And I thought I was the bad one.”

“No, really, I would just love to-“

Tommy fell like a rag doll.

Nobody was there to catch him.

Reverie came up behind the off-duty heroes, his black and white goggles glimmering in the moonlight.

He yawned, stretching his arms high above his head. “Do you want me to do anything to his dreams or just leave him?” He asked flatly.

“No, thanks, Rev. Just make sure he sleeps for a long while.” Wilbur looked grimly at the golden hair motionless on the concrete beneath him.

“We should probably get all of you back to the tower- it’s ridiculously dangerous in here.” Reverie placed his hand on his hip, turning his head up to Wilbur.

“I think we’ll all just go back home. I’ll be at the tower in the morning.” Wilbur turned back to his family, where his father was getting Techno to his feet.

“Alright. Rest well. I’ll get this idiot in a holding cell.” Reverie gestured towards the boy at his boots.

“Thanks.”

✵

“Wilbur-“

“Dont, Dad. Please don’t.” Wilbur raised a hand to his father, one foot on the first step of the stairs.

“Okay.” He heard his father whisper as he ascended the staircase.

“Okay.”

✵

This was deffo not part of the plan.

Tommy hopped around in the chair, causing it to make an unbearable scraping nose, the metal handcuffs digging more and more into his skin as he did so.

“Tommy, please refrain from injuring yourself any further. You’re not going anywhere.” Reverie said tiredly, his head resting on his hand.

“No! Fuck you!”

Very uncooperative.

He continued to angrily hop about in his chair, blood from around his wrist languidly dripping onto the concrete. 

Reverie sighed deeply and sorrowfully. “Tommy, please stop hurting yourself. I just want to ask you some questions.”

Tommy stopped his odd chair hopping for a moment, now almost directly beside Reverie. “Fuck you.” He glared, continuing to loudly hop towards the door.

Reverie stood up, the realisation of what Tommy was going to do crossing his face. His own chair scraped across the ground. “Don’t you dare-!”

Tommy threw himself at the metal door, a large dent appearing on it. 

Now he was on the floor, still in said chair- now with more blood sluggishly forming a pool by his wrists. A pounding headache surrounding his entire mind.

He groaned. Reverie crouched down and tilted his head, looking at Tommy with a barely sympathetic face.

“Phoneix has decided that he no longer wants to take responsibility of you in his home- and the hero council has decided that it is best if you remain here in the tower.” Reverie paused. “Will you comply?”

Tommy’s face was blank for a beat, then it scrunched in anger. 

“No! No- no! What the fuck!” He began to writhe in the chair again, ignoring the feeling of his hands literally being severed off.

“I’m not staying with you stupid- dolls! You are so insufferable!” He roared, Reverie winced.

Tommy continued to worm around on the concrete, Reverie sat back in his chair and watched him for a minute or two, until Tommy lost his engergy. Which took a long while.

Actually, he never did run out of energy until Eclipse arrived, squeezing through the door to avoid hitting the worming boy in the face.

“Geor- uh- rev..? Do you want the schools file or not?” Eclipse, the hero with blazing death rays and killer raven hair waved about a large manila folder, not averting his gaze from the boy on the ground, who had surprisingly stopped moving.

“Is your name….George?” Tommy said slowly from the floor, his unmissable voice reverberating in the small room.

Reverie or now apparently “George” gave Eclipse a look that said ‘I am going to beat you with these files the second I’m done with this kid’

Tommy erupted with laughter, wheezing and letting his body contract freely against the turned over chair.  “You- your name is George? Fucking really?” He cackled through wheezes “Like that little explorer monkey?” 

George rested a hand on his forehead- Eclipse guiltily handed him the files. He then left, and Tommy was still laughing on the floor, saying things like; ‘A cup of tea for the fine British man?’ ‘Meeting with the queen later, eh Georgie?’

“Yes, okay, shut up your name is literally Tommy. And you have a British accent.” George snapped. “Now, let me help you up off the floor. I need to discuss things with you.”

George gently lifted Tommy and the chair up, placing his chair to face towards him.

”Since you are fourteen years old, you are still legally required to get an education. To give you a sense of normalcy with the fact that you will be living with the heroes-“

Tommy scoffed. Nothing in his life was normal anymore.

He thought back to Wilbur- their conversation at the bus stop. He liked Wilbur- he- he missed Wilbur-

“You will still be going to school.”

-Even if just a little bit.

“Wait, what?” Tommy shook his head, letting his thoughts fly from whatever was keeping them in. “Were you listening to me?” George asked, raising a brow. Tommy’s nose scrunched up. “No, not really, my bad.”

“You are going to live in the tower and go to school for the foreseeable future.” George said bluntly. 

“That’s not on. What if I want to- I don’t know- go to Mac Donald’s or something?” Tommy scowled. Even just saying a word that reminded him of his time with Wilbur hurt his heart.

“A hero will accompany you. Any more questions?” 

“Yeah actually, why the fuck is your name Geor-“

✵

George apparently didn’t like that question, as Tommy was immediately handed off to Eclipse to be brought to his new room.

Wq 

It wasn’t all that big, but it was comfortable. Much like his room in Phil’s house, it was completely white. Tommy wasn’t sure if he wanted to decorate it this time.

Staying at Phil’s house was…tolerable. But god- did he want to get out of this fucking tower.

After Eclipse had firmly stated to not do anything stupid, that he wasn’t allowed into the working floors- and that heroes staying at the tower surrounded him, he had left. Leaving Tommy to sit in the room, alone.

Distantly, he wondered if he could ever go back to that warehouse. That was where all of his stuff was.

His brain tugged at him as Tommy sat on the standard IKEA oak bed, staring out of the window to the top of grey roofs- Ah, well, mostly grey roofs. Young adults usually access their rooftops and either plant, or decorate it with trash from parties. Usually the latter.

He missed the gentle, orange lighting that turned a bright white when Dream was especially dickhead-y.

He missed his bed made out of those pallets that food or other miscellaneous items would come on in bulk.

He missed Henry. It was so childish, but it was the only thing Dream had ever given him out of the goodness of his heart. Tommy remembered the exact moment like it was yesterday.

The sun was well below set, and Dream had decided that the warehouse would be Tommy’s new home base. A house shared with Dream was ‘too crowded’ (Tommy never expressed it, but he was glad to be staying in places other than the house. Dream did a lot of his dirty business deals in that house. The droplets of blood remaining on the carpet in the morning are burnt into his brain.)

When he had peaked around the corner of an old as phil shipping container, hiding something behind his back, Tommy had been setting up a mountain of old rags and pillows.

“Tommy? Where are you?”

His head perked up. “Here! I’m just over here.”

“I have a surprise for you!”

“Is it a revolver? I really want one.”

Dream chuckled, coming close to him. “No. It’s-“ he pulled out a thing that looked like a…cow? Was it called a cow? Tommy couldn’t remember. “-this!”

“What…is it?”

“It’s a stuffed animal. Don’t be ungrateful Tommy. This is the last thing you’ll ever get from me from here on out.”

Tommy’s young mind had not comprehended the last part. 

He grinned, showing one of his missing front teeth. “Thanks Dream!” He didn’t move in for a hug, the last time he did that Dream almost knocked out his other front tooth.

“Remember what I said.”

“Remember.”

Chapter Text

“Tommy.”

“What….”

“Tommy.”

“What!”

Tommy jumped up from his bed, disorientated.

He half expected Wilbur to be staring straight into his face. 

But no, he was met with the ugly, wrapped up bandana-style face of Eclipse.

“You’re literally ugly. Go away. I don’t like you.” He could hear a noise of Eclipse being mildly offended, but Tommy paid him little to no mind. “You have to get up and go to school, kid.”

Tommy rose further, sitting up in his very bland and white bed. “Are you joking? I’ve just gone through a very traumatic event. I don’t think I’m going to school today.”

Eclipse folded his arms. “That’s management's business. I’m just your glorified babysitter for now. Go get dresses or something.” Tommy looked at him for a moment- expecting him to move to leave. That never happened.

“So are you just going to stand there and watch me change? Also I don’t  have any clothes, you fuck.” Eclipse blinked in surprise, walking off towards the door. 

“Shit, sorry, yeah I’ll go get you some.”

“Ohhoho! Swearing? Around a minor? That’s not going to look good on your hero report!” He called to Eclipse out the door.

A black painted nail middle finger peeked back at him from round the door.

Tommy sniggered. At least someone in this god forsaken tower had a sense of humour. Not like George. Tommy chuckled again. George.

Eclipse soon walked back round the corner, blue hoodie and jeans in to. He handed them to Tommy, then left as soon as he came. They were bland, but comfortable if he was going to be sitting in ‘isolation’ during school-

Oh, yes, Reverie had specified that the public would begin to get suspicious if he assaulted two people on school grounds and didn’t get any punishment. He didn’t even know what isolation meant- ‘ it means being alone, Tommy. You’ll be alone during the school day, but will still do your lessons.’

…right.

Whatever that meant.

Eclipse had to  chaperone him on the way down to the..breakfast room? Canteen for heroes? In all honesty, it sort of looked like a hotel breakfast bar. Tommy only knows what a hotel breakfast bar looks like from when he broke into one during the night when he was twelve. It was a great time in all honesty- lots of shampoo and as many blankets as he could fit in his arms were stolen in the middle of twilight.

There were a few heroes dotted around, on tables, at the cupboards making cups of..whatever, (mostly coffee. The room has the smell of coffee clinging to every air particle.) The Warden was there. Tommy glared at him. The Warden appeared to blanch, quickly swallowing his coffee and exting the room.

Eclipse grabbed him by the hand and pulled him along- his new power suppressor anklet making a slight pulsing as he walked.

“So, this is where you can get cereal. Sometimes on Saturday we have waffles and bacon brought in.” Eclipse explained, gesturing towards  pulley-machine-things that were filled with cereal. and then a little window in the wall that looked like it led to a kitchen.

Eclipse proceeded to take down a blue bowl from a cupboard, and handed it to Tommy. “What…are you doing?” Tommy asked, tilting his head as he followed Eclipse to where the cereal was. “Showing you how to get your cereal in the morning.”

Eclipse guided his hand underneath the pulling handle- to a cereal that was like tiny little circles with holes in the middle, each one a dull colour of the rainbow. “Hold on tight with the bowl with one hand, use the other to pull down the handle.” Eclipse once again guided his hands onto the black handle, pushing down on it. A stream of little bits of rainbow cereal fell into his bowl.

His eyes lit up, watching the cereal swish around in his bowl. “Have you never eaten cereal before?” Eclipse asked him, eyebrows furrowing. “Um..no? I mean- I’ve had breakfast before. I guess I just never had cereal before.” Tommy shrugged, placing his bowl down on the counter.

All of a sudden, it seemed like the weird breakfast food room place had gone awfully quiet. He turned around, leaning on the counter with the palms of his hands.

Any hero, or trainee, or whoever else was in the room was looking at him.

“What?” Tommy asked, glaring at whoever was in sight. 

Nobody answered him.

“Stop staring at me when I’m trying to get food- it’s not on.” Tommy spat, Eclipse placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“Come on, Tommy. You can eat your breakfast on the way to school. We don’t really have time now.” Eclipse guided him out of the room, all the while Tommy continued to complain about how ‘I didn’t even get to get milk!’ ‘Am I not allowed to be five minutes late to school?’

Tommy groaned all the way down to the underground parking place- the one that Technoblade and Wilbur had brought him to the first time he went to the tower. Absentmindedly he scanned the cars- until he landed on Techno’s car.

A pang of guilt made his stomach drop.

“Cmon, kiddo.” Eclipse pulled his hand along.

The two stood infront of a small, barely drivable red car.

You’d think with their massive salaries that Eclipse could buy a nice car.

Round the drivers door, there was warped metal shaped into a flame. Tommy raised his lip, pointing directly at the flame. “How did your car not explode?”

Eclipse clapped the hood on his car. “She’s a survivor.”

Tommy snorted, walking round the front of the car to get to the passenger side, Eclipse started the ignition right as he got in. “Why did you have to take the long way?” Eclipse questioned.

Tommy waved his hand airily, pressing in his seatbelt. “I do what I want when I want.” Now, it was Eclipse’s time to laugh. “That’s a lie.”

Tommy spluttered, Eclipse began to pull out of his parking spot. “No it is not! I do a lot of things out of my own free will.” “Like going to school!” Tommy paused. “…yes. I, out of my own free will, decided to go to school.”

“Because I love it.”

Eclipse laughed again. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, wanker. You're the one who has to deal with me all day now.”

Eclipse pressed the radio, rock music began blasting out. “Oh, joy.” He sighed. He idly began to drum his fingers against the worn out black steering wheel. Actually- when Eclipse lifted his fingers to drum back down, Tommy noticed that his fingers had worn out the paint beneath them from being in the same position all the time.

“How hard were you gripping that steering wheel?” Tommy asked, removing his head from his hand- where it was resting against the window-to look at Eclipse.

Eclipse turned down the blasting music, that was more than likely making the car bounce, “What?” He shouted, even though he didn’t need to.

“Your steering wheel, you’ve had your hands in the same place so much that the paint is gone.” Tommy used his other hand to point at the wheel.

Eclipse completely removed his hand from the wheel, flipping them over to look at them, while making a hum of acknowledgment.

Suddenly, a cacophony of car horns erupted from outside of the car.

Inside of the car, Tommy lurched forward- all while shouting at the top of his lungs.

“FUCKING HELL- HOLD THE WHEEL YOU KNOB!” He almost went to take the wheel, until Eclipse made a strange wincing face and stopped them from careening off the road into an odd corner shop.

Eclipse guilty turned towards Tommy, a ‘sorry’ began to form on his lips.

Tommy started before him, though- started laughing that is.

It filled the car, jumped over the music and filled Eclipse's ears.

“Oh. My. God! You’re a hero, and you still can’t drive!” Tommy laughed, he hit Eclipse's arm. “Hey, you're the best and only hero that would do that,eh?”

He smiled. Eclipse, despite having almost crashed the car- grinned back.

The rickety old car pulled up in front of the school. Tommy grimaced. The impending doom had not set in the day before, but now.

And god, did he feel the doom.

According to Eclipse, he would have to do all the work from his classes separately, away from the class and people. He would be allowed out for the break times, but instead of 1 hour  for the last one, he got 30 minutes. And teachers were more than aware of his presence.

The halls were empty as Eclipse walked him up into the school building- meaning the first class was already going on.

Mr.Dude stood at the entrance, looking slightly more frazzled than usual. His tie was slightly lower than usual- hair a couple strands too much out of place. “Hi, Tommy.”

Tommy suddenly felt very uncomfortable underneath Eclipse’s hand and Mr.Dudes gaze.

“What’s…up?” Tommy grinned sheepishly. “What’s ‘up’”- he did air quotation marks- “is that you’re coming with me to isolation.” Mr.Dude looked over to Eclipse, who was still standing menacingly behind him. “Thank you for your service.” “Thanks.” Eclipse sounded like he was going to either cry or…laugh?

As Mr.Dude pushed him towards a room near his office, Tommy looked over his shoulder to Eclipse, who was still standing at the entrance of the school.

Eclipse gave a meek thumbs up.

Tommy rolled his eyes with a snort, turning back to following Mr.Dude.

“So, Tommy. Do you know why you are going to isolation today?” Mr.Dude questioned, his bright green eyes glaring at him from the side. Tommy bristled- they looked so much like Dreams. Before they became harsh and mean, always looking at him with a malicious glint.

“Uh…a plethora of things?” Tommy winced. Mr.Dude nodded. “Good to see you using your English vocabulary,Tommy. At least you’re learning something in school.” “To be fair, I just fall asleep in English. It’s like- my last class of the day.”

Mr.Dude sighed. 

They stopped infront of a door near the back of the school- it kinda looked like a janitor closest door- with a circular handle that had circular button in the middle to lock it. Mr.Dude pushed the door open, there was only one meagre window, a single desk and chair set out in the middle of the room. Mr.Dude stepped forward, a tiny teachers desk and spiny chair rested right in the corner of the room- Mr.Dude settled there.

Tommy took it upon himself to awkwardly sit behind the desk, clasping his hands together.

“Just remeber, your actions have taken a lot of people away from what’s important. Your actions are not only having an effect on you, but staff members and family as well.” Mr.Dude spoke. “Not exactly a pep-talk kinda guy, eh?” Tommy chuckled nervously.

“Right.” Mr.Dude got up to go towards the door, one of his teachers stood there, a small stack of work in hand. A whisper of thanks was given before Mr.Dude turned around again, dropping the stack of work on Tommys  desk.

Mr.Dude happily sat back down at his desk, opening his laptop, yet opening a random book to read- while his laptop was open.

What the fuck.

Tommy peaked out from behind his stack of work. “Why do you have your laptop on, but read a book at the same time?” Tommy shook his head. “To monitor any emails coming in.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, moving his head to the side and back behind the stack of papers- all while saying: “Oh Jesus Christ. You are such a bore.”

Tommy took down a handful of papers off the top, lifting the rest up from the bottom and plopping down on the carpet next to him with a satisfying sound, loose papers floating down to the carpeted floor. (Which was a rather hideous shade of green, if you must know.)

“So….Anything interesting happen to you in life? Got a wife at home? I’ve got lots of those. Any aspirations in life other than being a boring old principal?” Tommy ignored his work, favouring leaning over his desk.

“Just do your work, Tommy.”

“I don’t have a pen.”

“Oh for God's sake!” Mr.Dude bemoaned, pulling a black ballpoint pen out of god knows where, and without looking at Tommy- he stuck it out into the air, a silent offering.

Tommy scooted his entire chair and desk over towards Mr.Dude. Once he hopped his way over, he removed his hands from the bottom of his chair, happily taking it from his Principal.

Mr.Dude looked up from his book, expecting Tommy to move back to his spot in the middle of the room.

Tommy rested his head on his hands, gazing at Mr.Dude.

“What’s your first name? You seem like a first name kind of guy.” He swung his feet.

Mr.Dude sighed. “Every guy is a first name kinda guy.”

“Also, why is your last name Dude? It’s really unique but it’s also kinda hilarious- no offence to your parents  though.”

“Everyone also has a last name, Tommy.”

“Not me though, stay safe.” 

Mr.Dude furrowed his brow. “I’m sure you have a last name. When I was looking at your file, I’m sure I saw one.”

“Nope, nothing there big dub. Just Tommy.” Tommy scanned the work in front of him- ugh- the merchant of Venice? And who the fuck is this Shakespeare fellah?

“Huh. That’s interesting. How come?” Mr.Dude hadn’t caught the invasive question before it had left his mouth- he wasn’t allowed to ask invasive questions according to the higher ups. And when the recording is played back, they’ll hear him asking the question.

“Uh…I don’t know. I don’t know anything, really.” Tommy admitted- although, to anyone other than himself, it wasn’t a truth being told. Tommy held up the English papers. “Also, who is Shakespeare?”

✵

The rest of his isolation before the first lunch was horrific.

Mr.Dude danced round personal questions for two hours straight. It had left Tommy itching to just zap them out of his brain- of course, though, that was out of the question, thanks to the concealed power suppressor round his ankle. Tommy shook it absentmindedly, sighing as the unseen purple liquid floating around inside the anklet made a quiet zapping noise.

“Tommy!” A tray was slammed down on the metal cafeteria table in front of him, two bodies slid into the seat. 

“Where on earth have you been!” Tubbo asked enthusiastically. Ranboo nodded too, less enthusiastically.

“Uh- around..?” Tommy answered.

Around as in nearly killing a hero by luring him into an electricity grid (Tommy would debate that Wilbur lured himself in, by no fault of Tommy’s.) got knocked out, got questioned by a knobhead hero, told that he had to stay at the heroes tower, also told that he still had to go to school, nearly got into a car crash thanks to the brainless hero Eclipse- became moderately comfortable around Eclipse, and made Mr.Dude incredibly uncomfortable all in the span of two days.

“Dude, when you hit Purpled over the head with that tray, it looked so cool-“ Tubbo started “-but we’re also not allowed to encourage you to hurt other students.” Ranboo cut in- literally and physically- pushing his body in front of Tubbo.

Tubbo clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes fondly, pushing Ranboo out of the way by the side of his face.

“Right. So. Tell me everything that happened while I was gone for like….fourty-eight hours.” Tommy asked, tilting his head to the side. “So, you know Patricia? Patty the-“ Tubbo began. “Yeah, I know her.” 

Tubbo leaned in closer. “Apparently, she was sleeping with this guy from another school called-“

Tommy rested his head on his hands, a grin slowly creeping across his face. He was listening intently. To teenage drama. “Right so, she slept with this guy who was from a different school, but she didn’t know that he was her best freinds boyfriend?” Tommy confirmed, doing wild gestures as he did so.

“Yeah! Isn’t that wild? Also keep your voice down or else she’s gonna know that we know.” Tubbo finished, pulling away from Tommy.

“How do you guys even know any of this? I didn’t take you both as the kinda people to know drama.” Tommy questioned. “Well it was just a radio frequency interruption- Patty’s friend was talking to her other freind about the situation and we picked up the broadcast.” Ranboo answered. Ranboo noticed his mistake. The two boys held their breath as Tommy scanned over their features.

“What the fuck are you two doing with radio broadcasting frequencies?” Tommy jabbed a fork in both of their directions. 

“Uh…we-“ “-ll show you!” Tubbo cut across Ranboo again- moving his body infront of his and stretching his arms out wildly.

“Really?” Tommy’s eyes widened, then sharpened again- like he was looking for some flaw- a trick of some kind in their words.

“Yeah! We have this big shed thing near the skatepark that we keep stuff in. It’s locked though, so nothing gets stolen.” Tubbo nodded. Ranboo looked at him frantically. *What skatepark, Tubbo?* He mind communicated. Tubbo turned to him, staring right into his eyes with a tight smile. *It was your mistake. I just fixed it for you. You’re welcome.*

“Am I supposed to know where that is?” Tommy rerouted their telekinesis conversation.

“Don’t worry, we’ll show you after school.” Tubbo closed his eyes and waved his hand. 

The bell rang loudly, students around them and down their table began to clear their lunches away, collecting books and finishing their conversations.

“Just meet us by the front of the school at the end of the day.” Ranboo smiled at him before the two boys collected their bags and walked away.

Tommy sighed, making his way back to Mr.Dude.

When he opened the door, he let his immense displeasure be shown, he loudly groaned- dragging his feet along the ugly carpet. A faint scent of dirt and dust filled his nostrils.

 He slumped back into his chair, once again ignoring the stack of work that rested at his feet. Never mind. He has a question about his work. “Do I have to finish all of this today?” He asked, pointing with his index finger towards the pile.

“You have the entire week to finish it, anything you don’t get done you’ll have to complete over the weekend.” Mr.Dude replied, still flicking through his book. Tommy was beginning to severely doubt if he was actually reading the book.

Tommy leaned over, putting his elbows onto Mr.Dude’s desk. “How’s the wife at home?” Mr.Dude stayed stoic. “I don’t have a wife.”

Tommy gasped loudly. “Are you gay? I knew it! My gay-dar was going off the moment I saw you.” Tommy sniggered, pointing a finger at his principal.

A light blush dusted over Mr.Dude’s face. His lips twisted into a small smile. “Don’t say that again, it’s inappropriate for school.”

Tommy recedeed. “Right, my bad, big guy. Intrusive, I know.” He raised his hands. 

“Do you have any hobbies?”

“God, you are just such a gregarious person, aren’t you?” Mr.Dude groaned. Tommy huffed. “I don’t know what that means, so I’m going to take it as an insult. If I could swear right now, I would.”

“It means you’re fond of company- also, please do not swear.”

“I am very not fond of company. I always work better on my own.” Tommy turned his nose up, folding his arms as he did so.

“Is that so?” 

“Very so.”

“But you have lots of friends. That’s not working alone now is it?” Mr.Dude was clearly very unaware of his surroundings. “I have two friends, Mr.Dude.” “Be grateful-“ he waggled his finger at Tommy. “Some people have no friends, and nowhere to go at night.”

“I have nowhere to go at night.” Tommy muttered.

“You don’t?” Mr. Dude asked. Tommys head perked up, he hadn’t expected himself to say it as loud as he did.

“Well, I have somewhere to go- but I don’t like it there. There’s too many rules- I’m always paranoid because a lot of people there, they …they don’t exactly like me.” Tommy slumped down in his seat, now wishing he hadn’t moved right up to Mr.Dude at all.

“Oh?”

“The place I used to live at- I liked it there. Like- I genuinely liked it there. I liked who lived there, especially this one guy. He was nice to me, he showed me what the city was like.” 

Tommy sighed. “But then, I did what I always do. I got too mad and I fucked up everything for myself.” Tommy’s eyes widened, and he briefly covered his mouth. “Whoops, sorry. Slipped out.”

“Is there anyone you’re warming up to where you’re currently living, Tommy?” Mr.Dude asked. It was a heavy question in disguise. 

“I’m not sure. The guy there though- the one that I suppose is supposed to look after me for a bit- he’s nice. Well, he’s cool. I like his car. There’s a big fire symbol on the side.” Tommy nodded to himself.

“You’re not thinking of doing anything in this new place, are you? Any destructive thoughts? Self destructive thoughts?” Mr.Dude pushed- too far, that is.

“What? I didn’t think this was a therapy session.” Tommy furrowed his brows.

“Ah, yes, sorry- sorry. I’m used to talking to students like that.”

“Weird question.”

Tommy looked back down at his page. Who in the fucking hell was Bassanio?

“Do you have a pen?”

✵

“Tommy! What’s up, big man?” Tubbo bumped shoulders with him, hand gripping his bag straps.

“Hi, Tommy.” Ranboo smiled.

“So, where are you two bringing me to? Don’t stab me in an alleyway, I’ll kick your ass.” Tommy scowled, jabbing a finger at the two.

Tubbo looked him up and down.

“…Right. Keep dreaming, buddy.” Tubbo patted him on the shoulder, walking him down the steps of the school and out into the city sidewalks.

“Hey- wait! What’s that supposed to mean?” Tommy shouted over the sound of students bidding farewell to their friends, and their parents honking the horn of the car- telling them to hurry up. 

“Oh nothing, nothing.” Tubbo said airly, a laugh rising up his throat.

“Whatever, you freak.” Tommy bumped shoulders with him again. “Ranboo, king, not so sure about you. Do you think I could take you in a fight?” Tommy playfully rose up his fists, unaware of the red car with the flame on its side driving past him. 

Ranboo scoffed good-naturedly. “Tommy, I’m like- twice your size. And you’re considered tall.”

Tommy didn’t answer, deciding to stick his tongue out instead. 

The trip continued to walk through the city, chatting and laughing- weaving in and out and around the many shopper and everyday pedestrian, avoiding getting hit by speeding cars and taxis.

Tommy was happy. He was really and truly happy, among his freinds, among the bustling city life that he had never really stopped to walk in, or honestly, to take in while he was under Dream’s watch.

Eventually, though, the streets became quieter, cars got less frequent and the group had stopped their chit-chat. The sun had slowly began to set, casting a warm orange glow as they watched the city skylines get further away. The tall grass that lined the sidewalk became taller and taller- until inbetween the long blades of grass, dipping concrete with spray painted art and a tiny little shed at the end.

“Here we are, the skatepark.” Ranboo smiled at Tommy, gesturing forwards. 

“Why is it so far away from the city?” Tommy questioned, raising his brow. 

“Back in the revolution days, the city extended to around here- but the houses and shops were much smaller. Eventually, after most of them had been blitzed, they built up what was left further away. Technically, we’re in the middle of the old city.” Ranboo explained as they walked around the edge of the skate bowl.

“What’s the revolution? I mean- what is a revolution?” Tommy sounded puzzled, trying to avoid falling into the bowl by stepping one foot in front of the other- arms outstretched. It’s like what he used to do on the top of skyscrapers- not knowing- not minding if he would fall.

“Where on earth have you been for the last couple of years?” Ranboo exclaimed. “Uh- doing…stuff?” Tommy shrugged.

“The revolution was when the new heroes overthrew the old ones, who were corrupt and killing off people in Manburg in secret.” Ranboo turned around to him, stopping Tommys balance game.

“Oh. Since when did that happen?” Tommy questioned. “Tubbo and I weren’t born yet, so maybe..seventeen years ago?” said Ranboo. 

“What! What the fuck- How old are you two?” Tommy was not impervious to the shock that filled him when he learned that in actuality, his freinds may not be the same age as him.

“Ranboo turns seventeen first, in October, then it’s me in December.” Tubbo opened the lock to the shed door, while Tommy stood behind him, arms folded.

“Shouldn’t you be- like- two grades above me then?” Tommy narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?Arent you sixteen?” Ranboo looked to him.

“No. What? I’m fourteen. I turn fifteen next year.” Says Tommy- puzzlement front and centre on his face.

“What the fuck? No. You’re not fourteen? We were told- we heard that you were sixteen!” Tubbo wildly gestured, one hand outstretched to the two infront of him, the other pulling on a string that illuminated the shed behind him.

“Nope. I’m fourteen. Really and truly fourteen. Born in 2012 n’all.” Tommy nodded.

“Ew. That’s weird. I don’t want to think about this anymore- let’s go inside.” Tubbo shook his head and shivered. “Oh- into your tiny murder shed? Yippee.” Tommy did small jazz hands.

Tubbo, with his arms still outstretched did a little turn in the centre of the shed, showing that the shed was a little bit bigger than Tubbo-sized. “This is where me and Ranboo spend most of our time after school. We skate sometimes, listen to radio- sit up in the roof ans what not.” 

Tommy messed with the radio- unable to turn it on.

“Leave that, Tommy. It’s a busted old thing. I’ll show you how to work it later.” Tubbo waved at him, sitting down on a bean bag in the right corner of the shed. Tommy complied, switching the dial on the radio and removing the static within the shed.

Ranboo scooted over to the two boys on a spinning desk chair, hands idly folded over one another. Tommy raised his red converse to gently kick at Ranboo’s hands. “Stop that- you look like a Tory.”

“Why do you speak like that, Tommy?” Tubbo asked, tilting his head. “What are you on about? Me and you speak the same, Tubs.” Tommy rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah- obviously. I moved here after I was scou- my Dad was scouted for the new heroes.” “-from England, obviously.”

“I..I’m not sure. Ehhh…I don’t really remember living  in England- all I know is that I did for a while. Or at the very least I was born there.” Tommy picked the skin from underneath his nail.

“Interesting.” Tubbo supplied, and before the room even had time to settle into an uncomfortable silence, Tommy asked another question. “Where did your Dad end up getting placed?” 

“Oh, when we moved here there was an explosion accident with the Old Heroes the day my Dad was supposed to go to his new job.” Tubbo sighed. “He brought me with him just to have a look- then we got blown up-“ Tubbo gestured to his hearing aid and to his facial scars. “That’s how this beauty happened. Blew out my ear drum and burnt my face.”

“Who were these old heroes?” Tommy raised a brow, eyebrows folded.

“They’re all long gone now. All except for one- he’s still in prison. Even though the old heroes were already bad- he went completely mad after his best friend died.” Under his breath, Tubbo said something along the lines of ‘hah, rhyming legend.’

“Never heard of them.” Tommy yawned, mid stretch.

“Really? Not Mumbo? MumboJumbo? Solidarity? Any of them?” Ranboo demanded.

“Nope.” Tommy shrugged, dumbfounded at what exactly the two teens wanted him to say.

“Do we have to explain all of this to him now, Tubbo?” Ranboo turned to Tubbo, who was sitting on the beanbag. Tubbo turned to Tommy, who was sitting atop a table, swinging his legs.

“Nah, he doesn’t need to know. C’mon Tommy- let me show you how the old radio works-“

The three spent the rest of their afternoon and then eventually evening messing around with whatever was in the shed, Tommy attempting to cut open the bean bag because he ‘was sure there was some kind of edible bean in there.’ Dragging the bean bag into the skating bowl- then also skating in said bowl. Ranboo and Tubbo were the only ones who could try to skate without immediately falling on their faces- so Tommy just sat with his legs over the graffiti, happily watching his friends go up and down.

As darkness began to fall, Ranboo hadn’t announced his eager determination to sleep on the bean bag, which meant Tommy and Tubbo were left to their own devices as the beanstalk caught his beauty sleep.

Tubbo helped Tommy up onto the roof by grabbing his arm and hoisting him up.

“Stars are nice tonight, aren’t they?” Tubbo folded his arms over his stomach, content with the light evening breeze that was enveloping his entire body. “They’re nice out here, where the light pollution is to a bare minimum.”

“There’s the Auriga constellation.” Tommy pointed up into the sky. 

“The what?”

 “Auriga. See those five stars, with the one to the right being the brightest?” 

“Oh. Yeah.”

“That’s the Auriga Constellation. He was a charioteer- he rode on chariots back in the ancient times.” Tommy connected the stars with his index finger.

“Sometimes, I wish I could go back to ancient times. To before- when the only power people had was the power to make clay pots and Aqueducts.” Tubbo sighed, Tommy chuckled.

“Andromeda.” Tommy connected the stars with his finger again- “She was a Greek princess.”

“How do you know all these, Tommy?” Tubbo turned to his mission beside him, barely seeing the others' faces in the moonlight.

“I just had a lot of time when I was a kid to look up at the stars. Well no- that’s actually a lie. I didn’t have a lot of time- I still don’t have a lot of time. But I used to stay up so late and look at the stars, because I thought that it meant a new day wouldn’t come for me. A new day of never knowing if he’d come back for me.” Tommy admitted, turning away from Tubbo and back up to the stars.

There was a soft clicking noise, but Tommy didn’t hear  it.

“What do you mean? Your Dad?”

Tommy laughed, then quickly quieted himself with a smile, wary of the sleeping boy beneath them. “No, my brother. He uh- he- he decided one day that I would be better  learning about life independently. He only came back to teach me his way of life.” 

“His way of life is kicking kids out?” Tubbo sounded gentle.

Tommy laughed again, but there was no humour behind it. Only what seemed like bitterness. 

“No. His way of being a bad person.” Tommy rolled his eyes as he spoke. “He always told me that I was like a little carbon copy of himself- and the second he saw me stray in the slightest- differ from him and have my own interests- he beat his way of life back into me.”

“Did you get away from him? Because holy shiy- whoever ‘he’ is he sounds like a proper dickhead.” Tubbo sat up, soon followed by Tommy.

“I suppose I am. Not really though, he knows where I am- where I’m going and where I will be. He’d probably drop a fucking building on me if he knew where I was staying now.”

“Fuck. Are you sure he knows where you are?” Tubbo asked, a hint of distress in his voice.

“Eh. Probably not, no. Don’t underestimate him though, because he’ll fucking bite you back for it.” Tommy warned, a dark edge to his voice. He could never underestimate Dream- no matter what. He had grown up seeing what Dream is capable of first hand.

“I won’t let him get to you, Tommy.” Tubbo assured, holding up his pinky to Tommy. Once he had noticed that Tommy had never done a pinky promise in his life, Tubbo lifted up the other hand, interlocking his pinky with his.

“Pinky promise.”

“Pinky promise? What the fuck is that.”

“A promise, but with your pinky!” Tubbo grinned, waggling his pinky. Tommy snorted at him, removing his hand from Tubbo’s.

There was another soft, unheard click.

“Tubbo, I have something to tell you.”

“Hm? What is it?” Tubbo turned back to Tommy, from where he had been tracing the Andromeda constellation with his finger.

“I’m-“

Beneath them, Ranboo burst out from the shed door. 

The pair on the roof leant over the side, looking at their frazzled friend in bewilderment.

“Tubbo! We have to go- like right now!”

“Right now right now?” Tubbo tried.

“Right now, Tubbo!”

Tubbo sighed. “Ah, shit.” He jumped off the roof, leaving Tommy by himself.

“You able to get back home alright, Tommy?” Tubbo called back at him as he and Ranboo walked round the graffitied skate bowl. 

“Yeah!” Tommy shouted after them, watching as their figures began to disappear down the road. 

Tommy drew his knees closer to his chest.

He was so close - so god damn close to spilling his biggest secret to someone he now considered to be his best friend.

Without him and Ranboo, and the two of them inviting him to their secret hideout- Tommy definitely would have blown up that stupid school by now- To hell with Mr.Dude! (That’s a lie- Tommy thought that Mr.Dude was funny- and worth saving in his distant fantasies of blowing up the school.)

Tubbo told him important information about his life- he trusted Tommy enough, only for Tommy to be able to only offer his stars and space knowledge.

He couldn’t contribute anything to his friends- after they had done so much for him. 

He had to do something- something big that would give back to his two best friends, thank them for all of their work helping him get by with school. 

But what? 

But, the real mystery is, how is he getting back to the tower?

Chapter Text

Tommy walked through the revolving glass doors that lead to the lobby of the Hero Tower.

He was met with echoing silence. His footsteps echoed at he entered the marble room. He expected Cleo to be waiting at the reception desk with a smile- but he was just met with an empty chair.

“Hello?” He loudly called out, turning on his heel in a small circle to get the full scope. If anyone was lurking in hallways or in rooms, they would have heard him by now, or at least seen him.

Tommy leaned over the reception desk, his feet lifting off the ground. 

The desk was barren- save for a spin around desk chair, and a pen left on paper- mid sentence. The computer was still on, and still logged in. Tommy got off from the desk with a thump, waltzing his way round to behind the desk, and sitting in the black desk chair.

Tommy began to click on the computer files- languidly scrolling through the hundreds of files, leaning his head on his hand. His blue eyes scanned over a couple of heroes filed, seeing one in bright bold black with the title “MATRIX”

Tommy rolled his eyes. He hadn’t seen that name in a while.

In subheading bullet points, he saw three names. 

*KRATOS

*PHANTOM

*PHONIEX (RETIRED)

Tommy laughed lowly- but he wasn’t happy. This file was about every little thing he had done while staying with the Watson family. It was horrible. 

Tommy felt the anger boiling up in his fingertips as his eyes darted from left to right.

“Continually showed aggressive behaviour……”

“….refusal to eat at the same table as the W’s during mealtimes..”

“…multiple hostile teacher-student and student-student interactions… reported by T.E that he has never done work- agitated teachers during class- agitated students and other staff….”

“..jumps into any fight he comes across…”

“…shows hostility to any environment introduced to him with other people…. “

“…later proved to be semi-untruthful from reports of an outer-city visit and interest to constellations.”

Tommy let go of the mouse, the black plastic had begun to crack under his fingers. 

He spun around in the desk chair, grabbing a pen from within a mug which said “CLEO NO HERMI” and stabbed it straight through the monitor, the screen cracking and distorting into a mirage of colours and lines.

Tommy’s  hand found it’s way beneath the desk, haphazardly slapping around until it found smooth,black metal. Removing the restraints around the gun without looking to the underside of the desk, Tommy pulled it off- the weight familiar and smooth within his hands.

He quickly checked how many rounds.

4.

Not good.

He opened a side drawer- rummaging around through the random hero bobbleheads- letters-posted notes reminding the receptionist what to get for lunch and what not- till he found another box of ammunition.

He slid a few more rounds into the guns magazine, putting another in his pocket for good measure.

The heroes were weird, that’s for sure- but Tommy had never expected them to be weird enough to do this.

Leaving a villain all alone in their massive, unmissable base? 

Bad idea.

Tommy turned to one of the cameras in the lobby, and began shouting up to it. “Is this your idea of a test, you old fucks? I’ll find wherever you're hiding- and I’ll make sure you end up in a care home before you're thirty!” A loud bang went off as a gold bullet impeded itself in the camera's lense.

Three other rounds went off, each into another camera placed around the lobby.

Tommy huffed. He glanced outside through the revolving glass doors that lead into the heroes tower. 

While there was the background buzzing of the lights and computers in the silence of the lobby, outside, there were muffled screams as people ran past the doors of the tower.

Fuck, he hadn’t expected the gunshots to be that loud. People are really scared of anything now a days, aren't they?

If the heroes wanted to challenge him- they’d get a fucking challenge alright. 

Tommy angrily stomped off toward the elevator, gun brandished. It was a little awkward, just him- standing alone in the elevator. Which was playing some rather standard music that made him shift from foot to foot. The large metal doors slid open- Tommy stepped out into another empty floor.

Unlike the lobby, no lights were on on this floor. It was terribly eerie paired with the mysterious orange glow that cast over each white frosted door.

Actually- why was there an orange glow?

Tommy’s brows furrowed. He moved closer towards the window.

Outside in the city, blotted within the twilight sky were fires. Big and towering- orange and blistering. Another building a few blocks away exploded- bits of the roof falling down to the pavement below. Where the fuck were the heroes? The- the firemen? 

Tommy snorted, watching the top of peoples heads run around in a panic. Rich people desperately hanging on to their shopping bags, as to them, at the end of the day they would rather die than have the ‘poor people get ahold of their bags.’ Another explosion illuminated Tommy’s abhorrent expression. More screams erupted from outside the window.

He turned away from the window, The heroes didn’t seem like they were giving him a test anymore- it just looked like they had dipped from their jobs and left their base unattended.

This was actually an excellent chance for him to find files- floor plans and new projects within the tower. It’s what Dream would constantly be trying to achieve- to learn, to know every little thing the heroes were doing. It was scary sometimes. It was an obsession. He even went as far as trying to infiltrate the tower by himself, but Tommy talked him out of doing so.

Tommy thought about Dream often. What he was doing- what he thought of him now. What he though of the plan.

Where was he? The last he heard was he was in the ICU. But that was a while ago. And it came from Phantom. Who Tommy was now certain was a liar. Tommy made his way towards a room. It was the same as every other room- there was something wrong with the door.

Sure, it was a carbon copy of each one on every floor before this one- but the tiny details were different. The window was slightly smaller than the rest, the handle, big and silver- like there was a special mechanism in the door handle to get in. Tommy knew it was an important room- one where top classified documents were kept under close guard of the heroes that were just a floor above in their quarters.

Tommys hand wrapped around the door handle, despite the power suppressor round his ankle- Tommy felt the familiar hum of electricity beneath his finger tips. Whatever tech was in this door handle would be fried soon enough.

A crash sounded  from one of the lower floors in the tower. Tommy’s hand immediately retracted. 

“Shit. Fuck. Balls.” Tommy busses underneath his breath, scrambling to look around- agitatedly tugging at each door handle on the floor, frantically running through each hallway- eyes briefly glancing towards the window. The orange glow had grown brighter now. Adding to Tommy's rising anxiety as he ran around, pulling on more door handles.

A bing sounded throughout the entire floor. Like a death bell tolling.

Tommy felt sick.

His heart was currently on the soles of his feet- squeezed and flattened until it was barely beating anymore.

He was in the middle of the hallway, and to his horror, the small blinking light above the elevator indicated what floor the elevator had just stopped on.

His floor. 

The elevator doors slid open.

Inside was a large group of about 12 men. Guns in hand. Balaclavas and various other masks covering their identities. Smoke bombs and dynamite strapped across their chests.

The power suppressor around his ankle had never felt so heavy.

Tommy bolted in the other direction- the direction of the stairwell that connected each of the floors.

Shouts erupted from behind him, in the elevator. The pounding of boots on carpet joined that sound.

Tommy slammed his shoulder into the stairwell door, he covered his head- bullets embedding themselves in the cool concrete right above his head.

He turned round- seeing the group of men quickly approaching the door.

He looked down into the stairwell. Another set of balaclava-d men looked back at him.

He swung himself to the left, his red converse (god bless those war-torn shoes) carried him up step by step, an entire army of men hot on his heels- shouting whatever came to their mind, coordination a solid zero.

Tommy grabbed onto the railing, one hand helping him to quickly swing himself round another corner on the stairs quicker than the men.

More gunshots appeared at his feet. Great. More random men ascending the stairs after him, then.

“Get ‘im! That suppressor will make us rich!” A rough voice behind him shouted.

He burst through another door- into the heroes quarters floor.

Fuck his life. Tommy was considering flinging himself over the railings of the stairwell.

One bullet left in his gun, any other remaining round now littered around on the staircase he was frantically trying to run up moments ago- Tommy was truly fucked.

“Ah shit!” He shouted, pressing his back against the door- the pounding of fists sent ripples down his back.

Tommy looked around him.

Okay, that’s good. That’s fantastic- actually.

A small entrance…table? That had some photos of the heroes in masks on it was the only thing close enough to him to block the door.

Tommy quickly moved back from the door, expecting a burst of hands to emerge from the crack he had just created in the door- but nothing came.

Of course! It would be completely idiotic to leave the floor with all the heroes personal belongings in it unguarded and open to anyone who managed to get up the stairwell. To go up to this floor in the elevator, you would need to have special clearance through some retina scanner…something.

Whatever, Eclipse explained it to him. And right now, it was protecting Tommy from the gang of hooligans banging at the door right now.

Tommy gave them a cheeky middle finger before turning away. An escape route right now would be ideal.

He knew there was nothing in his room at the moment. 

It’s not like his room would be hard to find among all the heroes' rooms- their doors were personally customised by whoever lived in them. Tommy’s, however, was painfully a stark white.

The hooligans performed a rather loud shout, taking Tommy right back to the situation at hand.

He was practically useless with one bullet, a handgun, and this stupid power suppressor round his ankle.

Wait. The power suppressor.

If he could get it off before in the middle of an 8th grade science class, he could surely get it off in the heroes tower.

He rushed into his room, grabbing the small lamp off his bedside table and frantically hitting it against the anklet. 

“C’mon…come on!” Tommy hit harder and harder, ignoring the pulses of pain that followed after each bash. “Oh for fucks sake!” Tommy cried out.

The door holding back the hooligans flung out in front of his open door, into the hallway. The metal bent into the shape of someone’s face.

A loud roar came from a couple feet down- along with a whole cacophonous sound of boots and whatever else footwear criminals have came reverberating down the hallway.

Tommy scrambled to get up. 

If he was still in Phoniex’s house he’d already be halfway out his window. 

Bodies slammed into the wall next to his door- they all came flooding in.

For Gods sake, why wasn’t his power like- future vision or something? They he could have told himself to close the door and push something infront of it until the heroes came back from wherever the cowards are hiding.

Whatever. There’s no point dwelling on what’s already done.

What looked like the gang leader was now infront of him. 

Tommy had abandoned his lamp in the middle of the room, choosing rather to push himself up against the white wall- attempting to school his expression into one that read ‘i don’t care about you’ but to the criminals, he was failing horribly.

“Where’s the weapons room, kid.” Head criminal raised a gun to him. Tommy grabbed onto his gun a little tighter.

Head criminal clicked his tongue- gesturing to one of his lackeys to take the gun from his hands.

Tommy let it go easily. What use was it anyway? Head criminal had a gun trained on his temple, how would a tiny bullet kill 30 men all at once? “Tell us where the fucking weapons room is!” Head Idiot asked again.

“I don’t know. Aren’t you supposed to know where stuff is in a building you break into? You definitely didn’t study stuff in school.” Tommy raised an eyebrow at Head Dunce.

“I don’t need to study when I have you. You’re the only person in this tower, so surely you know where the very obvious weapons room is?”

“If it’s so obvious why don’t you know where it is?”

“Oh for gods sake- just kill the stupid kid! He’s useless! And just a witness after this is done.” A lackey opened his mouth. He put a hand on Head Baffoon’s shoulder.

Head Idiot looked at his lackey, down at his gun, and then to Tommy.

“What! That’s so bad out! You can’t just kill me because I don’t know where your stupid little weapons room is!” Tommy waved his hands around.

Distantly, there was footsteps in the hallway.

“You’re too loud.” 

“Wait- wait!” Tommy threw his arms up around his face.

There was a loud gunshot, liquid splashed against his arms

It was silent. Nobody spoke. 

Tommys chest was heaving. He could still feel things- hear things. They hadn’t gotten his head, then. 

But where else did the bullet catch?

Tommy pulled his arms down from his face, a headless body laid in front of him.

His eyes blew wide. 

Each of the lackeys looked at him in fear- blood noticeable and splattered against their balaclavas.

Tommy opened his mouth to speak- but another lackey's head inflated, bursting like a balloon next to the sun against all of their comrades bodies. 

Their corpse dropped to the floor.

Like a chain reaction, one by one more popping sounds rang throughout his room, more splatters of blood splashed against the wall, painting any white red.

Tommy watched in horror as no one moved, no running to escape, no raise of their guns or speaking.

Ague descended on Tommy- sending him shaking as the popping became louder, and the sound of more bodies hitting the floor filled what seemed like the entire building.

It felt like forever.

Tommy had curled up even more, hands clawing into the tender skin behind his ears, hoping to block out the sound.

There was silence.

Footsteps rounded the corner of the wall- then a collective gasp occurred.

What the heroes found was an entire room completely coated in blood- it was dripping off the ceiling. There were too many bodies to count. Headless bodies- that is.

Tommy sat curled up in the corner, blood splattered across his face and hair. His clothes were ruined, a man’s insides seeping into his jumper. He was completely silent.

“Tommy?” Phantom’s voice called out, the first one to speak in what felt like a very- very long time.

The power suppressor fell off his ankle to the ground with a loud ‘clunk’ The other heroes took a step back, wary of what the young villain could do.

Phantom got to his knees in front of the curled up teenager. 

“What happened to you?” Wilbur asked softly.

Tommy looked up at him, a bewildered look painted on his face. “I-“ he tried. Then his mouth clamped shut. What was he even supposed to say? Tommy himself didn’t even know what happened. One moment the head invader was going to shoot him dead, the next, him and all his comrades were dropping like flies.

Hesitantly, Tommy opened his mouth again. “They…they were looking for the weapons room. I said I didn’t know where it was and they tried to blow my brains out.” He shrugged, shoulders hiking up to his ears as he still refused to leave the comfort of his position.

“Jesus. Did they hurt you at all?” Wilbur grabbed the sides of his face, turning him left and right, ignoring the blood that appeared on his gloves.

“No- get your dirty hands off me!” Tommy growled, stubbornly pushing Wilbur’s hands from his face. 

“What are we going to do with this room? I don’t know how we’re supposed to dispose of  all these bodies.” Reverie asked from behind the two. Kratos, who was leaning against the door spoke- his gruff voice low and unbothered, despite the situation. “It’s fine. I know a guy.”

Wilbur’s head whipped around to his brother. “You are not calling him !” “I have a favour.” Kratos shrugged. Wilbur sighed, turning back to Tommy.

What the fuck did he just do?

✵

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to leave him all alone there, by himself?”

“Nope. But he’s fine. He’ll find his way back.”

A beat passed.

“…eventually.”

Ranboo sighed loudly, his shoes beating against the dirt. “You did get the bag, didn’t you?”

Tubbo nodded, turning his torso slightly as he ran- to show his teammate the green book bag on his back.

Choosing school supplies had been one of the most fun things to do during the mission. He and Ranboo had never gotten the chance to prepare for any school term, given that they grew up in the slums of Manburg. He still remembers the fun they had picking up random pens and pencil cases- copies and what not. And to be fair, Tubbo did learn a little on the terms used for movie shots. Ranboo also learned that algebra wasn’t exactly his thing.

Once they got into the outer city, the pair ducked into a random alleyway, quickly switching out their regular clothes for their hero suits.

Ranboo’s hero suit was quite tight fitting, which made it easier for him to use his power without any snags. Going through multiple portals at a time was easy when he was just going through by himself- without any massive oversized hoodie that sometimes would get caught in between locations, leaving him stepping out missing a hoodie sleeve and what not. Thankfully, no living creature had gone through one of his portals and came out missing a limb. ……yet.

“What is this emergency call for,anyway?” Tubbo- well, Terra now- asked, pulling his old vintage pilot cap on, as well as his big and heavy woolen coat.

Apparently, he never overheated. Some kind of mechanism he installed within the furs. He did the same with his boots, which were different from the leathery brown colour of the coat and cap. The thick clothes- according to him- stopped any earth debris caused from his powers from hitting him too hard. It also reportedly helped disperse the impact from punches, too.

“Not sure. Well, whatever it is, it’s hitting the city hard.” Ranboo- Egress now, grimaced. 

They were met with a street of fleeing civilians, running in whichever direction their legs would take them. Egress covered his eyes as the top floor of a building exploded, glass sprayed down on the people beneath, another wave of screams erupted from around the two heroes.

“Go, Terra.” The name sounded foreign on Egress’ tongue. They hadn’t actually been out on the field in a couple weeks- he was too used to calling his partner Tubbo. “I’ll look for anyone trapped in the building.” Wordlessly, Terra nodded his head, turning and running in the opposite direction.

Egress made a small circular motion with his hands, and a large, black portal appeared in front of him. The edges a hazy, deep purple, the inside of the portal pitch black occasionally sprinkled with purple stars.

With a deep breath, he let the chill of his own powers wrap around his body.

Terra ran through the swarms of people, gently helping anyone who had fallen over in the panic to their feet. 

He pushed people out of his way by their shoulders, his small frame attempting to squeeze behind people of all shapes and sizes. It proved to be a difficult task, but he made his way towards his fellow heroes.

Atlantis struggled to push the person who was choking her off- her partner Laseris was distracted with his own problem, four masked people currently attempting to rip his jaw off.

Tera appeared suddenly, using his powers to pull up the road beneath him to give him a boost, his gold metal gauntlets smashing into the masked criminal's jaw. 

Atlantis was dropped, she stumbled backwards, gasping for air. “Thanks.” She breathed, immediately turning around to help her teammate. Using her water powers, she drenched all four of them at once, as they were stunned, Laseris lifted his red and blue glasses, a sharp red ray protruded from his grey eyes and into the road beneath the criminals, making a big enough hole that they fell into and got trapped.

Terra, Atlantis and Laseris all stood above the hole. 

“What will we do with them?” Atlantis’ hoarse voice asked. Laseris answered “We’ll come and get them later for questioning if the rest of their buddies don’t come and get ‘em.”

“There’s more of them?” Terra let the disappointment deep into his words. He just wanted to go back to his apartment and get a pizza, or something. And watch some shitty rom-com from 2013.

“Yeah. All the heroes are fighting them right now. They’re a big group. New, since they don’t have a name yet.” Laseris folded his arms, shaking his head down at the young criminals in the hole. 

One of them shouted up at the trio of heroes, shaking their fist in the air. “We are Potentia! We will destroy the heroes and restore who can truly handle all of the power to the top!” 

Their teammate practically jumped on top of them, gloved hands fumbling to cover the fist waving’s mouth. The two other teammates had separate reactions, one squeezed their eyebrows while the other seemingly rolled their eyes, their head rolling with them.

“Shut up!” One hissed. “We’re not supposed to say that yet!” 

Terra chuckled at their bickering.

A criminal perked their head up. “The hell you laughing at, hero!?” They spat.  Terra began to walk away, giving them a short middle finger to the group of villains with his gauntlet.

Atlantis followed after him, breaking into a jog. “That’s not very professional, Terra.” Terra shrugged. “Who are they gonna report it to? The heroes? They literally just tried to break Laseris’ jaw.” 

“Fair point.” Laseris piped up, catching up with the two.

“Where’s the others?” Terra asked. Atlantis sighed, they turned onto another high street, helping anyone who needed directions to the nearest medical attention and what not. “They’re off fighting the big groups of these people. Their setting of explosives left and right.” 

“Where were you? This all started like- an hour ago.” Laseris glared at Terra through their glasses.

“Dealing with Project Live Wire.” Atlantis gasped. “Jeez. That’s tough going. How was he today? After everything that happened with the Watsons?” Terra made a noncommittal noise. “Got some information out of him.” He patted his pocket, indicating that he had recorded it like he was meant too. 

Whatever conversation they were having was cut short, as a building near them began to rumble loudly. Terra grabbed onto Atlantis’ shoulder, steading himself. “Holy shit- what the fuck is going on?” Terra exclaimed. 

Reverie ran out from a nearby alleyway, quickly rushing into the building- Phantom hot on his heels.

Together, they crashed through the door of what seemed like a regular building with shops at the bottom and apartments at the top. Any occupants who had realised the imminent danger they were in pushed past the two heroes- few shouting words along the lines of: “He’s up there! I don’t know what he’s doing. “ or “my car! My dog! They’re still up there!”

The two heroes gave short reassurances, or directed the frantic occupants out of any exits.

“Reverie- come on, up.” Phantom jerked his head towards the stairs, woefully ignoring the shaking of it. The eyes of Phantom’s mask glowed a bright, neon orange. “There. Dog heat signature in that room, cat in that room.” He pointed ahead. “No humans?” Reverie questioned, fingers resting on a gold door handle. Phantom toom a moment, the mask eyes glowing once more. “No. No people left in the building.” Reverie nodded, and with that, the two heroes soon stepped out of the collapsing building, a dog and cat in hand.

The occupants looked in disarray as their appartments and buisnesses crumbled infront of their eyes. 

Reverie and Phantom handed back the pets to their owners. “The authorities will be here shortly- I’m sorry.” Was all that Reverie could offer, before darting off to help other people.

All the while Phantom and Reverie were saving pets from a crumbling building- more members of the so called group Potentia had come out of nowhere to help their four comrades in the hole, and to fight the heroes.

Terra ran up a ledge of his own making- grabbing Egress mid air, from where he had been blasted into the air to one of the members powers. He grabbed his wrists, using his strength to throw Egress back into the air, making a portal that he fell through to land on a group of Potentia member’s head’s. 

Terra slid down the ledge, running quickly and dodging a throwing knife coming his way to lift the ground beneath his feet and hurl it towards the member that was currently holding Atlantis down. Blood flew from their nose and they rolled off to the side. Terra offered his hand to the injured hero, who took it gratefully and helped herself up. They quickly separated, running off to help their partners.

Egress was jumping from portal to portal- avoiding hits from Potentia members. One managed to get a good hit on him, Egress stumbled back, holding his jaw. Terra came up behind them like a bull, using his gauntlet to smash into their jaw, sending them and their tooth flying. They made a loud groan- the other members tuned to Terra in fear.

He quickly ran at them, definitely breaking a couple ribs as they fell to the ground, joining the other member on the ground. Egress used his powers to disorient the other members, pushing them through portals in the air and on the ground- their bodies going in and out of them.

Once he retracted the portals, the members fell on their faces onto the pavement, before they turned on their side to vomit the contents of their stomachs.

Egress and Terra stood above them, Terra spinning round handcuffs on his finger. 

“Alright big lad, up you get.” Terra flipped over a Potentia member, clicking the cuffs round their wrists.

Most of the explosions had stopped now, the smell of smoke filling the city air. 

Suddenly, Kratos came up from behind him, shaking icicles from his cape shoulders. “Hey- we all gotta get back to the tower right now. Emergency.”

Terra groaned. “Please don’t tell me it’s Tommy.” Kratos winced, nodding his head.

Chapter Text

Tommy sat silently in the medical bay, his feet dangling off the exam table. 

“…Tommy.”

His eyelids slowly dragged across his eyeball. He looked at the scuffs on his converse, and how dirty they looked beneath the luminous white light of the doctors room. 

“…Tommy?”

How did they get so dirty? He barely wore them before he ended up in the hero's custody.

Actually, why was he still in the tower?

“Tommy?”

They knew that power suppressor’s  didn't exactly work on him anymore. It literally fell off right in front of them.

“Tom.. my”

Were they going to throw him in Pandora? So his power and life would be sucked out of him? So he could power their lights?

“Tommy.”

Because they didn’t know what else to do with him?

“Hm?” Tommy looked up from his swinging red converse and at Ponk. The hero tower resident healer. 

Apparently, he was the strongest healer in all of Manburg, and the second his powers were known to the public, he was snatched away by the heroes to work for the rest of his life.

“What makes you say that? I wasn’t snatched up.” Ponk chuckled, cleaning instruments that were not used on Tommy off.

“Hm? Did I say that out loud?” Tommys brows furrowed. “Oops.”

“Yes, Tommy. You did.” Ponk looked back at him, caramel brown eyes squinting, curls of phantom white hair falling in front of his slit eyebrow. “Are you feeling alright? Do you need me to do another check?” 

Tommy shuddered. “No thanks, Pink.”

“It’s Ponk.”

“Okay, Bonk.”

“It’s- you know what, never mind.”

There was a knock at the door. 

The mask of the hero Phantom peaked round the door. “Oh! Phantom, impeccable timing. Tommy’s just finished his check up.” Phantom slipped into the room. “Is he okay?” Ponk nodded shortly. “Save for a few bruises, I’d say he’s in perfect condition.” Phantom breathed out- as if he was worried. Like a massive weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Tommy glared at him.

“Can you give us a minute, please Ponk?” Phantom asked politely.

“No, fuck you.”

Despite Tommy’s very valued input, Ponk smiled wordlessly, leaving the two in the room, alone.

Phantom sat next to him on the examination table. Tommy immediately shifted away. “Get away from me- you ugly prick.”

There was a hiss and a click, and suddenly Tommy was face to face with Wilbur Soot .

“Put that back on, please. You might break a mirror. And that’s bad luck for seven years. But I suppose it doesn’t matter to you, you were born with bad luck judging by your looks.”

Wilbur gave him an affronted look. “O-kay… somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

“I can’t wake up if I haven’t slept, idiot.”

“Tommy, we- I need to know what happened to those guys.” Wilbur took a sharp intake of breath, as if expecting Tommy to run out on him. 

“If you're asking if I did anything, the answer is no, hero.” Tommy snarled. “Do you not think it’s a coincidence that the person who was about to shoot yous head exploded before they got the chance to?” 

Tommy reeled back. His face contorted into one of rage. “No, I don’t.”

He got up from the exam table, swinging the door open and breezing past Ponk. 

“Tommy..!” 

He heard Phantom’s voice call out from behind him

Bitch.

Shit.

Balls .

Couldn’t Phantom ever take no for an answer??

He- he’s such a dickead.

Tommy stomped towards the elevator, pushing past any innocent nurses and workers in his way. Some of them shouting angry insults at the abhorrent teenager interrupting their 9-5 jobs. 

Tommy stepped inside with an angry huff- jamming the yellow buttons only for them to spark, smoke beginning to emit from behind each one. The malfunctions followed their way up to the lights- each one flickering for a moment of two, before leaving the empty elevator in semi darkness. Tommy let out an angry cry, stomping once again out from the elevator, and to the nearby stairwell.

He ignored any bad feelings the stairwell brought him.

Fuck elevators. Fuck everything electrical in the hero tower- which seemed to be fucking everything!

The heroes held a large, 2-hour meeting which ended up in a decision to restrict Tommy’s every movement instead of using a power suppressor which had been proven twice that it simply didn’t work on him. 

On one hand, it’s a great pro. He didn’t even have to wait for anything to heat up in the microwave! He could do it in seconds with his powers. No need to stretch to turn on a lamp! Zap! It’s on! And brighter than ever! 

On the other hand- everything kept breaking. Another random health adviser in the building called ‘Hoover’ whose  name made Tommy laugh (which made Tommy immediately end any internal quarrel about whether or not to trust the man) had said that his power difficulties were caused by the stress of a new environment and everything that was happening to him. Also apparently due to the power suppressor- which was totally unexpected.

Tommy walked past his old room. Ignoring the smell that came from within. 

He made his way further down the corridor- to his room. Where on the door handle it was listed as his with a doodle- affectionately dubbing him “Toddler with a fork near a conveniently placed power socket”

Each time he saw it before entering his same old plain white room, it made him smile just a little. But he made sure no one was around before he did so.

Wait-

No.

Nevermind.

A guy came rushing down the hallway. To be completely kind and nice- he looked like a bit of a knob.

The man was wearing a large purple wizards hat- with silvers stars sewn onto it. He was wearing a large oversized sweater, with an odd smiley face on it. The rest of his outfit was pretty mediocre, black trousers with black shoes.

“Tommy? Tommy- is it?” The guy called out. 

Tommy sighed. “That’s me.” The guy sighed- out of relief. Not of the equilibrium that he had held being shattered just by his name being called. “Thank god! I’ve been looking all over for you. Thought I got the wrong person.”

“Yeah, okay. Whatever. What is it that you want?” Tommy removed his hand from his door handle- instead, choosing to fold his arms.

“Oh! Yeah! Schlatt wants to see you in his office. I’m supposed to take you there.” The guy nodded his head towards the stairwell.

“Why can’t we just take the elevator?” Tommy questioned, walking towards the guy. “I’ve been told about your…mishaps? I guess? With the electricity of the building.

“Right. Okay.” Tommy nodded. 

The two began their descent to the top of the building- Schlatt’s  office.

“What’s your name?” Tommy asked after about a minute of silence in the stairwell.  The guy turned to look at him. “You don’t know me?” Tommy shook his head. “No. I’ve never seen you before.”

“Movie-star planet? The- the onlyfans song? Koury Sisters?” He tried, waving his hand about. Tommy raised an eyebrow. “Why aren’t you just saying your name? I didn’t ask for the highlights of your life, man.”

The guy sighed, turning back to look at the stairs he was climbing on. “Weston. Weston Wiliam Koury.”

“Why did you say something about the Curry sisters when your not a sister?” Tommy ran up a couple steps, so he could walk beside Weston.

“Oh- it’s just a joke. I have a sister, Kaylnn. She’s older than me.” Weston then chuckled to himself, muttering ‘curry’ beneath his breath.

“Why are you Schlatt’s  secretary or whatever you are? Doesn’t everyone know how much of a prick he is?” Tommy asked- meeting Weston’s dark brown eyes. 

Weston shrugged. “My sister buys too much coffee. Well- I do too but that’s just me. I don’t even know Aksually does.” Tommy furrowed his brow. “Ack-soo-lee?” 

Weston sighed  fondly. “I love my Estonian friend.”

“What?”

“Oh look! We’re here. Bye Tommy! Good luck!” Weston called in a singsong as he pushed Tommy out into a hallway, descending quickly back down the stairs while singing something along the lines of: “bring Sally up! Bring Sally down….”

Tommy shook the odd interaction from his mind- and faced the hallway in front of him.

Schlatt’s floor was a whole lot different than the rest of the entire hero tower. Instead of the bleak, permanent marble white- the hallway to his office was complete with dark plank floors, with skirting boards to match. The walls themselves were wallpapered red, with portraits and paintings of various mediums and kinds framed with beautiful gold antique borders.

The hallway also reeked of old cigars and whiskey.

Tommy stepped up to the door, a similar brown wood shade to the floor, with a wide white frosted window, with the name: “ MR. J.SCHLATT” printed with black bold letters onto the glass. 

Tommy raised his knuckles and knocked on the glass, a gruff “Come in!” calling out from just beyond the door. Tommy opened the door with acquiesce- his nose immediately scrunching with the smoke that wafted his way.

“Matrix! Just the man I wanted to see.” Schlatt invited him in, a cigar held between his teeth. Tommy almost laughed at his ridiculous sideburns. Nevertheless, he sat in front of Schlatt in a rather uncomfortable chair. It made him feel small and unimportant against Schlatt’s- frankly massive- red leather chair.

At least it was brighter inside his actual office, thanks to the wrap-around windows.

“You smoke any cigs?” Schlatt wildly asked. “No? I have perfectly healthy lungs, thank you very much.” Tommy looked Schlatt up and down. “Can’t say the same about you.”

Schlatt chuckled, barely looking at Tommy as he looked through some papers, briefly taking his cigar between his fingers to take a drag out of it. “Aren’t you a character, kid?”

Tommy didn’t answer, he’d rather glare at the hero's head guy.

What else was he to do? Dream had always told him that if he’d ever come face to face with Schlatt, he is to  kill him immediately- by any means possible. Tommy could go the easy route and let Schlatt combust from the inside out by using his powers- or stab his eye out with a pen.

“Kid, I gotta be honest with you. You’re causing me a whole lotta problems since we had to deal with you.” Schlatt’s unnatural yellow eyes languidly looked up to meet Tommy’s.

“Any emotional damage caused to the heroes is not my fault. You hired a bunch of emotional pussies.” Tommy hissed, his upper lip raised.

“They’re emotional? Alright, Matrix. Tell me why you blew a bunch of criminals' heads off two days ago just because they pointed a gun at you?” Schlatt waved around his cigar, eyes not adverting from Tommy. 

Tommy bristled, his eyebrows furrowed angrily and he grit his teeth. “I did you a favour. They were looking for your weapons room. If I hadn’t exploded them, I would be dead and you’d be out millions of dollars worth of weapons.”

That was a lie. Tommy still saw their eyes each time he tried to close his to get any rest. There’s always a certain look people get in their eyes when they know they're about to die. Sure, he might’ve saved the heroes asses- which according to Dream he is never supposed to do- but that doesn’t mean he didn’t accidentally blow their heads up. 

Most criminals do bad things for a reason.

Most of those men had families to go home to. Children to love and feed and care for. Friends now wondering where they are.

No-

It was a mistake.

It was a mistake.

“True, but do you know how much it costs to clean an entire room soaked with blood? How much I had to pay my dear friend Ace to clean up 27 bodies- without so much as a peep from the media?” 

Schlatt laughed lowly.

“You may be young, Tommy. But you are causing me to lose more money than your life is worth.” 

Tommy felt his stomach drop.

Even though he felt sick with anxiety, his mouth was impervious to Schlatt’s words.

“Okay, listen here Jordan . You may be old as fuck and in desperate need of a nurse to wipe your ass- but you are the head of a multi-billion dollar company. You cannot sit there in your ugly, tacky red chair and tell me you cannot spare a couple thousand on someone who single handedly cut at least 3% of the crime rate down.”

Tommy and Schlatt began a staring contest.

“Dream broke out of the hospital.”

Tommy reeled backwards, any faux confidence he had built up was shattered.

“I know you’re getting comfortable here, Tommy. No matter how much you complain, or run away from Phantom and Kratos and Phoenix- I can tell exactly what you're feeling.

“What?” Tommy said, his mouth open. The thick smoke from Schlatt’s cigars suddenly felt much more suffocating than they did before.

“The moment you stepped into my office, I could sense your fear. When I mentioned your violence two days ago, I could feel your overwhelming guilt. I know what you feel about me Tommy-“

“- And now I know how you feel about Dream.”

Schlatt leaned back into his chair, taking another drag from his quickly shortening cigar.

“You’re fearful. You didn’t like being with him- you didn’t like being a villian. But it’s all you, all you ever will know.”

Schlatt placed his burnt out cigar in his ashtray, grabbing another from a small wooden box and lighting it with a gold box lighter.

“If you don’t stop causing problems for me and my business, you’ll be shipped right back to his doorstep in a pretty bow.” Schlatt paused, smoke billowing from his nostrils. “Do you understand me?”

“Yep.” Tommy gritted out, his anger replacing his fear.

“That’s sir to you now, Matrix. We clear?” Tommy got up from his chair.

“Crystal.”

He walked towards the door, feeling Schlatt burning holes into the back of his head.

Chapter Text

Fuck school.

Why was he even here again? 

He’s got nothing to learn?

What- more physics? All Tommy knows is that what goes up, must come down. Unless they have hovering, floating or portal powers. Then they can stay up there, I guess.

Tommy tapped his pencil against his desk. 

Yes, his pencil. Don’t judge! Pencils feel nicer than pens- more scratchier, if you will. And who can blame a man if he wants to erase his mistakes?

Time was going particularly slowly. Ranboo and Tubbo hadn’t shown up yet, and Tommy sat alone during break. He was a little lost. (Read: Tommy was very confused on what he had to do, so he said to no one but himself that he was going to take a really, really long bathroom break.) He was already five classes in for the day, and he began to get agitated.

Tommy beat his pencil into the desk in an inharmonious rhythm, index and middle finger working together to create the out-of-tune song.

“Tommy? Can you pay attention to this please? It’ll be important for the experiment later.” His teacher asked, pushing up his square frame glasses. 

Usually, Tommy would have some snide remark to reply with- something to tick the teacher off to get a reaction. But with no friends to talk to and not a notion to pay attention, Tommy hummed a quiet ‘ sorry’ a word that seldom ever left his lips. He resigned to drumming his pencil significantly quieter, on his lap.

Right before the experiment- to his utter delight- Ranboo and Tubbo walked into the class, funnily enough- they were at each other’s sides. The two sounded a little out of breath as they apologised to the teacher for being late to class, and stumbled their way to the back, where the trio usually sat.

The teacher nodded, saying something about how the two were consistently punctual, and mumbled something about them signing in at the reception, before continuing with his explanation of… something.

Tubbo leaned towards Tommy, asking a question that he should know by now Tommy wouldn’t have the answer to: “What are we doing, Tommy?” Tommy turned to Tubbo with a look that said nothing except ‘you think I would know?’ “I dunno. We’re doing an experiment in a minute, though.”

Tubbo nodded, sinking back into his seat and beginning an almost telepathic conversation with Ranboo.

“…using water…..”

“balloon….flame resistant….”

“..don’t bu…….your fingers….”

“tealight candles…..”

“Tommy….!”

“Tom my!” Tubbo shouted close to his face. 

Tommy’s head snapped up, almost colliding with Tubbo’s nose if Tubbo hadn’t moved back in a split second. “Oops. Sorry. That was close.” Tommy’s face cringed, Tubbo waved his hand in dismissal. “Just…reflexes.”

A quiet voice from behind Tubbo spoke: “You okay, Tommy? You seem kinda out of it today.” Tommy leaned back in his chair slightly, the back of it approaching the wall. “Yeah, im okay-“ … click.. ”just a bit in the clouds today, that’s all.”

Tubbo chuckled shortly, “Don’t burn yourself with the candles, then.” Tommy's head whipped around  to look at Tubbo. “Candles, what candles?” Tubbo jerked his head forward, to the rest of the class.

Sure enough, lit candles were being placed on each desk, deflated balloons beside them. The physics teacher came to their desk, placing down a standard white candle before lighting it with the … click.. of a small lighter.

Tommy ignored the flame in front of him and leaned over the table to speak to Tubbo and Ranboo. “Why were you two late? And why did you come in together? Do you live together? Why were you out of breath?”

Ranboo blinked twice in confusion. “We take the bus together- and we missed it, that’s why we were late. We had to run here.” Tubbo turned to Ranboo, his eyes shining with admiration for his quick answer. “Yeah. Stupid Manburg busses- fuck public transport.”

Tommy hummed. Public transport, eh? He’d blown up a couple busses in his prime- by he’d never rode in one. Good to know that they’re never on time.

“You two are always together- how long have you know eachother?” Tommy questioned, fiddling with the rubber on top of his pencil. 

“Look at you Tommy- talking interest in your friends lives!” Tubbo beamed, Ranboo behind him wore a meek smile. “We’ll all demonstrate what happens if……..why you have two balloons.” 

“Actually bitch,fuck you. Nevermind, I don’t care about your boring lives.” Tommy turned his nose up at the two. “Oh ha ha. Very funny, Tom.” Tubbo rolled his eyes. “I don’t know- me and Tubbo have just been friends since we were young.” 

“Yeah- but like where did you meet?”

“Eh-“ Ranboo and Tubbo said in unison- 

What? Were they supposed to say ‘ Yes, Tommy. We met at the start of the young hero program- and we’re actually heroes now! Please do not look under the table and please ignore any clicks you hear!”

“Through our parents.” “Kindergarten.”

Tommy looked at both of the boys, who both had two different answers. “Uh, what? Which one is it?”

“Kindergarten.” “Through our parents.”

The two undercover heroes panicked- Until Tubbo spoke up. “We went to kindergarten together- then became friends because our parents introduced us outside of school.” He said, before Ranboo could think of any other excuse.

“Right. And you’re not-“ pop! 

Tommy stopped right in the middle of his sentence, mouth snapping shut. Tubbo tilted his head slightly to the right. “Are you ok, Tommy?” 

“I-“

pop!

The man’s head bulging, eyes swelling from their sockets as his skin began to break and tear.

pop!

The horrified look crossing each of the criminals eyes 

pop!

The harsh splatter of blood on his face.

pop!

The loud drops of the blood on the ceiling crashing onto the floorboards 

pop!

The heroes-

“Tommy! Tommy?!” Tubbo’s hand gripped his shoulder- his hazel eyes darting across his face. Ranboo gently pulled Tubbo’s shoulder, indicating for him to move back- which he did. 

Tommy’s breath was erratic- too many thoughts crossing his mind at once. The thoughts squeezed at his heart, causing a sense of dread to slosh around in his stomach and stop his lungs from taking in any oxygen.

Ranboo took Tommys hands in his, slowly running his thumb over Tommy’s scarred knuckles as he spoke. “Tommy- whatever’s going on in your head, I need you to try to forget about it for just a moment. Breath in with me like this- you ready?”

Tommy stared into Ranboo’s hazel eyes. He nodded meekly.

“In for four, out for three- like this.” Ranboo took a long breath in, he held it for a moment, then let it out. Tommy copied his breath, albeit a little less smoothly. “See? You’re doing it. We’ll keep going together. Ready?” Ranboo did the breathing exercise again, Tommy repeated it.

Eventually, after a couple more successful “in for four out for three’s”  Tommys breath was back to semi-regularity.

Tubbo peaked over Ranboo’s tall shoulder. “You alright now, man?” Tommy shot him a spiteful look. “Yes. And I’m going to the toilet.”

Angrily, Tommy scrambled to the bathroom, only mildly gesturing to the teacher that he was going to the bathroom. The teacher dismissed him with a meagre wave of his hand.

He shut the stall door behind him, bathrooms empty thanks to double class periods for the whole school. Science double class periods that was. Tommy pulled down the lid of the toilet and sat down, the coolness of the bathroom calming down the slow anger that creeped into his veins.

It was embarrassing.

He-

He didn’t mean to get freaked out over some stupid balloons popping.

Tommy picked at a hangnail, then moved on to bite at a few cuticles. 

That had never happened before- even if it was too, Dream would have given him just a slap to get his head back in the game.

They were just some balloons anyway! For a science project supposed to be teaching them about….something! Something that Tommy was not paying attention to!

He slowly rubbed his tongue along his teeth. He furrowed his brow. All of a sudden, it seemed like a tiny cramped little bathroom stall wasn’t the best place to come down from a panic attack. Then again, a classroom probably wasn’t the best option either.

The next best option?

Mr.Dude.

In Tommy's always right opinion, he and Mr.Dude had bonded a whole lot during his detention. Tommy asked a whole lot of questions, lots of them Mr.Dude didn’t answer, or just gave him a blank stare. Either reaction was a win in Tommy’s book. 

He didn’t even bother knocking on the door, he just entered. 

“Ayup, big man.” Tommy nodded, leaning his body weight against the door to close it, the wooden blinds clattering against it loudly. Mr.Dude seemed startled, dropping a fountain pen onto his desk quickly. 

Tommy slid into a spinning office chair in the corners of Mr.Dudes office, he used his feet to push off the wall, pointedly ignoring the scuff his red converse made on the off-white wall. He spun over to Mr.Dudes desk, bumping off it before putting his elbows up onto it. 

“What are you doing?” Tommy asked, peering over the desk to look at what he was writing on the paper. “Nevermind what I’m doing, why aren’t you in class?” Mr.Dude’s brows furrowed. Tommy bit the inside of the cheek.

“Let’s just say something embarrassing happened, and I don’t want to go back to class.” Tommy huffed, folding his arms, momentarily kicking his legs out from beneath the chair. “But anyway, whatcha writing?” Tommy leaned over to Mr.Dude.

Before he could snatch it away, Tommy already had the letter in his hands, eyes darting from left to right at a fast pace. “To…Ponk?” Tommys eyebrows furrowed, recognition twinkling in his eyes. “That’s the guy who-“ Tommy glanced up from the letter, remembering who was in the room with him. 

“Nevermind.” Tommy shook his head- and then made an odd crooning sound. “Awh, love Sam? I didn’t know you swung that way, Awesamdude.”

“Don’t call me that again, Tommy.” Sam said sternly, but with a hint of joking behind his expression. Tommy slipped the letter back onto the desk. “Alright, alright. Dutifully noted.” He conceded.

“Are you going to tell me anything about what happened in class?” Sam tried, looking over the young teenager. “No. I just want to chill here, catch up over drinks?” Tommy offered with a raise of his two palms.

“No, you’re a student. Also I’m positive that you are underage.” 

Tommys hands fell back onto his lap. 

“Bitch.”

“What did you say?”

“Wha- who said that? I mean- wha- what was that? Sam, I think you have a ghost who likes swearing in your office, zero stars never coming back again.”

✵

Tommy slid into the passenger seat of Eclipse’s car. 

“So, how was school?” Eclipse drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, pulling out of the school's front car park and onto the road, avoiding any crossing school children.

“What are you, my dad? You’re only here to watch over me and make sure I don’t run off. Don’t ask questions you know you're not really bothered about what the answers to them are.” Tommy huffed, sinking down against the seat, the belt crossing over his chest and digging into his neck.

“Who put you into a bad mood?” Eclipse chuckled, glancing at Tommy out of the corner of his mask.

Tommy glared at him once he noticed.

“Okay, fine. I don’t really care about your day. But it’s nice to ask, you know?” Whatever popular pop song was playing quietly on the radio, complimenting to the 

humming of the car's engine as it moved along  the smooth city roads.

“Is this a way of you trying to get me to ask how your day was? Because it’s not working.” Tommy raised his eyebrow. “You don’t have to, because I’m going to tell you anyway.” Eclipse smiled to himself.

“So, I saved a cat from a tree-“ Tommy loudly groaned, putting his hands onto his face, jokingly digging his nails into the skin above his eyebrows, causing no pain while he did so “-it was a nice orange one, it only scratched me a little.”

“I don’t like cats, I rather dogs.” Tommy rolled his shoulder back against the seat, aching to stretch his limbs despite only being inside the vehicle for five minutes.

“We got a gift for you when you get back to the tower.” Eclipse turned to him. Tommy’s head whipped over to face the hero, almost giving himself whiplash against the seatbelt. “What? What the fuck? Why?” Tommy’s wide eyes darted over the hero’s cloth mask. 

“The heroes just want you to get a little more comfortable in the tower- no need to act like an electrocuted cat, dude.” Tommy sensed that Eclipse had rolled his eyes. 

“I will actually stab you.” Tommy prickled.

Eclipse let out a hearty laugh.

✵

Tommy wrapped his arms tightly around his torso, squeezing his ribs, his heart along with it. 

Eclipse steered Tommy towards the food hall, out of the rickety elevator that only the heroes used. “What kind of gift is it?” He could hear Eclipse’s huff over his shoulder.

“Stop worrying, Tommy. Why do you always assume everything is going to be bad?” The hero abruptly let go of his shoulders, instead moving his position to walk next to the young villain. Young.. ex-villain? 

Things were complicated.

Tommy’s feelings were mercurial. Some days, he was happy among the heroes, even though he knew he would never be the same as them. Was this ridiculous gift just a decoy? No matter how much time Tommy spends around the heroes, no matter how many undetected lies slid through his teeth-

No matter how much he convinced himself- no matter how much they would convince him-

Tommy would never be the same as the heroes.

So receiving a gift from the people that he still viewed in his head as the enemy seemed a little bit….peculiar.

Nevertheless, Eclipse pushed open the food hall doors, the soft conversations between heroes, the wafting smell of the beginnings of dinner preparations and the sound of shoes on the half tile half carpet floors enveloped the senses.

Just as Tommy shook his shoulders out, settling into his environment, he noticed two heroes sat at a table, engaged in a mediocre conversation, Phantom , waving a protein bar in the air in a theatrical way as he spoke, Kratos , sitting back and watching his brother ramble on.

Tommy didn’t let his heart dwell on the time that he was included in those conversations for too long.

He slid into one of the moderately comfortable chairs, letting his arms rest onto the table, letting his head tiredly rest on top of them. Eclipse soon joined him with a medium sized, white, rectangular box in hand. 

Eclipse pulled the chair out smoothly, as soon as he sat down, he slid the box across the table. Tommy raised his eyebrow at what looked back at him.

It was a phone. Well, a phone in a box.

Tommy lifted his head up from his arms. “A…phone?” Tommy almost whispered, confusion flashing across his features. Eclipse nodded- and if Tommy couldn’t tell any better, he would say Eclipse almost seemed… excited?

“Why would I need one?” Tommy questioned,opening the lid of the box carefully. (for once in his life) “For you to contact us? Contact your friends? I suppose everyone has one nowadays, and at your age, we all figured you should have one.” Eclipse nodded forward, encouraging Tommy to take the phone out of its box.

It wasn’t anything special, just a plain old black phone with a large screen and two circular cameras. “And well, in case you get into any trouble.” Tommy scoffed, rolling his eyes as he flipped the sleek phone between his hands. “Seems like I’m a magnet for trouble.”

“Hold the little button on the side to start it up.” Eclipse pointed to the side of the phone, where sure enough, a singular black button, the same shade as the rest of the phone protruded. Tommy held it, a white screen with ‘hello’ written in black cursive appeared, before flashing suddenly to a different language.

“What do I do now?” Tommy placed the phone back on the table, spinning around to face Eclipse. Eclipse swiped up on the screen, a bunch of controls occurring. “I’ll set it up for you quickly.”

Tommy laid his head back down on his arms, to his own surprise, he watched intently as Eclipse used the little keyboard to type different things in, and clicked other things. Tommy didn’t quite understand what he was doing, as Dream had never taught him anything  about technology other than computers and whatever applied to the situation they were in.

Eclipse soon slid the phone back over to him, a plethora of little icons appeared on the screen against a backdrop of mixed colours. A little battery symbol, a WiFi symbol and service bars were on the top right of the screen, while the time was displayed on the left. “You see the little app there? The one with the speech thing?” Eclipse pointed to the bottom of the screen. Tommy nodded. 

“That’s the messages app. Wait- I’ll put in my contact for you.” Eclipse briefly took back the phone, his thumbs darting across the screen in a seamless,practiced motion. He slid the phone back over to Tommy.

Tommy glanced down at the contact. At the top middle of the screen, the name ‘Sapnap’ was written. Tommy looked back up at the hero across from him. With the phone in one hand, he pointed to the name with the index finger of his other hand. “This is your name?” Tommy stared expectantly.

“Yup.” Sapnap nodded, a little bit more of his personal life shining through the hero mask.

Tommy snorted, even though the feeling of another hero trusting him enough to give him something as personal as their name to him warmed his heart.

̶A̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶o̶ ̶g̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶

To a normal person, something as simple as a name was just as it was described- a name. Some names could strike fear into the hearts of the public, while others would warm the hearts of anyone who heard it.

But in the world of heroes and villains, it made them vulnerable. Made them human, past the exterior of being nothing other than a Hero or a Villain.

“That’s so dumb, I'm changing that.” Tommy clicked on the small name, opening up a whole menu of how to edit the contact. “Woah, I can have a picture for your contact?” Tommy immediately raised his camera, snapping a quick photo of the hero across from him. 

Sapnap raised his hand to make a peace sign as Tommy took the photo.

With Sapnap’s name on his phone now affectionately changed to ‘Snapmaps’ and his contact photo added, Tommy was content with his singular contact on his new phone.

“We’ll have to get you a case for it eventually, because I just know you’ll drop it off a ledge of some stupid shit like that.” Eclipse settled deeper into his chair, crossing his arms over his black hoodie, the image of a bright orange flame becoming visible on his sleeve as he did so.

As soon as Tommys good mood came, it was washed away as he heard a honey voice come over the table. 

“What’s going on over here? You two are quite loud.” Phantom found his way over to the table, dressed in civilian clothes while sporting his hero mask.

“Go away, Phantom. You’re such a mood ruining little bitch.” Tommy glared, his thick eyebrows furrowing down over his eyes. Phantom let out a gasp, placing a hand over his heart, feigning hurt. “Tommy, you wound me!”

“Shut up, you prick.” Tommy looked back down to his phone, clicking random little apps.

Although Sapnap had chuckled at the two's interaction, he fixed his posture, while still having his arms stubbornly locked over each other. “Dude, he paid for like- over half of that.” 

Tommy hugged his phone closer to his chest. “I don't care, he gave it away to me so it’s mine now.” He spat at Sapnap, still holding the phone mulishly to his chest.

“Tommy, nobodies going to take it from you-“ Phantom began. 

“What are you? My therapist? Why are you still standing here, Phantom? Better yet, why did you even come over here?” Tommy spoke, vitriol spilling through his words.

Wilbur tried not to let the fact that Tommy hadn’t used his name burn him.

“Because you're being loud. And I suppose I was curious.” Phantom shrugged, standing there a little awkwardly.

“Well, good job, curious fucking George. You ruined my mood.” Tommy pushed himself away from the table, walking out of the food hall. 

Wilbur sighed, sitting down in Tommy’s chair as soon as the doors fully shut behind the teenager. 

His head hit against the table with a dull thunk. He felt the heavy vibrations of Technoblade’s footsteps coming over to them.

“What am I supposed to do? He won’t say my name, and he barely looks at me.” Wilbur murmured into the table, pulling his lanky arms up from where they had been dangling to support his head. 

“You’ve just got to give him time, dude. You just chose a bad day. Tubbo and Ranboo said that he had a panic attack in the middle of class, and disappeared to Sam’s office for the rest of the day.” Sapnap settled back down onto his chair, closing his eyes behind the mask.

The vibrations of Techno dragging a chair over to the two of them sent vibrations through Wilbur’s shoes. “I just thought that- if he was getting a gift, it would put him in a good mood- maybe a good enough one that he’d talk to me again.” 

As an afterthought, Wilbur quietly mumbled. “I know he didn’t mean to hurt me.”

“Today wasn’t the right day.” Techno’s gruff, monotone voice cut through the air. To others, it was a nice change of pace from the everyday vocals, but to Wilbur, it was a brotherly familiarity. “But there will be a time that you’ll be able to talk to him.”

Wilbur aggressively rubbed his mask against his sleeve in frustration. Then he slumped down, the tired weight of the day pulling him down. “I hope so.”

✵

“Stupid fucking Phantom- ruining every good thing I’ve fucking got-“ Tommy fumed, briefly squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head.

The generic grey carpet makes odd crunching noises as Tommy stomps towards the elevator, hoping to make it up to the heroes quarters- to his room before anyone else bothers him

In the widely spaced hallway, someone knocks shoulders with him. 

Well, that plan is out the fucking window. 

“You massive dickhead-“ Tommy takes a deep breath in, spinning around on his heel. 

He is faced by two heroes, their height differences staggering as the pair look at him blankly. “This stupid ass hallway is big enough so that you two nut jobs can avoid me!” Tommy scowls, his forehead slowly beginning to form a headache from all of his scowls today.

The taller one slowly raised his hands in defence, while the shorter one crosses his arms over his chest. “That is no way to talk to someone, young man.” The hero clearly puts on a deeper voice, making him sound more idiotic.

It almost draws a laugh out of Tommy, (Read: Tommy does laugh.) before his brain clicks-

Who the fuck are these two not-suitable-for-weather-attire, laurel and hardy, wannabe emo and cottage core freaks think their talking to?

“Who the fuck even are you? Some kinda… weird cosplayers?” Tommy points at the two with his index finger, darting it between the pair. “No, we’re Terra and Egress? The hero duo?” Tall one points out, his tone unsure, as if he didn’t know his own name.

“The fuck?” Tommy whispers under his breath. “Am I supposed to know who you are? Like- have you  been at an interview in your lives?” Tommy raised his upper lip, his scowl long gone- instead replaced with a mild look of confusion.

“No matter who we are, you should always respect others!” The short one leans forward, chest puffed out and arms still crossed. The voice he was putting on seemed even deeper, if Tommy had seen any movies or television shows growing up other than Back To The Future, he would say that the short hero sounded like a kid trying to buy alcohol with a fake moustache and a trench coat on.

“Suck my dick.” Tommy spat, the tall one reeling back like a giraffe who had begun to lose its balance. Tommy heard a loud, (still deep) gasp from behind him as he stepped into the elevator- along with a shout of “You get back here,young man!”

Tommy rolled up a middle finger as the elevator doors slid shut, smiling smugly as he did.

✵

“Did I do that well? Was my voice okay?”

A short laugh and a small shoulder pat.

“Sure did Tubbo, you sure did.”

✵

Tommy sat aimlessly deleting and setting up apps on his phone above the covers of his bed, ignoring the sight of the sky getting darker as it progressed into the night. He tried to ignore the thought of getting up early to go to school tomorrow. As much as he loved Tubbo and Ranboo- he wasn’t bothered to answer a wave of their questions. 

Speaking of Tubbo and Ranboo, he wanted to hang out with them on Saturday or something. He actually had fun the few hours he spent with them at the abandoned skate park. Even though what happened a mere hour after they left some kind of lasting effect on Tommy. 

He felt his eyelids tugging down, thumb still blindly grazing over the apps. 

He let his eyes close, the thought of school in less than seven hours left his mind, leaving it blank and silent- except for the sound of his own deepening breath. 

Then a knock sounded on his door. “Tommy?” 

Tommys brow furrowed, halfway into the start of his sleep cycle. He flipped over in his bed, leaving his phone to be released from his sleepy grip. He curled his legs closer to his chest.

“Tommy?”

His door clicked open. 

Tommy barley raised his middle finger above his arm. “Don’t be like that, Tommy.” Tommy immediately jolted up. “Phantom!” He hissed angrily, mouth slightly dry from sleep.

“What the fuck? Can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?” Wilbur huffed. “Tommy, you’re not even under the covers.”

“Mememememe- im stupid because I’m Phantom, and I don’t know how sleeping works!” Tommy sat up against his pillow, squinting his eyes against the warm light of his lamp.

“If- if you want me to come back tomorrow morning I will.” Wilbur began to back towards the door, but Tommy stopped hun by waving his hand round wildly. “No, I’m awake now. What do you want?” Tommy said, blearily rubbing his eyes.

“Are you ok? Up here- in the tower?” Wilbur awkwardly said. To be fair, he hadn't attempted any conversation with the teenager in…almost a month now. A part of him was still mad at Tommy for trying to attack him, but another part of him ( the one that yearned for the teenager to talk to him properly, like they did before.) could never be angry at Tommy.

“Why are you even asking me this, you're the one that put me here, anyway.” Tommy swung his legs over the bed, folding his arms and glaring at Wilbur through his eyebrows. “What are you here for? You woke me up, and now you’re just standing there like an idiot.” 

Wilbur took a quick breath, going to sit next to Tommy on the slightly crumpled sheets from Tommy's tossing and turning. “I’m- we’re sorry…about the circumstances you left our care in.” Wilbur repeated exactly what Technoblade had told him to say. Tommy scoffed, a laugh barking out of his open mouth. Wilbur’s eyes went wide. “That was the worst pre-prepared sentence I’ve ever heard. Who the fuck set you up like that?”

Wilbur wiped his face of his confused expression. “Nobody set me up-“ “It was Phil, wasn’t it? He’s ancient, he probably said that to a dozen people before me.” Tommy shook his head as he spoke, narrowing his cerulean eyes. 

“It was Techno.” Wilbur smiled slightly, remembering the moment over dinner after leaving the tower when Technoblade made him practise the sentence over and over while Phil shook his head at his two sons' antics. Tommy scoffed, turning away from Wilbur’s face. “That’s such a joke. Thought the only thing he wanted to do was get rid of me.”

Wilbur perked up at that, leaning forward

on the bed to see Tommy’s face, which was turned away from him. “What? What are you talking about?”

Tommy’s  head whipped around to face him. “I’m not stupid, Wilbur. I know you think I am, but I’m smarter than you think. I could lip read what he was saying.”

Tommy raised his hand, doing quotation marks and rolling his eyes. “He was all like “We should have just left him in prison.” And “Wilbur has too much of a soft heart.” “ 

How could Tommy ever forget those words- he was so angry at the family for thinking that way, that they still had the idea that they could just throw him away the moment he did something bad. And in the end, Tommy was right. No matter how many times he would lay awake at night, or daydream during class about what his life would be like if he had never even picked up that tray- he knew that he would push the line too far, and end up exactly where he was before. Prison. And just like always, he was right.

“Techno- Techno never said that. I didn’t hear him saying it.” Wilbur raised his eyebrow. “I was lip reading-“

 “Did you lip read wrong?” 

“No, I didn’t. You pissed me off by waving your hand in my face, you blocked my line of sight.” Tommy let his arms fall into his lap. “I’m sorry about Techno. I swear, I’ll never throw you back in prison. You don’t deserve that.” Wilbur looked crestfallen, looking down at the floor.

“You sure? Phil and Techno didn’t seem so keen on keeping me around.” Tommy folded his arms once more, raising his upper lip and squinting his eyes at Wilbur. “You know what my Dad’s like, Tommy. He’s very…protective over me and Technoblade.” Wilbur shrugged.

“Yeah. I think I could fucking tell when he called George to clart me.” Tommy rolled his eyes. “I didn’t know anything about that. I left to find you- Shit, I even took the car to go find you, and I’m not even allowed to drive!” Wilbur exclaimed, waving his hands.

“Wilbur, you’re like twenty-three-“ “-twenty-four-“ “-how the fuck can’t you drive? You’re a proper adult, man. That’s kinda embarrassing.” Wilbur’s cheeks heated up. “Hey. I had a licence. I just lost it.” Tommy looked unsure. “Did you crash? Holy shit- did you hit someone?” Tommys eyes widened. Wilbur’s did too. “No! No. I just- I did something stupid. Almost got me killed.” 

“Well I'm glad it didn’t.” Tommy punched Wilbur’s shoulder in a playful manner. “Then I wouldn’t be able to bully you.” Wilbur chuckled,rubbing his shoulder. Tommy hit hard. 

“If.. if you want, you can come back with me. Back to the house. I can’t guarantee everything will be the same.” Wilbur offered, a smile gracing over his features. “Technoblade will kick my ass.” Tommy frowned. “Last I remember I'm pretty sure you broke his nose.” Wilbur raised an eyebrow. “That was only because he was being a little bitch.”

“I only feel half bad for it.” Tommy sighed. Wilbur perked up at that, eyes gleaming with..pride? “Awh! Tommy! Is that an apology?” Tommy expression immediately changed, he began to move closer to Wilbur, shouting wildly. “No! No, no no. That was lies. I was joking. You’re a bitch and I hope you die a painful death.”

“Awh, Tommy. I’ll make sure to tell Techno you feel half bad for punching him.” Wilbur smiled maliciously.

“Hope you get crushed by a floating building the second you leave the tower, by the way.” Tommy glared at Wilbur as he began to get up to leave.

“I’m serious though. You’re welcome back to the house at any time. Technoblade will just have to deal with it, the stubborn bitch.” Wilbur shook his head fondly at the thoughts of his brother, his hand curling around the door handle.

“Yeah. Ok, I’ll consider it. I guess.” Tommy rolled his eyes. But suddenly, his finger shot up, pointing his finger at Wilbur as his expression became more stern. “No promises though.”

“Right, no promises.” Wilbur chuckles, looking back down at the floor for a moment before raising his head again. “Goodnight, Toms.”

“Night, Wilbur.”

Even though Wilbur had left 30 minutes ago, his presence still lingered as Tommy fought the pull of sleep.

Chapter Text

“Dude, that's so gross.” Sapnap shook his head at the teenager. “Like, actually disgusting.” 

“Don’t be a hater because you didn’t get any pancakes, snapmaps. ” Tommy squinted his eyes, talking with his mouth full as he stabbed his fork into another chocolate covered pancake.

Pancakes were nice. He wished he had grown up with them instead of only trying them now.

“Close your mouth, Tommy. It’s gross.” Sapnap’s lip curled in disgust. For the first time since they had met, Sapnap woke Tommy up maskless, much to Tommy's surprise. He was surprised so much that he immediately began attempting to suffocate Sapnap with his pillow. 

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” 

“That doesn’t even make any fucking sense-“

“Hi.” George announced, pulling a chair over. “Hi , Georgie. My favourite goggles wearing hero.” Tommy greeted, swallowing his food before he did so. 

“How come you swallow your food to talk to him but not to me?” Sapnap asked, dumbfounded. “Because I have standards. Duh. Also you're a bitch.” Tommy rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Hey Gogy, what’s going on.” Sapnap turned away from Tommy, instead looking at his life long friend.

“You might want to keep Tommy out of school today.” said George. “What! Why?” Tommy almost dropped his fork which had a perfectly cut piece of pancake on it. “Remember last week? When all the heroes were out of the tower?” Tommy stopped chewing his pancake for a moment, recalling exactly what happened while the villains were away. He continued chewing, except more slowly as his brows furrowed, taking in what George was about to tell him. “Go on…”

“The reason all the heroes were called from the tower and the tower was evacuated, was because a terrorist group had begun to deploy bombs all across the city, and the higher ups thought they might bomb the tower next.” George explained, looking between Tommy and Sapnap.

“So there’s a new terrorist group or something?” Tommy stabbed his knife into his pancakes once more. “Dammit. Why does this only happen when I decide not to be a villain?” Tommy asked no one in particular.

“Well, actually, here’s the thing. The group is called Potentia. Their goal is to return Dream to so-called ‘power.’ “ George used air quotation marks. Tommy growled slightly, eating another bite of his pancakes.

“And we have reason to believe that they need you to help their cause.” George finished. Nodding at Sapnap. “Which is why…we’ve all decided it's best to keep you under tower-arrest. Just until it’s safer for you to go out.” 

“Why? This is so dumb. They probably don’t even know what I look like, so how are they supposed to find me?” Tommy shook his head, slouching back into the chair. “Some of their members might be a little less…educated than average-“ George shrugged, taking his palm and tilting it forward and back. “- but we’re not underestimating them. They were able to gather highly explosive material and cause thousands of dollars worth of damage within a few hours.”

“I’m not staying here. I’ll find a way out.” Tommy pushed away from the table. Sapnap sighed. “Tommy, stop being so difficult. You’re making problems for yourself.” 

Tommy stood up from the table, glaring over at the two heroes who were blankly staring at him, with mild levels of disappointment. “I don’t want to be stuck in here. It’s not like you let me out of here on my free will anyway. What’s putting a title on it any different?” 

“Technically, we just work here. If you’ve got a problem, we can’t change it.” George quickly adjusted his goggles. “Ok. Then I’ll go to the only person who I know willl change it.” Tommy began to storm off, Sapnap began to rise from his chair, only for George to prohibit him from going after Tommy. 

“Shit. Where the fuck do you think he’s going?” Sapnap sat back down into his chair, George’s hand slithering away from him. “Schlatt, probably. Apparently Schlatt’s little partner in crime, Ace got in contact with Dream.” Sapnap bit his lip nervously for a moment. “I can tell that green bastard is stirring things up. Potentia coming out of the shadows and now this shit?” 

George shrugged. “I suppose we’ll just have to keep Tommy away from all this.”

✵

“You-“ Tommy moved his index finger in front of Schlatt’s face, going round in a circle. “-are a massive dickhead.”

“Tommy! What a great surprise.” Schlatt’s only visual acknowledgment to Tommy's presence was a meagre eyebrow raise, his speech slightly muffled by the soon-to-be lit cigar hanging from his mouth.

“Why are you locking me up in the fucking tower? You told me not to cause anymore problems, and low and behold, here I am. Problemless. Actually, not even locking me up, you’ve already done that. I mean, making sure I’m not even able to step foot outside the tower?” Tommy leaned over the desk, one arm bent, hand holding onto the edge while his index finger was still jabbing into Schlatt’s face.

“Listen, kid. This little ‘Potentia’ group wants you back with Dream. Alright? And unfortunately, I can’t let that happen. Because you back with the big man himself will do more damage than you’ve already caused.” Schlatt let the smoke from his cigar billow from his nose, much like how Tommy’s powers did when he used too much energy on his powers and had to literally let off steam.

Tommy retracted, arms folded, an odd mix between a pout and an angry snarl forming on the teenagers face. 

“Now would you mind getting your little-“ Schlatt gave Tommy a once-over, waving his hand in what was almost his direction. “-whatever type of teenage mood swing you’ve got going on, and get outta my office. I’m very busy today.”

“Well, whatever is taking up your very likely 

 really busy timetable will have to wait. Because I'm not leaving until you lift all restrictions for me.” Tommy mocked, a smug look crossing his face as he began to move backwards, looking for a comfortable enough chair to stay on until some kind of agreement.

“Do whatever you want, kid. I really don’t got any time for you today. I got a real important guy coming in.” Schlatt took another puff of his cigar.

Weston’s purple wizard hat perked through the door. “Schlatt? Ace is here.” He warned.

“Speak of the devil.” Schlatt murmured. “Let him in, sweetie.”

Before Tommy could question any part of that sentence, a short man walked in.

He wore a beanie, which covered most of his hair, except for the long, jet black parts that hung by his neck and partially covered the top part of his mask. 

Ace’s mask wasn’t too intricate, it looked like one of those opera masks. It was white with red and gold swirls round the eyes, and other swirls that curled round the side of it. 

His attire was a bit odd to Tommy, causing him to habitually raise his lip. Ace wore a white button up shirt, that was a slightly darker white shade than his mask. The button up was open at the collar and around two buttons down, revealing a gold cross necklace that would have been hidden beneath his shirt, if not exposed by the undone buttons. A red tie hung around his collar, pulled down to where the buttons stopped being undone.

He wore brown suspenders, and black dress shoes. His sleeves were pulled up, and he had long fingerless black gloves that reached up to the crook of his elbow. 

All in all, Ace was dressed rather smartly. Tommy supposed you had to go for a business meeting with Schlatt. Tommy wasn’t here for business. Well, technically he was. But Tommy’s Tommy, so he’s allowed to wear a hoodie and trousers to a meeting with Schlatt. 

Ace approaches the chair next to Tommy, arms folded. “Didn’t think to tell me you invited a child to our meeting.” His voice is deeper than Tommy thought, however Tommy chalked it up to a voice changer inside the mask. He could feel the electricity off it quietly humming around Ace’s face.

“Matrix, don’t be rude. We wouldn’t want Ace to be affronted by your first meeting, would we?” Schlatt smiled cruelly, removing the cigar from his mouth. 

Tommy sat down in the chair, Ace still standing, eyeing Tommy oddly. 

“That… kid… is Matrix?” Ace pointed at Tommy, who now had brought his knees close up to his chest, sinking into the armchair that Schlatt had, reminding himself that it was just as uncomfortable as it had been the last time he was up in the office.

“No, I’m not actually. I’m a random homeless guy who waltzed up here just for fun.” Tommy spat out. 

“You did tell him about Dream, didn’t you?” Ace asked, backing up to sit in the chair. Schlatt nodded, sucking in another drag of his cigar, which was considerably smaller than when he lit it. “Course I did.” He answered.

“I suppose he can stay for this meeting then. Since it is about his boss, after all.” Ace shrugged, arms still folded. Schlatt took out two glasses from under his desk, taking out a bottle of liquor and pouring the strong smelling alcohol into them, pushing one towards Ace in an offering. He gladly took it. 

“Wow. Thanks. Not like I’ve been trying to forget about all that information all week.” Tommy rolled his eyes. “Not my problem.” Ace said, no distinct tone in his voice as he lifted his mask just above his lips, taking a strong gulp of the alcohol he had been offered.

“It will be your problem if you don’t try to get Dream away from the kid.” Schlatt promised, taking a swig of his drink. “No. I’ve already told you I won’t track Dream for any sum of money. The last time I tried it I lost too many of my men.” Ace shook his head, his jet black hair following the motion. 

“He will come after Matrix. Everyone knows he will. I’ve always known their was something deeper than the kid cutting him up. This whole thing of Dream sneaking around in the shadows trying to get him back just proves my point.” Ace lifted the glass to his lips again.

A deep buried part of Tommy wanted to take comfort in the fact that Dream was looking for him, that he still needed Tommy. For the information he has undoubtedly gathered during his stay around the heroes.

That was the old part of him. 

The new part, had a deep rooted fear begin to sprout and bloom.

Dream was coming for him.

And it was inevitable.

“I’m unfortunately still here, y’know.” Tommy peaked over his knees to shoot a dirty look at the masked man. “Yeah, sorry. I’m not talking any heat to a twelve-year-old kid.” Ace chuckled, tilting his head back to finish the last of his drink.

Schlatt lit another cigar. “I don’t care how many guys you lose. I’ll pay you every penny I own to keep the bastard away from the kid, just for the time being. At the least track where he’s going.”

“Fine. But I don’t want Matrix to hear our buisness being settled.” Ace threw his head towards Tommy, who began to slip out of his chair.

“Just for the record, I don’t fuck with you. At all.” Tommy glared at Ace, who scoffed at him. 

“Alright, we get it. Now out.” Schlatt pointed to the door. 

“I’m still not following your restrictions by the way!” 

“You’d better. I will find you if you don’t.”

“We litreally are in the same building everyday.”

“Okay, yeah. Whatever. Out.”

Tommy stuck his tongue out at Schlatt vehemently.

He saw the familiar brown eyes and yellow jumper of Weston. “Ayup, Weston.” Tommy greeted with a polite nod as he pulled the door close behind him. “Hey, Tommy.”

“I love you-“ Weston began to sing, but he was cut off by loud voices rising behind the closed door. Weston let out a small “oh” 

Tommy began to shake, his whole body swaying with mirth. A loud barking laugh began to pour from his mouth, filling the dark hallway with the bright sound. 

Tommys laughs dissolved into coughing, he took in sharp breaths until his doubling over laughter faded into small giggles. “No, go on. Don’t let them ruin your moment.” Tommy grinned, eyes shining with tears and cheeks round and red from his laughter.

“I love you Tommy.” Weston sang, stopping for a moment to add a punk rock like “Ow!” At the end. Tommy let out a breathy laugh, still smiling at Weston, who was leaning on whatever little podium had been recently supplied to him outside Schlatt’s office.

“That was good. You’re a real musician, Weston.” Tommy folded his arms, shaking his head in amusement. “Thanks. Did you think it was good?” Weston asked, coming out from behind the podium.

“Very good. I liked the end. You should win an award.” “Yeah, I might soon.” Weston agreed. “Want me to walk you to the elevator?” He offered.

“Sure.” Tommy shrugged. “So..what’s going on between you and Schlatt?” Tommy questioned. Weston seemed to blanch for a moment, but continued his walk.

“I think we like eachother. We have fun when he doesn’t have any meeting. Schlatt gets me lots of gifts.” Weston smiled down at the elevator buttons that he was about to press. “Which floor?” “Ground.”

Weston nodded, pressing the button then falling silent.

“How’s your sister? What was it..um.. Katelyn? Is that her name?” Tommy said. “Kaylnn. She’s okay. She’s in our apartment with Jade and Beck.” “Jade and Beck?” Tommy asked. “Our cats.” 

“Cool. I like cats. Not too much, though. I rather dogs. I wish I had a little dog.” Tommy said sadly. He always did have a soft spot for any stray dogs he had found wandering around his little warehouse home. 

“Awh. I don’t mind dogs, but my cats are just too cute. Especially Jade. She’s my cat, she always just chills around my bed. “ Weston pulled out his phone, scrolling through his camera roll. “Look. That’s my sister and Jade.” He turned the phone to Tommy, who looked at the photo of a girl with brown hair holding a grey cat.

“I like cats like that, but I don’t like some cats. I have a scar from one on my arm. It hurt so bad.” The elevator shuttered up the shaft. “Jade would hurt a fly. Maybe stay away from her if you ever get to met her.” Weston shrugged, laughing shortly.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” The elevator doors shut.

✵

The city had claimed him as it’s own the moment he was born.

The thrum of car engines and streetlights after dark had become something that he mourned the loss of in the quiet nights of the tower. 

Despite resenting his old warehouse home, despite how many times growing up he would grow adgitated and smash what little belongs he had to the ground at the mere thought of how much better other peoples lives were compared to his- Tommy missed it. He missed the rather annoying dripping of rain that had wormed its way through the beyond dilapidated warehouses roof. 

Even if Dream had put him in there as a punishment that had seen no end, Tommy had found a home within the maze of empty (and sometimes not) storage containers.

And it’s exactly where he found himself wandering to, a pathway that his feet followed no matter how far away he was.

The warehouse was a long way from the tower. It was close to the pier, a place where Tommy spent what could questionably be called “days-off” with his feet swinging over the edge of the wooden pier, wondering if mermaids were real and if a really hot one would snatch him away.

A light drizzle began to fall. With the dark sky and bright street lamps paired with a little rain, it was enough to make the hairs on the back of most peoples necks stand up, or make them look over their shoulders a few times more than necessary. But for Tommy? This was an average walk home.

Though, something told him he had grown too much in the past months to recognise it the way he used to.

Tommy stopped, folding his arms as he looked up at the looming warehouse, a small, yellowish flickering light illuminating the large entrance inside. It was open halfway. Maybe he had left it like that when he left last time.

He peeked through the door, arms still folded. There was no sign of movement or noise. 

Blowing out a breath of stress, letting his shoulders drop. It smelled like the past. Damp, wet and mouldy. The drizzle was definitely helping that fact. He didn’t know how old the warehouse was, but it must have been here since 1950- or something. It’s not like he had the resources to find any information about it.

Would anyone be worried if he just up and disappeared? Did they know about his little hiding place here? Would they come and find him? Sapnap might. Maybe. In Tommy's highly acclaimed opinion, Sapnap seemed to like him. They even had gotten quite close with the car trips to and from school together. He laughed a lot more with Sapnap than he did in a while. Even though Tommy would never not be wary of the heroes, he appreciated Sapnap being truthful with him- literally giving him personal details.

Would they still forgive him even if he gave that information to Dream?

Ring!

Ring!

What the fuck was that sound? 

Ring!

It reverberated off the shipment containers, the metal acting like walls between a bouncing ball. Tommy whipped his head around wildly, unfolding his arms.

Another ring. 

Oh. It was his..phone? Tommy quickly took it from his hoodie front pocket, looking at the screen which lit up, saying INCOMING CALL with the name snapmaps beneath it.

…Sapnap was calling him? Did it really only take the heroes around an hour and a half to realise he was missing? 

Tommy let a frown settle on his face. He clicked the green accept call button. Sapnap’s voice immediately filtered through the speakers. “Hi.” He said- although it sounded muffled. Was he really eating? It must be half past midnight. Why on earth was he eating this late. Tommy let out a breath. Why not just ask? “Are you seriously fucking eating?” He heard Sapnap scoff. “Yeah, and what about it? Is a man not allowed to enjoy a good pizza roll at…” He paused, there was some shuffling. “Half-past twelve?” 

“A-fucking-M dipshit.” Tommy rolled his eyes, beginning to wander through the shipping containers in a path he had memorised from walking it a thousand times before. “Hey, man. I’m hungry. Do you want me to bring you up some food? You sound pretty awake for twelve A-fucking-M.” Sapnap offered.

Tommy felt the panic raise in his throat. He didn’t really care if the heroes found out he was here, but he would still feel like a little kid being put into the timeout corner after being caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He would not enjoy George’s scolding, especially after he was so adamant in the new rule of forbidding Tommy to leave the confines of the tower.

Unfortunately, Tommys panic showed in his voice, as mid-way through his sentence, he got a horrific voice crack. He could hear Sapnap giggling at he finished chewing his food, voice more clearer as he spoke next; “Ha. Enjoy puberty, Tommy?” Tommy scowled, his ears flushing red- although Sapnap couldn’t see that. “Do me a favour and go up to the towers roof and see how long it takes you to hit the ground.” That made Sapnap laugh even harder.

“Yeah, whatever. Die. Goodbye. Hope you choke on your next pizza roll, bitch.” Tommy hung up, cutting off the sound of Sapnap’s unique laughter.

He huffed- it wasn’t quite out of affection or annoyance, but maybe they both blended together in an odd amalgamation of feelings and emotions that Tommy had never felt with Dream.

His beat up converse splashed against the rain that continued to pool up on the undrainable concrete. If he still had stayed here- one more rainy day like this and he would’ve become a builder and repaired the entire roof.

He rounded the corner, just straight ahead would be where his old home used to be, tucked right in the corner-

The warm string lights were turned on. 

And someone was in his bed.

Tommy paused. His entire face scrunching in confusion.

The person had their head turned to the head, examining the various drawings and scratches that littered the shipping container that was the closest to his pallet with random pillows and blankets that he called a bed.

Tommy folded his arms, watching as the person turned around. 

Oh.

Oh that fucking dickhead.

Out of everyone in the entire 8.3 billion people on planet earth, Violet was sitting there. His ugly jumper makes Tommy’s lovely makeshift home look tacky with the colour of it.

The last time Tommy had seen this guy, he was on the floor of the canteen, bloodied and unconscious from Tommy hitting him over the head with an unexpectedly charged up food tray.

“Tommy. Didn’t expect to see you here.” Mauve raises an eyebrow. Tommy scoffs, biting his tongue the second his mouth opens.

“What? Cat got your tongue?” Heliotrope smiles, though there was no joy behind it.

‘No. I just stopped myself from spilling my biggest secret to you, tacky hoodie bitch-faced shit head fucker.’ Tommy retorted in his head. 

“It’s perfectly fine. I already know your biggest secret, Matrix.” Eminence jumped down from the bed, landing with a meagre splat! due to the wet floor. Tommy furrowed his brow, eyes following liliac as he walked behind him.

“Who are you again? Fucking- like…poodle..? Was it?” Tommy raised his eyebrow to no one in particular, his arms folded- pointedly ignoring the itching at the back of his brain that he had just let bright lilac walk right behind him. 

“Po- Poodle? How the hell did you get that from Purpled ?!” Purpled explained, rushing back around Tommy to give him an extremely aggravated look head on. “Oh!” Tommy drawled. So his name was something to do with the colour purple!

“So you’re a mind reader?” Tommy questioned, a genuine interest he didn’t know he had piquing in the tone of his voice. “Correct.” Purple responded with a curt nod. 

“Ok, so why didn’t you mind predict that I was going to smash you across the face with a tray-“ Purpled groaned loudly, dragging his hands down his face where Tommy could see there were healing bruises on the side he hit him on. “Let’s be real, Purpled. You’re a bit shit at using your powers if you didn’t see that one coming.”

Purpled scoffed once more. “It doesn’t work like that, dumbass.” Tommy stuck out his tongue. “Whatever. As much as I would rather die than hear you ramble about your powers, I'm here to get something of mine. So could you fuck off for a little bit while I get that?”  Tommy knocked against his shoulder, walking towards his old, damp bed.

Purpled pulled him back by the shoulder, Tommy looked over at him and glared into his soul. Purpled grimaced for a split second before wiping it from his features. “Actually, I’m here to talk to you about something, Tommy. So let’s let everything that happened between us be water under the bridge.” Purpled let go of his shoulders, raising both his hands in surrender.

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Sure. If it’s something fucking dumb, you best belive you’re getting smacked across the head again.” 

“I’m sure you’re well aware of Potentia. They’re the whole reason you’re technically not allowed out of the tower, right?” Said Purpled, his eyes glinting with opportunity. “Right…” Tommy folded his arms once more, looking the boy up and down.

“Come on, Tommy. Really? You are a powerful villain, you have no power restraint on, and you’re just taking everything these heroes are throwing at you?” Purpled eyes flashed a dull neon purple momentarily.

Tommy felt his thoughts shift. He felt a little embarrassed now that Purpled was pointing it out. He simply shrugged. “It’s not like I really have a choice.”

Purpled face contorted the second those words left his mouth. “Tommy. You’re out here with full access to your powers.” 

Tommy stayed silent. 

It was all quiet for a moment, Purpled’s neon pulsing eyes fell to the floor.

Were they… always pulsing?

Purpled met Tommy’s eyes.

They always were, dumbass. Even in school. Funny how the teachers never said anything.

“He’s looking for you. He wants you back.” He said, in a tone much more soft that it had been when they first spoke. Tommy’s head perked up. “He is?” Purpled nodded. “Yup. He wants it to be like old times. He said that you two make a perfect pair.”

“You spoke to him?” Tommy tilted his head.

“That’s what Potentia is made for. Delivering you right back to your owner.” Purpled eyes pulsed stronger, although Tommy had missed it, too caught  up in the question filling up every corner of his thoughts.

He wants me back?

“He does. He told me himself. See, im a member of Potentia. I saw you in school and knew exactly who you were. And I can deliver you back to him, and make everything perfect again.” Purpled walked around Tommy. 

“You can?” Tommy pulled his arms closer to his chest. The rain felt much colder than before.

“That’s what that day was about. The explosions, all the people that were killed. That was all because we wanted you back with Dream. But you stayed in the tower, out of our reach. “ Purpled stopped behind him, curling his fingers around Tommys shoulders, his face right next to his ear.

“All those people had to die. Because you didn’t want to get back to the man who owns you.” Purpled’s eyes flashed violently. Tommys lips parted, a certain look of horror passing over his features.

“But!-“ Purpled clapped down on his shoulders harshly, making Tommy jump and stumble forward a few centimetres. “If you work with us willingly, and do what Dream says, everything will be forgotten! All the carnage, death and pain you caused will be erased.” He smiled, nodding his head. The pulsing of his eyes seemed to die down.

“What do you need me to do? I’m here now anyway.” Tommy shrugged, whatever confidence he had before had simmered down greatly. He had shrunk in on himself while Purpled became much more boisterous. 

“As much information as you can gather, give it to Potentia. We’ll meet here every week to see what you get.” Purpled gestured to the surrounding shipping containers. Tommy nodded his head slowly. “Ok. I can do that.” 

“Perfect! Same time, same place, next week. Bye Tommy!” Purpled backed away, seemingly disappearing into the shadows.

Tommy huffed.

What-

…

What was he here for again?

No need to get sidetracked. All he needs to do now is get the information to Potentia, and everything will go back exactly how it was. He’ll be back with Dream- and everything will be perfect. The heroes will fall.

It will all go accordingly to plan.

Everything will be okay.

Everything will go perfectly.

Chapter Text

When Sapnap’s happy ember eyes woke him up at nine in the morning, Tommy felt a little guilty about sneaking off last night despite the wishes of practically all the heroes. He also felt more than a little guilty about his plans of selling their personal information off to a terrorist group to get back to his pseudo brother/mentor/mortal enemy that he stabbed not too long ago.

Sapnap dragged Tommy over his shoulder from his lovely warm bed. A bad habit the hero had gotten into three days ago. Apparently, according to him and George, Tommy was like a moth. But instead of being drawn to light, he was drawn to warmth.

When he heard this, he appropriately called them ‘fucking dumbass dickheads!”

Tommy groaned against Sapnap’s back, trying to kick himself off the hero's tight grip, even though his tired and unused limbs refused to move properly- and each movement caused pins and needles to shoot up each finger he used to poke into Sapnap’s back.

Sapnap chuckled when he felt Tommy cease his uphill battle, deciding to let his head fall against his shoulder as Sapnap continued to carry him towards his own mini apartment within the tower. 

Once inside the cosy apartment, Sapnap ungracefully let Tommy off of his back and onto the sofa, ignoring how the boy curled into the soft brown couch cushions, pulling a maroon coloured pillow close to his chest. Sapnap flipped onto the sofa next to him, where they sat in the early morning silence for a few moments. Tommy even felt himself drifting off to a peaceful sleep, when he felt a poking in his side.

Tommy conjured the worst possible dirty look he was able to give in his tired state. Sapnap was the one who was poking him. With his foot. “ Yuck. Stop that, you freak.” Tommy mumbled, turning his head towards the pillow once more and barely kicking Sapnap back. 

“Go brush your teeth. I don’t want your gross morning breath on my pillows, dude.” He prodded Tommy with his foot once more. Tommy let out a loud groan, throwing the pillow directly at Sapnap’s face- who caught it midair and watched smugly as Tommy physically slid from the sofa.

This wasn’t the first time he was at Sapnap’s mini apartment, he comes here nearly every morning to use the heroes bathroom- and sometimes his kitchen if Sapnap is being particularly nice. 

He had decided that Tommy shouldn’t have to use the staff toilets to get ready and do stuff in the morning, so as the person appointed to wake up the ex-villain, it made sense to let the teenager use his bathroom in the early morning. Sapnap didn’t mind. He thought it was funny to watch Tommy ram into walls every five seconds. It took him way longer than the average person to make his body work normally in the morning.

He scrolled on his phone, looking at whatever incident had happened overnight. He could hear Tommy in the bathroom, turning on the tap and brushing his teeth rather loudly.

Tommy was like an annoying little brother. He liked messing with Sapnap. Purposely pushing past him on the stairs then randomly starting a race for who could reach the destination the fastest, messing on his laptop and changing the desktop to obscure images, switching his sugar for salt for Sapnap’s cereal, switching the channels with his powers while Sapnap was looking away for one fucking second- and many other things similar to the former.

It was funny. 

George was Sapnap’s best friend, they had known eachother since they were children- but even he could get a tad too intense sometimes. Sapnap understood that it came with the terms and conditions of the job, but he was still young too. Sapnap was only nineteen and had decided that he could take a break from being a tough hero around Tommy. Who was currently falling asleep in the hallway. 

“Get up Tommy, you idiot. We’re going to get breakfast.” He kicked the curled up boy lightly. “We wouldn’t..have to go alllll the way to the food hall…if you didn’t steal my bloody leftovers!” Tommy groaned, getting cut off at the end from his own yawn. 

“I’ll drag you by your legs if I have to.” Sapnap shrugged. Tommy raised his fist and shook it tiredly. “Fuck you…bitch.” 

Sapnap hefted Tommy up onto his shoulder, to where the boy happily hung limply, head bouncing against Sapnap’s straight black hair every few steps until they got to the food hall.

The food hall was always bustling this early in the morning- it was the ripe time for staff to make their way in and for heroes to wake up and prepare themselves for the day ahead, and undoubtedly eventful patrols.

Tommy, however, still was falling asleep against Sapnap’s back.

He dangerously let Tommy fall off his back into his usual chair, ignoring the fact that Tommys head had fallen straight onto the table, making the mug that Wilbur was drinking from shake slightly with the impact.

Sapnap slid into the chair across from him, leaning back and closing his eyes like he did every other day.

“Wilburrrr…” Tommy whined. “Sapnap’s abusing me.” He lifted up his arm momentarily to point in Sapnap’s direction before he let it limply fall to his side. 

Wilbur took a sip of his coffee. “How do you even know I’m here? I didn’t say a word.” Tommy raised his head slightly, squinting at the light. He waved his hand over the table like a physic would over their crystal ball. “I can feeellll your presence Wiilllbburrr Soooottt.” He dragged out exaggeratedly in a ghostly voice. 

Wilbur sniggered, looking from Tommy to his mug and then down to his phone. Where he was reading the daily news. Like a nerd. 

Tommy yawned like a lion, resting his head on his now folded arms. “What’s for breakfast?” He mildly slurred. Sapnap cracked open an eye, turning his head to the side just enough so that he could see what the cooks had laid out. “Um- porridge? I think?” He guessed. 

Tommy stuck out his tongue and made a ‘bleh!’ noise. “Wilbur, pretty please can you be my favourite and get me cereal?” Tommy whined. Wilbur looked up at him, unimpressed.

“ Please? Please please please? With a cherry on top and multiple flavoured sprinkles?” Tommy did his best pout. Wilbur rolled his eyes, setting down his mug. “Ok. But you don’t get to choose.” Tommy smiled smugly as Wilbur turned to walk away, burrowing his face back into his arms.

“Why are you so sleepy? I dragged you all the way down here.”Sapnap questioned, eyes still closed as rested. “You didn’t drag me, you carried me. Like the wonderful man you are.” Tommy, much like Sapnap, did not move an inch to answer his friend.

Two seconds after that statement, Wilbur returned with a bowl of sweet smelling cookie cereal. Tommy perked up as he pushed it towards him. 

“Thanks, king!” Tommy wasted no time digging his spoon into the cereal, munching away. 

“Doing anything interesting today? I think there’s an arts and crafts festival a few blocks down, if you want to play with the rest of the children and make macaroni art.” Wilbur showed his phone towards Tommy, which displayed a news article with a photo of two children with glitter glue stuck on their hands.

Tommy scoffed, pushing Wilbur’s phone away with his free hand. “No, bitch. I’m on not-house-double-house arrest. Are you that unpopular that they didn’t tell you?” 

Wilbur reeled back, his brows knitting together above his gold wired glasses. “Rude child. I am very popular. Also, what does not-house-double-house arrest mean?” 

Tommy chewed his cereal for a moment. “This isn’t my house, and I wasn’t really able to leave here before anyway. So it’s double not house house arrest. Duh.” 

“You’re free to come with us to the heroes meeting today?” Sapnap suggested. Tommy hasn’t noticed, but he was sitting forward in his chair now, side-eyeing whatever Wilbur was looking at on his phone. 

“I’d actually rather throw myself off the roof. Thanks, though.” Tommy said with his mouth full. “Offer always stands.” Sapnap shrugged. “Man, I’m not going anywhere with Schlatt in the room. I am giving up being near Schlatt for Easter.”

“You mean for lent? Also- it is no where near Easter.” Wilbur looked confused. Tommy glared at him, shoving his spoon that had a small amount of milk still sitting on it in his direction. “Shut up bitch. It’s like - already March.”

“Tommy it’s October.” Sapnap corrected. “ Memememe im Sapnap- I’m named after an app and I’m dumb- mememememe ” Sapnap kicked a leg of Tommys chair- wiping the look of of the teenagers face and replacing it with fear as he desperately grasped the table.

Wilbur let out a barking laugh when Tommy immediately retracted back into himself, recovering from the embarrassment of his fear of falling over.

Sapnao grinned, flashing his rather sharp teeth. “I’m going to get you back for that- just you wait. ” Tommy promised, narrowing his eyes viciously. Sapnap rolled his eyes. “I’d like to see you try.” 

“I’ll clart you!” Tommy waggled his finger angrily. Just as Wilbur’s laughter had simmered down, it erupted again. He left his phone on the table as he clutched his stomach.

“It’s not funny bitch!” Tommy screeched, heat rising to his cheeks. “It was pretty funny.” Sapnap countered. Tommy practically hissed at him.

“Whatever. Fuck you both. I hate you.” Tommy pushed away from the table, moving all the way over to an empty table in the corner. He wasn’t truly mad- maybe just a little bit irritated- he just likes being dramatic. And when he caught a glimpse of Wilbur shrugging nonchalantly to his twin who was sitting not too far away talking to the hero Atlantis, he shot a very enthusiastic middle finger in his direction.

He pulled out his phone, fingers gliding across the screen until he found the group chat that Tubbo had made with each of their numbers included. He hadn’t had the chance to see them yet thanks to the fan-fucking-tastic ban the heroes had given him- but that didn’t mean he couldn’t sneak out again to meet them.

They were his best friends, after all.

Tommy smiled fondly at the last chats, after Tommy had said that he was grounded for a stupid reason, to which Tubbo replied that he would blow up Tommy's house to free him. He wasn’t quite sure if Tubbo was capable of bombing the heroes tower, and he wasn't so keen on finding out. 

He typed a simple message; “hang out 2night??? maybe??” and sent it. 

He heard a ding within the food hall, then another one seconds later. 

Tommy perked his head up, glancing around the room to see which hero had coincidentally got a message the same time that he sent one.

Despite most of the heroes or interns in the room having their phones out, none of them had it in their hands or seemed to be checking their phone.

That was an odd coincidence.

The tv in the room jolted to a different channel.

Tommy got up from his chair once he saw that his message hadn’t been seen. Tubbo and Ranboo were probably in the first period by now. He meandered through the tables back over to Sapnap and Wilbur, both who were looking at things on each other's phones.

“Why would he even have his ringer on?” He heard the two saying in a tone just lower than regular speaking as he approached. “Didn’t he say he gave a different number to To-“

“What are you talking about?” Tommy slid into the chair across from them. Wilbur’s head snapped up towards Tommy, his arrival unexpected. “Nothing. Wilbur is just stupid at phone numbers.” Sapnap jabbed his thumb over at Wilbur, who simply scoffed loudly. Tommy laughed nervously, eyes flicking between Sapnap and Wilbur. “ Okay…”

The three went silence for the first time all morning. 

Tommy squinted his eyes and furrowed his brows. “Ok you freaks. Keep your secrets from me.” Tommy huffed. “It’s time for us to get our stuff together to go to the meeting.” Wilbur looked to Sapnap, who nodded quietly.  Tommy rolled his eyes. “You go and do your hero business. I’ll be around. Maybe.” Tommy waved the two heroes off. Just as the two pushed the doors open, Sapnap with his hands in the pockets of his trademark white fire hoodie, while Wilbur waved to his brother to come along, he glanced at Tommy.

Tommy stuck his tongue out at him.

Now was his chance.

He could do what he does best- snoop around and collect a plethora of documents. And maybe avoid any documents about Wilbur and his family. And Sapnap. And anyone who was nice to him. And Cleo, the secretary- 

This was for Dream.

He wouldn’t mess up again.

He thought- he thought he was following the plan correctly. But he let his bottled emotions out, and Dream had to pay the price ten times over. He was in the intensive care unit for god’s sake! All by himself. Trying to gain strength while Tommy decided to make friends with the heroes. It was a wonder that Dream even wanted to contact him in the first place.

Tommy always does what Dream says. Dream took care of him, after his parents died. He doesn’t remember any of that- but Dream had never lied to him. Never broken his promises of truth.

Even when Dream had sent him out on the hardest missions- to a safe that was uncrackable , with hundreds of guards surrounding it- he had still believed in Tommy. He knew he would make it out of that mission even with all the odds against him.

That was the truth promised Dream made.

Maybe that’s why he had so much trust in him, the trust that had been instilled every since he was a little kid.

Maybe that’s why, after most of the heroes had filtered out to go to a large meeting, Tommy found himself in the massive files room in the basement of the tower. 

Surrounding him was towers upon towers of filing cabinets, with large, sliding metal ladders at the end of the many rows. Each of them was an exact replica of the last, same grey exterior and all. Tommy glanced to the side, squinting in the darkness at what label the cabinet had on it. Just as he had begun to make out a single letter, the large door swung shut, its bang echoing all across the large basement and encapsulated everything within its reach in darkness.

Tommy groaned, rolling his eyes to no one in particular. His hand dove into his hoodie pocket, fingers grasping around his phone. He pulled it out and clicked on the flashlight- wincing at the sudden blast of brightness for just a moment before resuming his search.

The first cabinet was listed as ‘A’, Tommy moved his flashing light up to see the next label. ‘A’ again. He moved it to the next one over, ‘A’ then the next one ‘A’…’A’.. ‘A’ ‘A’ ‘A’ ‘A’ ‘A’ ‘A’ ‘A’ ‘A’ ‘A’…. 

..when did it ever end?

Tommy continued walking further and further into the depths of the basement. Surely they had put the heroes' files within all the others, so if anyone like Tommy had decided to go snooping around, it would take forever to find them. And by the time they were found, the heroes would have already figured out what was going on.

Air hardly moved this far down into the earth, he could see the dust stagnant in the air directly in front of his flashlight. Everything down here was untouched. If the heroes tower is a government building, wouldn’t they check that nobody was tampering with any files every two days or something? Maybe the heroes were as dumb as Dream had told him so many times over. 

Tommy reached the end of one row after what seemed like forever. He had already begun to grow tired of the grey environment. 

His red converse scuffed on the ground as he walked on the outside of the tower filing cabinets- a worrying pit in his stomach had quickly grown from fear of all of the filing cabinets suddenly buckling and falling on top of him.

It was an odd fear to have. He wasn’t afraid of falling, or heights, or the darkness. The basic stuff. He had experienced so many others worst fears, but his? His, was being crushed beneath something. 

That was the most frightening way to go for someone, in Tommy's opinion.

He dragged his feet all the way to what he had counted to be as the ‘E’ section. He already knew that Sapnap was Eclipse, so his file was sure to be there. He would take it. Just in case. 

He wouldn’t- he wouldn’t just sell Sapnap out like that.

Where Tommy had least expected it, Sapnap has turned into a close friend. He was kind, but also headstrong and stubborn. He tried to nudge Tommy in the right direction at every chance he got. And he played cool songs in the car during the dreary mornings to school.

Sapnap was never too harsh or cruel, or too laid back and carefree either. Dream was harsh, (and cruel, but Tommy wasn’t exactly thinking about those incidents right now. He was literally taking the opportunity of all the heroes being somewhere to break into their files basement/room/very large room to get information about them for him) spitting insults and raising a hand, fist or leg whenever he saw fit. Sapnap’s words never twisted into ones of cruelty, and he never teetered over the line between cruel and straightforward.

That’s what Tommy liked about Sapnap. Unlike Wilbur and the Watsons, he never cut corners. Sapnap was blunt and told him nothing but the truth. Not a single sugar coating in sight. 

And when Tommy’s flashlight caught onto his name in the filing cabinet which was the third one from the very top, he sighed belatedly. That trip up the ladder was much, much slower than it needed too. He felt an odd pang in his heart when his finger landed on Sapnap’s brown file.

Simply putting his finger on Sapnap’s file felt like a crime.

The file was left untouched as Tommy descended the ladder.

Tommy’s shoes hit the ground, the sound of rubber against whatever mix of flooring that was beneath his feet reverberated between the metal. 

Who was next on his list? It wasn’t like Tommy knew all the heroes names off by heart. He looked down at the phone in his hand. He had one tiny little service bar all the way down here. Fingers darting across the screen and then the keyboard, he had located a list of heroes, old and new. It was on some odd news website, where each of the heroes' names were in bold, with a short description, ranking, fan ranking and a photo of them in action. When Tommy read a sentence that was outright untrue, he couldn’t help but scoff.

He had forgotten what the public was like when it came to their favourite heroes.

Singing out the Alphabet under his breath, he found that the next hero on his list was one that he hadn’t seen before. 

Their name was Egress. And although their costume had rung a bell in his mind, the name hadn’t.

It said in the description of the hero that they go hand in hand with the hero Terra, they were partners. And of course with being partners, then came rumours of dating which undoubtedly increased their fan ranking. Tommy scoffed at that. Their combined hero ranking, however, placed them at Number 12 as a pair. 

He counted the letters under his breath once again, one hand holding his phone tightly while on the other hand, his index finger counted the letters too. Once he got to ‘EG’ he counted the filing cabinets again untill he reached in and around to ‘EGR’. Tommy blew out hot air. His poor brain was not suitable for this much counting and calculating- it had taken him the whole walk through ‘A’ to figure out which way they had labelled and organised their files. 

Pulling open the tough metal handle of the grey cabinet, he gripped the ladder tightly as he looked through the files with two fingers. He grinned as he located the heroes file, taking out the hefty file with one hand. He tucked it under his armpit as he clambered down the ladder. Once his shoes hit the ground, he glanced at the file. ‘EGRESS’ it boldly said in the top left corner. He turned it sideways, his face contorting with mild confusion at the sheer amount of papers.

His finger slid beneath the cover, just about to flip open the first page- when he nearly dropped it from suprise. 

Further down, maybe three rows down, the white light from a bright flashlight shone throughout the tiny hall between rows. Distantly, he heard two voices whisper-shouting at each other- and with how long he was frozen in fear, they weren’t so distant anymore.

“ Shit. ” He swore quickly, shoes slipping on the floor as he rushed the opposite direction of the voices. He held the file tight to his chest, stuffing back in any papers that threatened to fall out to the wind. He spared a short look behind him, seeing the silhouettes of the two people round the corner right as he disappeared from their view. 

He kept sprinting til he got a good 5 sections away from them, leaning up against the cabinets as he breathed heavily. Who the fuck would be down here? 

Maybe the heroes weren’t as dumb as he thought they were- maybe the two figures were security guards who had been alerted by Tommy’s shockingly un-sneaky movements.

That just meant he had to work faster. He was in the ‘J’ section, to get to the next hero on his list was a walk in the park. ‘K’ for the top hero Kratos. Or Technoblade. What a bitch.

Technoblade had never liked him- he knew that well. 

“ We should have just left him in that prison.” That had said more than enough. Phil had cared about him somewhat, even after saying “ You are not welcome in my home. ” with as much anger as Dream had shown to Tommy the first time he raised his hand against the young boy. Phil had let Tommy stay at his home in the first place, let him mess about in the garden, and gave him a warm smile after he had just taught him how to properly plant a flower, and pack the dirt in round it. 

Phil was warm . He was everything but cruel, that day his patience was worn too thin, just like the rest of the family. Tommy should’ve expected it- but he didn’t- then everyone got hurt.

Technoblade didn’t care about Tommy. He was still seen as a criminal and Technoblade wanted him out. He was the top hero, so of course he would follow every rule by the book. Those rules did not include having a villian staying at your house, in a room right next to yours. 

Tommy practically jumped up the ladder steps, flinging open the correct filing cabinet and going through it at the speed of light until he found the right one. ‘KRATOS’

If anyone had seen Tommy now, they would’ve said he was giving the worst dirty look they have ever seen. Like- if it was directed at you, your head would begin to light on fire and burn, as if the sun's rays had been put through a magnifying glass pointed directly at the centre of your forehead.

Tommy grouped that file with the other two he had in his hand, then moved on to the next. ‘L’ Tommy wasn’t too educated on hero names, but apparently the next person was the hero ‘ LASERIS’ Laseris was a hero who was never seen without his companion Atlantis. However, their own powers did not go hand in hand. Laseris was cleverly named after his own powers of lasers. His most powerful laser came from his eyeballs, (which was very freaky to see up close) so, he wore red and blue coloured sunglasses to protect his eyes from harsh light. Atlantis, also named somewhat after her powers of water. Tommy had unfortunately gotten completely drenched by her dreaded powers on multiple occasions.

It would be interesting to read their file later- he would stop off at ‘A’ again in his way out. At least he could never get lost in this place, he just had to do the alphabet backwards to find his way back to ‘A’ and out.

The next- was Wilbur. ‘ PHANTOM ’ Tommy didn’t want to take his file. They made up, Wilbur  went out of his way to apologise to Tommy. And Tommy isn’t one for emotions-  but it was heartfelt. Despite what happened, despite the fact that Tommy literally attacked him- he still apologised. 

Phantom’s file remains untouched as Tommy descends the ladder.

Tommy sighed, counting the two hefty files he had safely in his grasps. The next hero was The Warden- one that Tommy had never really spoken too. Apparently he was nice, but when it came to business- he could change as fast as the weather. After The Warden, was a hero that Tommy is pretty sure he called a nutjob in the hallway.

Terra and Egress came in a pair, their powers were starkly different- but they worked well together. Terra could make whole new land formations while barely breaking a sweat, however he used it to his advantage during battle to get a job on rather tall enemy’s. Using Egress’ powers, he could jump through his higher portals using his ability to lift the pavement into a ramp- and teleport right above the enemy to drop a load of dirt, mud and rocks on their head. 

Tommy knew absolutely nothing about them which most likely meant Dream didn’t either. Getting their files is the one thing that would absolutely get him into Dream’s good books.

So, when he calculated which exact cabinet Terra’s file would be in- he had climbed the ladder faster than he had ever done in his life. All the pages nearly fell out of the file as he practically jumped to the next ladder.

He went a little slower going to get The Warden’s file. The Warden wasn’t that important. He was barely ever seen out on patrols, and Tommy hadn’t been bothered by him and his stupid oversized fork in a couple of months. 

The Warden creates much more of a hassle than was needed whenever they ran into-

What was that.

Tommy felt his breath stutter, then pause completely. His heart began to jackhammer. 

He paused, his finger just locating the hero's file. 

The area around him was partially lit. Tommy closed his eyes and cursed as a booming voice shouting “ What the fuck are you doing up there?!” Echoed all the way across the hundreds of rows of filing cabinets. Tommy spat out a short ‘ shit.’ under his breath. 

He slowly turned around. 

Beneath him were two figures. One, the flashlight practically shone through his …skin? Actually, where are his bones? Never mind that- standing beside ..it was Ace. The Ace.

Tommy joinked the file out of the cabinet as fast as he could.

“Matrix?! Get the fuck down, now!” He screeched, holding his torch higher to capture Tommy’s pale face. “ Uh- maybe not? I’m actually just going to,” Tommy climbed up another step on the ladder, inching closer and closer to the top of the row. It’s not like he’d hit his head on the non-existent ceiling. “Continue..climbing?” 

“Oh for fucks- Charlie! Go get him!” Ace looked to the thing beside him, directing it towards Tommy- who stuck out his tongue as he raced to the top of the row. Ace let out an affronted scoff. 

Tommy felt his shoulders drop as he looked at what must be miles of more cabinets. He would have to sprint to the entrance, if he could even find it again. 

At least with the fear of Ace catching up to him and dragging him all the way to Schlatt would make him move faster.  

Tommy turned back around. Then- he felt nauseous. 

What looked like a hand made out of slime had slapped above the ladder- the slime slowly heaving itself up to the top of the large cabinet. They had what looked like a stick poking out of their hair. At least they had somewhat normal eyes and a mouth- and for some reason they had very thick framed black glasses. Could this guy even see properly? Why did he need glasses? What the fuck? 

Their green…slime skin? Almost glowed under the weak light of Tommy’s phone's flashlight. “Hello Matrix from the warehouse! Quackity from Las Nevadas wants me to catch you!” 

Tommy let out a shriek, nearly falling off the edge of the filing cabinet. “What the shit?! What- what the fuck even are you?” The slime was approaching him now, Tommy backed further away. “I am Charlie! I am so human. Would you like to see my bones?” Tommy’s open mouth clicked shut. “..no?”

 “Do not be frightened Matrix from the warehouse! Quackity from Las Nevadas is only curious as to why you’re in the very secret files room!”

“That’s none of his business, why don’t you just go back down to him and tell him that.” Tommy gestured down to where Quackity was shouting something about simply grabbing Tommy to Charlie.

“I am partially sorry, Matrix from the warehouse, but Quackity from Las Nevadas really wants to talk to you.” Charlie nodded. Tommy scoffed.

He barely measured the distance between the cabinets- and prayed that he made it to the other side. 

Once he landed on the other filing cabinet, legs furiously shaking from the fear of missing that jump. Behind him, he heard Charlie cheer. “Wow! That was very cool, Matrix from the warehouse.” If he strained his ears, he could hear Quackity hiss “ No Charlie! Don’t encourage him!”

Tommy laughed shakily, grinning wildly at Charlie as his curls began to fall into his face. He blew a particularly stubborn curl from his eyebrow- turning away from him to jump another cabinet. 

Charlie sludged over to the cabinet Tommy had been on moments ago. “Matrix from the-“ “Ok, that’s getting annoying-“ “-warehouse, Quackity from Las Nevadas will not inform Schlatt of your whereabouts, as he hates Schlatt! And withholds as much information as he can.” 

“Poggers. Great to know. I’m still going to get away from both of you freaks.” Tommy pointed towards Charlie, and then to Quackity. Who had now moved rows to be directly underneath the pair. He heard Charlie say ‘ ’Aw…” in a childlike disappointment sort of way.

Tommy continued to jump from cabinet to cabinet- he could hear Quackity’s fancy dress shoes clacking on the floor below, trying to catch up with the pair. 

He stopped and paused for a moment, turning to face Charlie, who was still adamantly hopping from toe to toe just to catch up. “Why are you and Quackity down here anyway? Isn’t there some big meeting going on?” Tommy questioned.

“Quackity from Las Nevadas and I are actually collecting you-“ “NO! CHARLIE, I SWEAR, QUIET DOWN NOW OR NO GOING TO THE CASINO FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH!” Quackity threatened, his voice booming. Tommy flinched at the volume of his voice, while Charlie still kept his cheerful exterior. “Ok, Quackity from Las Nevadas. I will not tell Matrix from the warehouse anything!”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “No. Boo. You are a grade A fuckin’ nerd.” Charlie still had a bright smile. “I do not understand what that means!”

Tommy turned away from the humanoid slime, preparing to jump again. Before he could though, a slimey hand gripped his arm. “Matrix from the wearhouse, please do not jump again!”

“No,bitch.” Tommy leaped across the large gap to the other row- yet before his shoes could hit the metal, he felt a weird sticky arm wrap around his torso. 

It was Charlie. And they were both falling together. Slime wrapped his entire body around Tommy’s, his legs tight aground his waist. 

Tommy began to scream as the wind whipped at his face. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!” The ground was getting closer and closer . He felt Charlie’s grin against his neck. “I’m making sure you don’t hurt yourself, Matrix from the-“ They hit the ground. 

Well, bounced would be more accurate. 

Charlie’s freaky slime body had taken all the shock from the impact of the fall, causing them to bounce back up a few more meters into the air. 

As soon as they stopped, Tommy immediately flung himself from Charlie’s arms- furiously rubbing his hoodie while whispering ‘ew..ew ew ew..’ to himself. Yes it was gross, but he didn’t want to hurt the guys feelings by outwardly saying that he was a freak.

He puffed heavily, stopping his frantic shuffle away when he was an arms reach away from Charlie, who was also still sitting on the floor. “Do not worry, Matrix from the warehouse, my goop did not stick to you like I had hoped!” Tommy raised his upper lip. “Thats a good fuckin’ thing, man.”

Quackity loomed over the pair, arms folded across his chest, the flashlight pointing downwards.“Matrix.” He sounded very unimpressed. A feeling that Tommy had stuffed down as far as he could bloomed once again. “What? I wasn’t doing anything.” He pointedly ignored the papers that were strun all across the floor. “What’s all that in the floor then?” Quackity gestured towards the papers.

Shit.

What kind of excuse can he say for this? “Those aren’t mine.” Fucking dumbass.

“Matrix from the warehouse, you are the only one that could have possibly dropped those papers!” Charlie spun around on his knees to face him- expect it was a slow process of Charlie sticking and un-sticking himself to the floor to turn in a circle.

“Uh-“ Tommy nervously laughed. Why was he even trying? He’s just digging himself a bigger hole. “They’re for…research..purposes?” He tried, his palms began to feel clammy despite being pressed down on the cold floor. “He is getting very nervous Quacki-“ Charlie began, but Quackity waved his hand airly. “Yeah, I know. I’m not going to interrogate the kid.” He extended a hand towards Tommy, offering to help him up.

Tommy gladly took it. 

He huffed as he dusted himself off, folding his arms the second he had got the thick dust from the top of the cabinets off his arms and legs.  Tommy turned towards the papers. Shit. How was he every supposed to tell which one is which if all of them got jumbled up? A disgruntled look graced his face.

Quackity came up beside him, hands shoved far into his pockets. “Still a villain at heart, huh?” He leaned over to whisper in his ear. Tommy reeled back like he had been slapped. That hurt . He willed his face into one of spite, rolling his eyes away from Quackity. He stood scrutinising, in a subtle way to an untrained eye, but to one that had stuck with Dream for a very long time, it was rather obvious.

“I’m not doing it for anyone else. Nobody tells me anything, so I went and got it for myself.” He stalker forwards and began grabbing any paper he could get his hands on.

Charlie had wandered over too, his slimy hands choosing a piece of paper to help Tommy, yet it started dripping with slime immediately. Tommy grimaced, watching with disgust as Charlie’s hands practically enveloped the paper. Charlie looked rather sad at seeing the paper folding over within his hand. “Sorry, Matrix from the warehouse. I forgot to turn off the goopiness- just like a human!” 

Tommy raised his upper lip. “Humans don’t turn off goop..? The fuck?” Quackity waved his hand, picking up a paper from the now growing pile that Tommy had gathered at his shoes. Quackity examined it, paper flipping forward and back for a minute or two. “Hero files? You’re resourceful, kid. Planning to go for the files when you’re certain everyone is busy is smart.” Quackity nodded. Tommy tried not to let the praise warm his heart.

“What are you down here for?” Tommy questioned, raising his brow once he had all of the sheets of paper tucked closely to his chest. Quackity looked away. He was going to ignore the question, Tommy could tell from his awesome person reading skills. “Just buisness.” Bingo.

“Whatever. I don’t really care.” Tommy shrugged brushing past the..anti-hero? Actually, Tommy wasn’t really bothered to give him a title in his internal monologue. “I’ve inhaled so much dust- I think I’m high.” Tommy stumbled dramatically into the cabinets.

Quackity snorted. “You don’t get high from dust, Matrix.” Tommy began to walk backwards, a cheeky grin beginning to spread across his face. “So, you know how to get high, eh, Quackity? You a man of drugs like myself?”  Quackity sputtered. “No! Well- No!”

Tommy patted Quackity on the shoulder. “It’s ok. I know you have a drug empire.” Quackity shot him a dirty look. 

“We still have to find our way out.” Quackity shook his head sombrely, folding his arms tightly to his chest, Charlie came bounding after him, leaning forward slightly with his hands clasped behind his back to get a good look at his.. boss? Parent? Tommy wasn’t in the mood to make a video essay on whatever type of relationship the pair shared.

“No, we don’t. Just follow the alphabet backwards to ‘A’. That’s where the door is.” Tommy tapped his head. “Duh.” 

“Hm.” Quackity hummed approvingly. “More observant than I am.” Tommy’s eyes immediately darted away from Quackity. “You’d be a good addition to the Las Nevadas crew. You’re smart, you know how to fight and you’ve clearly got skills.” Quackity noticed.

Las Nevadas? 

Was that- is that the place that Dream- that Dream had told him to go to if he should ever die? 

Is Quackity the.. Alex..person?

“You knew Dream, didn’t you?” As much as Tommy wanted to pause to gather his thoughts, they didn’t have much time. They had to keep walking. “I did. I know who you are. There has always been a place for you in Las Nevadas, should you ever need it.”

Tommy hummed with no emotion. “So you are Alex.” That seemed to catch Quackity off guard. He turned to face him, mask glinting in the torchlight. It was rather unnerving, actually. “Yes. I suppose I am.” Quackity admitted slowly. “How did you know?”

“Dream told me.” Tommy shrugged. “He told me to go to Las Nevadas- and find you.” Quackity still seemed wary, he nodded slowly. “Dream was smart, then.” Tommy winced. “Eh…No, not really. I’m the smart one.” He pointed a thumb towards his puffed out chest.

“Keep dreaming, kid.” Quackity patted him on the back. Tommy scowled. He was the brains! Tommy was the intelligence behind all the big heists. Not only was he the intelligence, he was the one on the field- while Dream was doing god knows what in his fancy house. His fancy house that Tommy was not allowed into.

In a short amount of time, they had found row ‘A’.

Tommy tilted his head up, the fear of the towering cabinets suddenly collapsing on top of him returned. Quackity put a hand on his shoulder, Tommy thought he was being subtly about his very small fear, but apparently his breathing had picked up quite a bit. 

“C’mon kid, we’ve got to get out of here before this meeting ends.” Quackity ushered him towards the door that Charlie was holding open with a bright grin. Tommy nodded curtly, walking away at a fast pace to not only get away from the filing cabinets, but also Quackity’s hand on his shoulder.

Atlantis’ and Ace’s file remained neatly tucked away in their row ‘A’ sections, slowly collecting dust.

Chapter Text

Tommy sat on his floor. It must be eleven o’clock by now. 

The meeting had ended about an hour after Tommy and Quackity rushed out of the door of the file room, Charlie slowly sludging on after them. 

He had gotten the files he needed, and now he was surrounded by them. He held Kratos’ file on his lap, reading through it over and over again. It was funny. The great Kratos- named after the God of War- could have been called Ice Blade. Tommy snorted everytime he read that. Every villain's downfall would be becoming an arch nemesis with a guy called ‘Ice Blade’. Even if it suited his powers more. 

Maybe that’s why he avoided Sapnap like the plague. 

And according to the file, Phoenix had adopted him and Wilbur from the streets. Maybe that’s why they were such a close family. Maybe that’s why they rejected him-

Tommy huffed, letting the paper fall down once again. 

There has to be a reason for all this. 

It’s-

…

It’s something. He knows it is. Heroes don’t just take in villians, welcome them into their headquarters with not a lot of free range- but no one to enforce those rules. They’re hiding something. All of them are. Maybe not Sapnap, though. And Tubbo and Ranboo. Maybe.

There was just something off. He’s so close to finding what it is. One puzzle piece away. Maybe then he can sleep normally again. Stop staying awake at night wondering what’s going on? What am I doing wrong? Why can’t I figure it out?

Tommy pushed all the files towards him, his hand landing on ‘TERA’ . 

That hero was interesting. A fairly new hero that wasn’t seen out often, and never by themselves. Tera and Egress were a package deal, you could never take one without the other. 

He began to read through it, one hand holding the paper tightly and the other was harshly grabbing onto the yellow carpet beneath him. 

INVOLVED IN ACTIVELY: PROJECT LIVE WIRE 

Tommy paused. He was about to keep reading about this project, when a knock echoed from his door. “Tommy! Tommy, I’m not sorry if I’m waking you up!” Sapnap shouted from outside the door. 

Tommy nearly fell over as he scrambled to push the papers beneath his bed. Some of them got horrifically scrunched up as he pushed them as far back as he could. “ Tommy? Are you actually asleep?”  Tommy tried to keep the quiver out of his voice as he answered “No? Why would I be asleep at this time, bitch.” He rolled his eyes to no one in particular.

Once he thought the papers were stuffed back far enough, he got up from his knees, wiped the dust from his sleeves and turned to open the door. As he did, Sapnap grabbed the first opportunity to reach his hand forward and yank Tommy into the hallway.

Tommy rubbed his arm roughly while Sapnap closed his door with a soft click. 

“Ow, Snapmaps! You nearly pulled my arm out of it’s fucking socket!” His voice came out as more whiny than angry. To be fair, he wasn’t angry at Sapnap. He was just angry that he had almost made him armless.

“Come on, dude. No time!” Sapnap waved him towards the elevator at the end of the hall.

That is exactly how he ended up here. 

Out in the cold, in the middle of nowhere, jacket wrapped tightly around himself as Sapnap hopped over one of the concrete poles on the way to the shopping centre. 

“Where are we going?” Tommy asked wearily as Sapnap shoved his hands into his pockets, leaving the excitement of jumping over concrete poles to walk beside Tommy. Sapnap grinned, his teeth shining beneath the fluorescent orange and white lights. 

“Hello? What?” Tommy took his palms out of the fold in confusion as Sapnap skidded around the corner and out of sight. Tommy sighed, his head dropping down momentarily before he picked up again, dragging his feet after Sapnap. 

It was already so late.. Why were they even going here? Wilbur wanted to hang out later. As much as Tommy was hesitant to- he missed hanging out with Wilbur. He missed laying around in Wilbur’s room after school and talking about anything random. 

Despite what happened, he hoped they would eventually go back to at least a fraction of what it was like before. He missed Wilbur. A lot.

Sapnap was waiting for him around the corner. He looked mildly unimpressed at the time it took for Tommy to come around.

“Dude,” Sapnap shook his head and turned around to keep walking. Tommy decided to stick to his side. “You’ve gotta walk faster. This place is going to close in like- fifteen minutes.” Tommy whipped his head around, a scowl already etched on his face. “What the fuck? Why are we here if it’s going to close so soon?” 

Sapnap just laughed, avoiding the question entirely. “Don’t be a bitch, Snapmaps. I feel like you’re planning something weird.” Tommy gave him a levelling look. “I’m taking you somewhere cool- just chill out.” Sapnap still walked ahead, yet turned around to raise his palms at Tommy.

“I’m already chill. I’ve never not been chill. They call me Tommy Chill.” Tommy rambled, rubbing his hands up and down his arms. Sapnap began walking towards him, and suddenly enveloped him in the warmest hug he’s ever received in his life. 

Tommys breath caught in his chest.

When was the last time he had been hugged?

Was it- was it Wilbur? Or did it never happen? 

Sapnap rubbed his palms up and down his back- and Tommy realised that Sapnap was warming him up . Tommys caught breath left him in a vapour, the redness on his nose and cheeks from the cold but not to his own eyes. 

Sapnap reeled back, and Tommy mourned the loss of the heat from his powers. And- and the hug. The hug he missed the most. He was quick to wrap his arms back around himself, trying to keep as much of the heat he had been given in his body. Sapnap gave him a toothy grin. “Better?” He questioned with a sly look in his eye. “ Tommy scowled, even though his lips betrayed him with a smile. “That’s the only thing your powers are good for, bitch.” He grumbled, despite the warmth that surrounded his heart.

✵

The shopping centre was almost completely empty at this time of night, Mothers and children having abandoned their shopping carts for a day outside. Tommy had seen a collection of them just waiting to be picked up by some undisciplined teenager, a teenager that wasn’t Tommy. (he had been disciplined enough) Sapnap had briefly explained to him how they worked, Tommy didn’t really listen enough to care, but he appreciated it.

Sapnap had been teaching Tommy a lot of things, ever since they became close friends.

It wasn’t things that Tommy would die if he didn’t know, but just little things that helped him in ways that he would learn to forget until they became muscle memory. Things like holding the tea towel in the left hand if you're right  handed and vice versa when you're trying plates. Or how to fold clothes so that you can fit more of them into wherever you’re putting them.

In a few years time, (if he had that much time) Tommy would forget who taught him not to squeeze the sponge too much while washing the dishes, or else they get too soapy. He’ll just know it. Because Sapnap taught him the little things.

And they didn’t seem so little to Tommy.

“Why are there so many coins in the fountain?” Tommy tilted his head, watching the swirling water and raising his voice over the sound of the fountain. 

Sapnap shrugged. “I dunno. People put coins in there to make a wish, I think. I haven’t done it since I was a kid.” Tommy looked up at Sapnap, then began to stuff his hands in his trouser pockets.

He pulled out a small, gold coin. “Here.” Tommy said. “Make a wish.”

Sapnap grinned, it was one that would look unnatural on someone older, but it suited Sapnap. It was a young grin, not crazed, it was simply a childish grin on a man that was not too old and not too young. He took it from Tommy’s palm.

“Make it a good one, or I’ll regret ever giving you that money.” Tommy watched as Sapnap balanced the coin on his thumb nail, and flicked it up into the air, landing with a sploosh! In the clear water of the fountain.

Tommy waited a second. “Was it a good wish?” Sapnap waggled his finger at the impatient teenager. “If I tell you, it won’t come true.” Tommys mouth made an ‘O’ shape. “Come on, the security will kick us out if we’re any slower.” Sapnap beckoned. “What time is it, anyway?” Tommy wrapped his arms around himself. The warmth that Sapnap had given him had long faded, and the bleak atmosphere of the empty shopping centre had sucked it from him.

Sapnap shrugged. “Didn’t check before I dragged you out of bed. I know this mall closes at 11, though.” Tommy nodded meekly, and began to whistle a low tune, stopping just to hear it echo throughout the marble.

“Yeah, I was really comfortable, you dick. And you’re not even telling me where we’re going.” Tommy said, rubbing his arms again. 

When Sapnap turned around to look at Tommy- he saw him attempting weakly to warm himself up again. A look crossed Sapnap’s face- Tommy prayed that it wasn’t pity. “Why did you not bring a coat?” Sapnap questioned. Tommy’s mouth opened, then closed, an excuse forming on his lips quicker than his brain thought of one. “Fire. Big fire. Coat gone.” Tommy’s eyes went wide. Sapnap chuckled and nodded his head. “Ok, you pyromaniac.”