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Chapter Text

Theseus’ feet thundered against the rooftop as he ran, his heart pounded in his ears and his breath came out as a wheeze. He reached the edge of the roof top and paused for only a moment before leaping off and spreading his wings gliding safely to the ground. Behind him he heard the enraged scream of Demon, he turned around and stuck out his tongue laughing as this only seemed to make the villain angrier.

Without warning the night seemed to get darker and all noise seemed to disappear like a switch had been flipped. Theseus watched with horror as giant wings made of shadows sprouted from Demon’s back, his long dark robes whipped around his feet as he flapped his recently formed wings and lifted off the roof.

“Ah, shit.” Theseus muttered under his breath. Demon opened his mouth and said in a high-pitched voice unbefitting of his terrifying stature,

“Theseus, give back what you have stolen, or I will have no choice but to take it from you!”

“No thanks.”

“Very well then.” Demon raised his hand and summoned spears made of shadows they surrounded him in the air, and all pointed threateningly at Theseus. But before Demon could strike a figure leapt from a rooftop and slammed into him dragging him to the ground with them.

The person shoved Demon into the ground and punched him causing his body to go limp and the darkness to lift enough to let Theseus see his savior. It was a man tall and muscular with long pink hair. He was wearing a puffy white shirt, a long red cape and a wolf skull covering his face.

“Ares!”

“Theseus, I told you to stay hidden.”

“Yeah, but that’s boring.”

“Demon is a high-ranking villain what if a hero had come after him and saw you, they hate vigilantes.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever, but no hero showed up so it’s fine!”

Ares sighed and glared at Theseus before saying, “Did you at least get the power destabilizer?”

“If you mean this thing then yeah.”

Theseus reached into one of the pockets on the utility belt he had around his waist and pulled out a mechanical sphere the size of his palm which pulsed slightly with a green light. He held it up for a second before handing it over to Ares.

After stuffing Demon into a dumpster. The two vigilantes made their way to Hero Tower, where Theseus used his super awesome big man powers to sneak into the armory and leave the destabilizer safely on a random table. Before returning home to try and catch a few hours' sleep.

Safely back in his room Theseus carefully removed his hero costume placing the red baseball shirt, utility belt, and the mask which covered his nose and mouth, and kept his identity safe, into a box in the back of his closet where his dad and his nosy older brother wouldn’t find it.

Then he collapsed into bed no longer Theseus the super pog wife-having vigilante, but instead Tommy Innit Watson, average citizen.

The next morning Tommy woke up to his blaring alarm which he quickly shut off before stumbling downstairs. In the kitchen his dad, Phil, was at the stove making what smelled like pancakes, his large black crow wings filling the space. Tommy’s own much smaller chicken wings fluttered behind his back. His older brother Wilbur also had wings, but he usually kept them hidden, his other older brother Technoblade didn’t but that was because he was a piglin hybrid and adopted.

Phil turned around and smiled seeing Tommy,

“Good morning, Toms! Did you sleep well?”

Tommy went over and sat down at the table across from Techno who had his long pink hair tied back and was sitting sipping coffee and reading Art of War for what had to the trillionth time. Before stifling a yawn and saying,

“Yeah, amazing.”

“Uh oh. It sounds like the child didn’t get enough sleep does he need to take a nap?”

Tommy turned around and glared at Wilbur who was standing in the doorway grinning mischievously and somehow already dressed for the day wearing his signature, yellow sweater, trench coat and round glasses combo his brown curly hair perfectly mussed.

“Shut up bitch! I am NOT a child!”

“Aw, is the itty-bitty baby throwing a tantrum?”

Tommy threw himself out of his chair and launched himself at Wilbur, but before he could reach him Techno grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him back. Wilbur continued to grin as though he’d won some game only he was playing, and Tommy continued to glare daggers at him.

Phil had continued cooking as though this was perfectly normal, which it was, but he finally turned around and asked Wilbur,

“Are you going to have breakfast?”

“No, I need to get to work.”

With that Wilbur turned and exited the kitchen he opened the front door and called,

“Farewell, my lovely family, and until we meet again!”

Before exiting, loudly shutting the door behind him.

“Drama queen.” Techno muttered.

“More like drama bitch.” Tommy snapped back, still upset at being called a child, he was seventeen after all! That could hardly be considered a child! Wilbur was just a prick who wrote stupid songs and worked at a stupid music store.

“I can drive you to school today if you like.” Phil said while placing a plate of pancakes in front of Tommy and Techno and serving himself a plate before sitting down.

“Thanks dad!” Tommy exclaimed before drowning his pancakes in syrup and shoving them into his mouth.

Half an hour later, Tommy had finished getting ready for school, he met Phil down by the car. Phil was dressed in one of his many green coats which were modified to fit his wings and had his short hair pulled back in a ponytail. His hair was blonde the same color as Tommy’s, Wilbur had gotten his hair color from their mother who had divorced Phil and left shortly after Tommy was born. She had never come back, and Tommy had never met her.

Tommy’s school wasn’t very far away, and it was barely a five-minute drive in Phil’s car, which was of course green. After pulling up Tommy hopped out and called goodbye to Phil while running into L’Manberg High to find his best friend.

Tommy and Tubbo had been best friends since kindergarten where Tubbo, who was a goat hybrid, got bullied for his horns and Tommy had punched the offender in their face. Phil had been horrified at what Tommy had done but Tubbo’s dad, Schlatt, just laughed and said it sounded like Tommy would be a good influence on Tubbo.

After that they were inseparable. And now Tommy saw Tubbo standing in front of their first period class, robotics, jumping up and down excitedly and waving his hand at Tommy. Tubbo was short with brown hair and big ram horns which he was finally starting to grow in to and no longer looked like they were too big for his head.

“Tommy! There you are I was worried you would be late!”

“I would never be late, big man.”

They walked into the classroom together, waving at the teacher, who everyone just called Sam, had dark green hair and was glaring at a pile of papers as though they had personally offended him. Then sat down at the table they had claimed at the beginning of the year.

The bell soon rang, and the rest of the students filed in and took their seats. Sam had just stood up to announce the lesson for the day when there was a soft knock on the door, Sam went over to the door and had a quiet conversation with someone that Tommy couldn’t see.

After a moment Sam gestured for someone to come in and, what had to be one of the tallest people Tommy had ever seen, entered the room. They had split colored hair half black and half white with heterochromic eyes one green and one red. Despite being freakishly tall they seemed to be shrinking into themselves trying to appear smaller.

“Class this is Ranboo they just transferred here, and I expect you to give them a warm welcome.”

Sam looked around the classroom before turning back to the new student.

“Ranboo, why don’t you sit over there by Tubbo.”

Sam pointed at the empty seat near Tubbo who gave a small wave. Ranboo shuffled over to the seat and sat down staring at the desk.

After Sam had given instructions to the whole class and set them loose to work on their own projects Tubbo turned to Ranboo,

“So Ranboo where did you transfer from?”

“Oh, um, well, I didn’t really transfer my moms decided to move us to the city a little while ago and before that they homeschooled me.”

“Well, Ranboo,” Tommy said interrupting the exchange, “if you’ve never been to school before what made you decided to take robotics?”

“I guess I just always liked tinkering with things, and I figured it might be fun.”

“That’s cool! Me and Tommy are working on project right now since you obviously don’t have a group you can join us.”

“Okay.”

Tommy got up to grab their project from one of the tables near the wall of the room and brought it back, putting it on the desk. It was covered with a sheet, so Ranboo asked,

“What is it?”

“A nuke!” Tubbo said with a crazy grin on his face. Ranboo looked more than a little alarmed, so Tommy clarified,

“He’s joking.” And uncovered the remote-controlled car they were trying to build. With that they set to work. Despite never having really done any serious robotics before Ranboo had some pretty good ideas to fix issues the others had come across. And at the end of the class Tubbo and Tommy agreed that Ranboo was fairly useful.

As the bell rung and students began to pack up their things, Tommy turned to Ranboo,

“Hey. I know you don’t have anyone to sit with at lunch so why don’t you sit with us, we’re just in the lunchroom.”

Ranboo smiled gratefully and said, “I would like that I actually had no idea what I would do for lunch.”

Tommy nodded and marched out of the class with Tubbo and Ranboo following close behind.

After second period science, horrible, and third period math, even worse, Tommy finally had lunch. He sprinted out of his classroom earning a glare from his teacher and ran down the hall into the lunchroom quickly finding the table Tubbo was sitting at. Not long after Ranboo entered and looked around nervously before spotting Tubbo waving at them and walking over.

Tubbo greeted Ranboo before going back to ranting to Tommy about bees and how cool they are. Tommy was listening and would occasionally butt in with facts about spiders or cows. Ranboo watched the whole exchange with an amused look on their face. When Tubbo finally stopped to catch his breath Ranboo asked,

“So, how did you two meet?”

Tommy immediately responded with, “In a war we fought side by side before Tubbo betrayed me!”

“In kindergarten.” Tubbo said giggling slightly at Tommy’s theatrics.

After school Tommy walked home as he usually did, it was a nice walk and he always made sure to pass the house with the big brown and white dog named Henry and give him lots of pets.

When he arrived home, he found Wilbur sitting on the couch eating cereal and Techno sitting in the armchair reading The Iliad. They were both watching the news though Wilbur was much more attentive, but when Tommy entered, he looked up,

“Hey Toms, did you have a good day at school?”

“Yeah, there’s a new kid in my robotics class they’re kinda weird.”

Wilbur nodded and turned back to the screen Techno grunted as a reply. Tommy went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and then went back into the living room. He was about to ask where Phil was when the news story on the television caught his attention,

“-we have top superhero Time Twister, here with us, so Time Twister what can you tell us about what happened at Hero Tower last night?”

The camera switched to show a man with light brown hair he was wearing a purple shirt with a green spiral on it and a pair of goggles with swirly lenses covering his eyes. It was Time Twister, the third top hero after only The Captain and Majesty. He had a serious expression on his face and turned to the camera,

“Well as you already know there was break in, however I can assure you that nothing was stolen, and we are increasing security and trying to catch the culprit.”

“Can you tell us who the suspect is?”

“Yes, we caught security footage of the break in.”

The TV switched to grainy footage that showed Tommy climbing up the side of the tower and slipping into an open window. It paused and zoomed in on him while Time Twister continued to talk over the top.

“We believe that this is the vigilante known as Theseus if anyone has any information on him, we ask that you immediately report it to the heroes. Thank you.”

Tommy turned to look at Technoblade who was looking back with a look of horror on his face. Wilbur was squinting at the screen which was still showing the picture of Tommy as though he was trying to figure something out. Tommy dropped his water glass.

It hit the ground and shattered. Wilbur leapt up from the couch,

“Tommy! Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine don’t worry about me big man.” Tommy said while bending down to pick up the pieces of broken glass. Techno and Wilbur came over to help. Tommy was reaching to pick up the last piece of glass and he must not have been as careful as he should have been since it sliced open his palm causing it to start bleeding.

“Ow, what the fuck!”

“Here let me help.” Wilbur said in a kind voice while reaching for Tommy’s hand. He took the hand and placed one of his own on top of the injury Wilbur’s hand and the wound began to glow and when he drew away the cut had disappeared leaving nothing but a thin red line.

You see Wilbur had healing powers he had discovered them when Tommy had jumped off the roof and broken his arm trying to fly. Phil had been very surprised, due to the fact that he had no powers of his own and powers usually ran in families. So, it had surprised him even more when Tommy got his own power a couple years later, invisibility!

The only problem with Tommy’s power was that, while Wilbur could heal fairly big wounds without even breaking a sweat. Tommy couldn’t stay invisible for very long, so his power was only useful if he wanted to quickly sneak somewhere and not if he wanted to stay hidden for a long period of time.

Since his powers were somewhat weak when Techno found out that he wanted to be a vigilante he insisted that he come along to protect Tommy with his own powers which made him stronger, faster, and harder to hurt.

Even after Wilbur had healed his hand, he continued to look at Tommy with a worried expression,

“You should really try to be more careful Toms I won’t always be there to fix you up when you get hurt.”

“I know.”

“Tommy.” Tommy turned to look at Techno who was glaring at him,

“Yes, Techno.” He replied giving a nervous smile.

“Can I talk to you?”

“Of course.”

“Alone.” At that Techno looked at Wilbur who was eyeing them both curiously. Tommy sighed and got up to follow Techno into his room which was much less messy than Tommy’s and with way more books. A book about potato farming was lying bookmarked on the desk.

Techno shut the door and turned to look at Tommy,

“Why is there footage of you sneaking into the hero tower? I thought you could turn invisible.”

“You know I can’t for very long! I usually wait until I’m inside the building. Plus, that camera wasn’t there before they must have added it after we last snuck in!”

Techno sighed and looked at Tommy who was giving his best puppy eyes.

“Alright I guess I can take that as an answer. But we should lay low for a little while until this dies down. Which means no going out at night.”

“But Techno!”

“No complaining you should be grateful I’m not banning you from vigilantism permanently.”

Tommy groaned and walked over to the door and pulled it open stomping out to find Wilbur on the other side waiting for them.

“So, what was that about?”

“Tommy had an English project for school that he was supposed to have me look over and I was just reminding him.” Techno said quickly.

Tommy huffed before stomping upstairs to his own room.

Chapter Text

Laying low may not have been what Tommy wanted to do, but it definitely had some benefits. He had more time to hang out with his friends and he would definitely get more sleep than he had gotten in weeks.

To Tommy, though these goods things didn’t make up for the bad, he missed going out at night and though he would never admit it he missed hanging out with Techno regularly. Plus, he felt bad about getting caught, Techno was right he should have been more careful, he should have thought that the hero’s might have added a new security camera.

It was with these things weighing on his mind that he went into school the next morning. It must have been obvious on his face that he was upset since Tubbo looked at him with concern and asked,

“Are you okay?”

Tommy just nodded and stared glumly at the board, but before Tubbo could ask more questions the bell rang, and Sam began to try and get the class to settle down.

After Sam had finished talking and Ranboo had gotten their project out and started working, oblivious to any problems Tommy might be having. Tubbo began to question Tommy trying to figure what could possibly be wrong with his normally obnoxiously upbeat friend, but Tommy refused to say anything. Eventually Tubbo gave up and began to help Ranboo.

Soon the bell range and the trio began to exit the classroom. When they entered the hallway Tubbo announced,

“Oh, I almost forgot! My dad gave me permission to go to the new arcade downtown and he said I could invite friends. So, what do you two say want to come?”

“I’m your friend?” Ranboo squeaked out.

“Of course, you’re our friend!” Tubbo replied excitedly, “Is that a, yes?”

Ranboo nodded excitedly, “Sure I just need to ask my moms but they’ll probably say yes.”

“I need to ask my dad too.” Tommy said finally, seeming to shake off his slump at the prospect of spending a day playing rigged games and eating way too much junk food with his friends.

“Great!” Tubbo shouted before practically skipping down the hall with the others in tow.

Phil said yes of course and Ranboo’s parents did as well after some convincing. After that the week seemed to go be quickly now that Tommy had something to look forward to that weekend.

And on Saturday the three friends found themselves in front of the shiny new arcade. Tubbo’s dad had driven them there and had dropped them off before muttering something about work and driving off. Poor Ranboo had seemed absolutely terrified of Schlatt which was fair since he did seem to glare at everyone especially those he saw as weaker than himself which was pretty much all people.

But now they seemed excited, hyped up on Tommy and Tubbo’s energy.

As soon as they got inside Tommy headed straight for a claw machine filled with stuffed animals. He failed to get a moth six times before giving up and letting Tubbo try. Tubbo got the moth first try and then got a small pig which he gave to Ranboo saying,

“This is Micheal he is our son, and you must take good care of him.” Ranboo nodded solemnly and Tommy interjected,

“Well, my moth is named Clementine!”

After that they played Space Invaders which Ranboo was really good at, and laser tag which Tommy won by mile,

“Tommy, you only beat me by two points.”

“Shut up Tubbo you’re just mad I’m the best at everything.”

When Techno came to pick them up all three of them were in sugar comas grinning from ear to ear.

The next day was a day that Theseus and Ares should have been patrolling the streets, but Techno still insisted that it was too soon. Phil seemed to sense Tommy’s bad mood and suggested that they have a family movie night, and that Tommy could pick why they watched. Tommy chose Up which Wilbur complained loudly about until he fell asleep on Techno’s shoulder much to the pink haired man’s horror. And Phil’s delight.

On Monday Tommy went to school in a great mood that nothing could ruin.

His school day was actually pretty good. Him, Tubbo and Ranboo showed their car to Sam who was impressed. The worst part of the day was when Tommy got held back in math class because his teacher wanted to talk to him about his missing assignments.

Tommy walked home in almost as good a mood as the one he’d been in that morning.

When Tommy walked through the front door, he was greeted by laughter coming from the living room. When he went to investigate, he found Wilbur and two other people a woman with pink and a man with no hair Wilbur’s friends Niki and Jack.

Both greeted Tommy enthusiastically as he made his way to the kitchen to grab a snack but before he could get there, he felt his phone vibrate and he pulled it out to find a text.

bee boi

hve u sen th news?!???!?????

ranboob

No?

bee boi

tun it on rit now!!!!!!$!!!!

BIG MAN

why

bee boi

jus do it!’!!!!!b!!!!

Curious Tommy picked up the remote and flipped on the television switching through the channels to the L’Manburg news,

“-unexpected news. Mask is replacing The Captain as number one hero Nightmare is now number two and Ember is number three. For those of you who haven’t been following hero news this dynamic trio are fairly new to the scene, but they have risen quickly in both ranks and popularity being nicknamed by fans the Dream Team.”

Wilbur, Niki, and Jack had gone silent and were staring at the screen in shock Wilbur finally broke the silence,

“Surely The Captain and Majesty won’t stand for that I mean they worked hard to get those positions and then these randoms show up and take them.”

“Looks like we’ll find out.” Niki said pointing at the screen which had switched to live footage of The Captain and Time Twister giving a speech in front of a crowd. Time Twister was saying,

“I give my biggest congratulations to Ember for earning his spot as number three hero, and I don’t want anyone to worry I will still be working at hero tower as number four.”

With that Time Twister smiled and waved to the crowd before stepping aside to give The Captain the podium. The Captain stepped up and surveyed the crowd, the lights illuminating her sheep horns and frizzy white hair, the eyes of her sheep mask seemed to bore into the camera as she adjusted her pirate hat and red coat and opened her mouth.

“Hello everyone and thank you for coming out to hear us. As I’m sure you have heard I am being replaced as number one hero I’m sure that some of you may be disappointed, but Mask deserves this position and I have had it for a long time. So, though I am sad to lose my place I am also grateful for this chance to announce something I have been planning for a while now. I am retiring.”

The crowd exclaimed along with Tommy.

“I know that this is a lot to process I have been a hero for many years now and they were some of the best years of my life getting to work to protect the city side by side with people with the same goal was amazing, but all good things must come to an end. I hope you will all at least remember The Captain in a good light. Thank you.”

The Captain turned and walked off the stage as the crowd exploded behind her. Time Twister hurried up to the podium and spoke into the microphone,

“Now you will hear from your new number one hero, Mask.”

The doors behind the stage swung open and out strutted a man wearing a long green cape and a round white mask with a smiley face on it covering his whole face. Behind him were two other men one with brown hair wearing a blue shirt, red cape and white googles covering his eyes, his mouth wasn’t covered, and he was frowning as though he disapproved of everyone there. The other man looked much more pleasant he had black hair kept out of his face with a headband, was wearing a white shirt with a flame decal on it and a matching mask made to look like flames covering his eyes, he was smiling and even waved at a few people in the crowd.

Mask walked up to the podium practically shoving Time Twister out of the way to get to the microphone. The flame one, probably Ember, looked shocked at that, but Nightmare barely reacted. Mask cleared his throat and began his speech,

“Citizens of L’Manberg, it is my honor to accept the position of number one hero. It has been my dream for a long time, and it took a lot of work to get here. I’m sure you are wondering what my plan is now that I have made it and I will tell you it is to eradicate all evil from our great city this includes all villains in our record as well as those who you call vigilantes, though they’re nothing more than a villain waiting to happen if they shouldn’t already be considered one. I hope that I can make you all proud by locking up every evildoer in the city. Thank you.”

Mask turned and walked back through the stage door gesturing for Ember and Nightmare to follow him. The crowd was silent before a hesitant round of applause began. The television switched from showing the speech back to the reporter. Wilbur reached for the remote and turned it off. They all sat in silence for a moment before the others exploded in conversation. Tommy continued to sit in silence before he pulled out his phone and opened Techno’s contact.

BIG MAN

did you see the news?

pig man

Yes. We can talk about it when I get home. I don’t like what this means but we will have to see.

BIG MAN

okay

The others had begun to quiet down when Tommy put away his phone. Jack had gotten a weird look on his face and said,

“Hold on. Did anyone else notice that Majesty wasn’t there. The Captain and Time Twister were, but Majesty wasn’t.”

Niki nodded her head,

“I noticed that too, but they were probably just busy.”

The others continued to talk but Tommy retreated up to his room and tried to focus on his homework. Phil and Techno must have come home since Wilbur came up and knocked on his door to tell him dinner was ready. Phil and Wilbur led most of the conversation at dinner with Techno occasionally adding in, but Tommy barely talked instead just picking at his baked potato, Techno must have helped to cook, Phil noticed and asked,

“Do you want something else to eat, Toms?”

“No, I'm not hungry. I think I’ll just go do my homework.” He got up from the table and brought his plate into the kitchen before heading back to his room. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and Techno entered.

“I saw the news at work and afterward I did some research I’m still not sure how exactly Mask got number one, but I doubt it was legal since I couldn’t find any records of him.”

“That’s not the point Techno! You heard what he said he wants to ‘eradicate’ vigilantes!”

“The heroes have been saying that for years Mask is just louder.”

“So, what do you think we should do?”

“I think it’s time for Theseus and Ares to get back on the field.”

Chapter Text

Phil was worried. Not horribly worried but worried enough that he kept having to smooth his wings down. He had thought that everything was fine, Wilbur had finally stopped moping and writing sad songs after Sally had broken up with him but now his two other children were acting like someone had died. Tommy hadn’t said anything at dinner the other day and he had caught Techno actually watching the news. Their moods had only gotten worse since it was announced that The Captain was retiring, which was sad but didn’t seem enough to warrant such a bad mood.

This is what had led Phil to the park today whenever he was feeling especially anxious, or just bad, he would come to the park sit on a bench and watch the birds, afterwards he would always feel better. Though the bench he always went to was out of the way it wasn’t unusual for other people to be there but today the person there caught his eye, it was a woman she was tall with long dark hair, and she had with her a bag of seeds that she was scattering around her feet for the birds. She looked up, hearing approaching footsteps, and smiled seeing Phil,

“Hello!” she greeted.

“Hi, it seems the crows like you.” And it was true most of the birds gathered around her were crows, their wings shiny and black like Phil’s though quite a bit smaller.

The woman laughed a beautiful laugh that reminded Phil of a bubbling stream, “They just like me because they know I’ll feed them.”

Phil laughed slightly and the woman offered the bag of seeds to him Phil took a few and scattered them the crows immediately surrounded his feet fighting to get the food. Soon the bag was empty, and the crows flew away. The woman put the empty bag in her pocket and began to walk away,

“Wait! What’s your name? Mine’s Phil.”

The woman turned and smiled at him again, “Kristin.” Then she turned and continued to walk away.

After that Phil began to go to the park much more often and Kristin was nearly always there.

It few weeks later Phil found himself sitting on the bench and talking to Kristin, though he hadn’t known her for very long he felt like she knew him better than anyone else in his life. He supposed that it was just that he hadn’t talked with any adult friends for a while. He was in the middle of telling her about a prank Tommy had pulled which involved most of Wilbur’s hair products and mud when he noticed her giving him a look that made his heart flutter.

“What is it?”

Kristin seemed to snap out of a daze and smiled at Phil,

“There’s this restaurant near my house that recently opened, and I was wondering if you would want to maybe go on a date there with me?” She said the last part with a nervous look, as though unsure about whether or not she should be saying it.

Phil looked at her in shock for a moment before exclaiming excitedly, “Yes! I would love that!”

Kristin grinned at him and said, “Great! Then give me your phone number so I can text you the address.”

They exchanged numbers and Phil walked Kristin to the entrance of the park before they went their separate ways, Phil heading home with an extra skip in his step.

When Phil walked through the front door he was still grinning excitedly. Tommy was still at school and Wilbur at work. Techno was there sitting on the couch reading a book about Alexander the Great, he glanced up when Phil entered and asked,

“What’s got you so excited?”

“Just...having a good day.” Phil responded before going into his office.

The next day was the day of the date. They were meeting up in the evening and Phil had been looking forward to it all day. He had looked up the restaurant beforehand and it looked fairly fancy, so he had decided to wear a dark green suit he owned and a black dress shirt. Tommy was at Ranboo’s house with Tubbo and Techno was in his room doing something, when Phil had asked the only response, he had gotten was “research”. So, when he went into the living room only Wilbur was there watching a show on the television. When Phil walked in Wilbur looked up and gave a shit-eating grin,

“Where are you going looking so nice? Do you have a date?”

Phil considered telling his son that yes, he did indeed have a date, but then he thought about the amount of teasing he would have to endure and instead just said,

“I’m meeting a friend at a nice restaurant.”

“But you don’t have any friends.”

Phil lightly hit the back of Wilbur’s head as he walked out the door.

Phil pulled up outside of the address Kristin had given him. The place was called The Fox’s Burrow and was closer than Phil would have liked to Las Nevada’s, a casino run by one of L’Manberg’s biggest villains, Gamble who was second only to Lady Death who could kill people with a single touch.

Kristin was waiting on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant she was wearing a long flowing black dress with her hair loose, she looked like a goddess in Phil’s opinion. She smiled at Phil as he stepped out of the car and held out her hand which he took as he continued to stare at her in awe.

She led him inside and got them seated. Phil had just begun to look at the menu when a man with bright orange hair came up to the table.

“Hello everyone, my name is Fundy, and I will be your waiter today.”

“Fundy?” Phil said looking up startled.

“Phil?” Fundy gave Phil a confused look as Phil grinned at him.

“Hiya mate! I didn’t know you worked here.”

Kristin gave the two of them a strange look,

“Phil, you know Fundy?”

“Yeah, him and Wilbur are friends.” Phil continued to grin at the confused ginger. Kristin smiled and said,

“Well, what a coincidence I know Fundy too, through a mutual…acquaintance.”

Phil and Kristin ordered their food and Fundy had begun to walk away when Phil called after him,

“Fundy! Do you think you could maybe not tell Wilbur that you saw me here, I didn’t tell him I was going on a date.”

Fundy nodded and continued to walk. Phil turned back to Kristin who was smiling,

“You didn’t tell your boys you’re on a date?”

“Wilbur and Tommy would never let me hear the end of it.” Phil said laughing. Kristin joined him and they continued to talk about whatever came to mind. Fundy soon came back with their food, and they ate with Phil exclaiming about how delicious it all was. Sooner then he would have liked Phil found himself standing outside the restaurant with Kristin,

“Do you live far away?” He asked her

“Not at all. I actually walked here.”

“Then allow me to walk you home.” Phil said offering his arm. Kristin took it with a smile, and they began to walk in silence enjoying each other’s presence.

“This one’s mine.” Kristin said pointing at a small townhouse with flower boxes filled with black roses. Together they turned and walked up to the front door where Kristin stopped and turned to Phil,

“I had a lot of fun tonight.”

“I did too.” Phil said and leaned in to gently kiss her cheek. He pulled back and smiled at her before turning and walking back down the street to his car.

Chapter Text

When Techno had said that they were going to do vigilante things again Tommy had thought he’d meant going back to their normal routine of stopping muggers, saving cats from trees and occasionally fighting a minor villain. But apparently Techno had meant hours of scrolling through old records and following Mask on his patrols to take notes. On top of that Phil was acting weird, he was constantly smiling and humming to himself, he seemed to light up every time he got a text and would stare into space with a sappy look on his face.

For once Tommy was actually excited to go to school if only to get away from his dad and older brother. When Tommy walked into class that day, he found Tubbo and Ranboo waiting at their desk like normal but strangely Sam was missing. The bell had already rung when Sam finally came in and stood at the front of the class,

“Good morning, everyone I know this is unexpected, but we have an assembly this morning.”

A student at the back of the class shouted out, “What’s it for?”

“Well, you’ll have to head to the auditorium and find out.” Sam said with a smile,

There was a flurry of movement as everyone gathered their things and made their way to the auditorium. The trio of friends sat in a middle row of the audience far enough away from the stage that if the assembly was boring, they could talk without being yelled at but close enough to the front that if it was interesting, they would be able to hear.

Once everyone had been seated a woman walked out onto the stage and the audience quieted down. The woman was tall and broad, she was a sheep hybrid and had curled horns and frizzy white hair pulled back in a ponytail, she was wearing a navy suit and a smile that seemed to make the room ten times brighter.

“Hello everyone!” She greeted, “My name is Ms. Puffy and I’m going to be your new principal! As I’m sure you all know your last principal is no longer around and, in his absence, your vice-principal has taken the wheel.” Puffy gestured at a harried looking woman off to the side of the stage who was looking at Puffy like she was an angel descended from heaven to save them all, “And while she has done amazing. Trying to do two jobs at once is difficult. And that’s why I’m here! After your last principal L’Manburg High hasn’t had the best reputation but I hope to change that. As your new principal I will focus on community and bring students together. I hope to get to know every one of you and you get to know me in return. Thank you!”

Puffy had continued to smile throughout her entire speech but now as she waved to the crowd her smile seemed even brighter, which Tommy had thought would be impossible. The audience politely applauded, and students began to get up to go back to their classes.

On the way to their classroom Ranboo turned to the others and asked,

“What did she mean about your old principal?”

“He got arrested.” Tubbo explained, “Apparently, he was in league with some villain, and he got caught doing something illegal. No one really knows what happened.”

Ranboo blinked and nodded.

When they got back, they found Sam already there staring at the clock and frowning. Only after everyone had returned did he stop looking at it and turn to the class,

“Due to the assembly, I don’t have as much time as I would like but there is still enough to announce the science fair coming up, I hope all of you will participate. To sign up you need a group of two to four people and then you just need to fill out a form. I will have paper copies on my desk but it’s also online.”

Sam stopped and looked at the clock,

“You only have five minutes so do what you want.”

Sam sat down and began looking through papers on his desk. Chatter broke out around the class and Tubbo turned to Tommy and Ranboo,

“You guys want to be a group, right?”

“Obviously!”

“Yeah.”

“Okay cool.” Tubbo said getting up and heading to the front of the class where he took a form from Sam’s desk and walked back to the others.

“Why don’t you come over to my place today, my dad has a meeting, so we’ll have the whole house.”

After school Tommy, Ranboo, and Tubbo took the bus to Tubbo’s house. His dad was a politician and they lived in one of the nicer parts of the city in a large house. Tommy and Ranboo followed Tubbo up the peony lined path and through the front door. Most of the house was nicely decorated with expensive items. Except for Tubbo’s room which was always a mess, the floor usually covered with clothes and random projects he was working on. When they entered Tubbo shoved most of it out of the way creating a spot for them to sit.

“Alright.” Tubbo said pulling out the form and looking at it, “We need to come up with an idea for a project.”

“What about a catapult that throws paint at people?” Tommy exclaimed excitedly.

“I don’t think we would be allowed to make that.” Tubbo replied. They bounced back and forth a few more ideas before giving up and turning to Ranboo, who had been silent the whole time, they were staring at a cobweb in the corner of Tubbo’s room and frowning.

“Do you have any ideas, Ranboo?” Tubbo asked.

Ranboo blinked and and turned their head to look at him before smiling and nodding, “Yeah I think I do.”

Ranboo explained their idea to the others, and they all agreed that it was a good one. They filled out the form and worked on their plans until Tommy and Ranboo were called home.

Chapter Text

It was a weekend and Techno had gotten up early. Today would be a good day to go out as Ares. Mask usually patrolled downtown in the afternoons. So, until then he would continue to try and find records of Mask, so far all he had found was that there were none. Which made Techno think that his theory of Mask cheating his way to the top was probably right. He couldn’t confirm it though unless he could look at Hero Tower records which he couldn’t do without a hacker or a hero.

Deciding that his day would be easier with coffee. He left his bedroom and went into the kitchen where he found Phil awake and making coffee. He was humming and smiled at Techno when he entered. Phil had seemed a lot happier lately. When he’d pointed this out to Wilbur, he’d smirked and told Techno about “a dinner with a friend” Phil had gone on the other day. Which according to Wilbur had definitely been a date.

Techno wasn’t so sure about that, his dad didn’t seem like the “dating” type, but he also didn’t have any experience with dating while Wilbur had a lot, so maybe Techno should trust him.

The coffee finished brewing and Phil poured two mugs, handing one to Techno. Phil smiled at him and asked,

“Do you have any plans for today?”

“Not really. What about you?”

Phil got a dreamy look in his eyes and sighed, “I thought I might go and get some flowers to plant in the front garden. It needs something don’t you think?”

Techno blinked and stared at his father in confusion as far as he knew Phil had never shown any interest in gardening. Luckily before Techno had to figure out a response Wilbur came stumbling downstairs and flopped down at the kitchen table groaning and making grabby hands at the coffee machine. Phil raised an eyebrow but still poured a cup and handed it to Wilbur. He took a sip before looking at them and asking,

“What were you talking about?”

“Just about our plans for today.” Phil quickly answered, “Speaking of, do you have any

“I’m going to hang out with Fundy, apparently he found this new record store he wanted to check out.”

Throughout the exchange Techno had been stealthily pouring a bowl of cereal and he took this as his cue to retreat to his room to eat.

Two hours later and Tommy still hadn’t woken up. After Wilbur had gone with Fundy and Phil had left wearing much nicer clothes then Techno thought was necessary for flower shopping, he had considered waking Tommy up but he didn’t want to deal with the grumpy teenager, so he had settled with reading on the couch. He was considering going to find Mask on his own when Tommy finally stumbled into the living room yawning and rubbing his eyes.

Techno watched as Tommy walked into the kitchen and came back out with a bowl of cereal before collapsing on the couch next to Techno,

“What are we doing today?” Tommy asked or at least Techno was pretty sure that’s what he had asked since he was talking with his mouth full.

“I thought that we would go out as Theseus and Ares. Mask should be patrolling downtown in a bit.”

Tommy glared at Techno and mumbled something. Techno stared back unblinking until he swallowed and repeated,

“I said, I’m getting bored of doing nothing but stalking Mask.”

“Well, then you don’t have to come.” Techno said turning back to his book. Tommy continued to sulk next to him.

About an hour later Theseus and Ares were making their way downtown over rooftops towards a green dot in the sky. In his research one of the few things Techno had found was Mask’s powers, he had telekinesis and often used to make himself fly. When the vigilantes caught up to the hero, he was floating over a dockyard watching the workers below.

Ares and Theseus had just ducked behind a large shipping container out of Mask’s sight when there was a large commotion, a truck was swerving around the dockyard and people were running away screaming, an arm holding a gun stuck out of the driver’s window and was firing shots into the crowd. Mask had begun to fly over to the truck but before he could get there two figures appeared, a man and a woman, it was Arson and Naiad two well-known vigilantes.

Arson had the ability to create flames and manipulate them even being able to turn his body into fire, when he wasn’t made of fire, he wore a gas mask split red and blue covering his whole face and casual clothes in the same color scheme. Naiad’s power allowed her to change into a fish-like creature with pink scales, sharp claws and teeth. This form also gave her the ability to swim very quickly and breathe underwater, due to her water related abilities she wore a black wetsuit and a pink masquerade style mask.

At the moment both vigilantes were in their non-human forms and facing down the speeding vehicle. Arson raised his hand and blasted a wall of fire in front of the truck causing it to swerve and run into a wall.

The driver struggled out of the car and raised his gun, but Naiad was already on him slashing his arm with her claws making him drop the gun which she quickly kicked away. But before she could make another move the smashed car began to levitate into the air, it seemed Mask had finally caught up.

Theseus and Ares watched in horror as Mask floated the car over the other vigilantes before letting it drop. Arson and Naiad managed to dive out of the way but in the confusion the driver managed to escape. Mask turned to them and began to speak his voice filled with disgust,

“Just what do you think you’re doing scum?”

He raised his hands making a cloud of sharp metal debris float around him all pointed at Arson and Naiad, he thrusted his hands forward causing the metal to fly toward the vigilantes Arson managed to dodge out of the way of the attack, but Naiad fell to the ground with a scream clutching her leg.

“Naiad!” Arson shouted before turning solid and running over to his companion grabbing her arm. Theseus and Ares took this as their time to act, Theseus turned invisible and ran up to Mask grabbing his cape and pulling it over his head blinding him momentarily. At the same time Ares ran forward and scooped up Naiad in his arms. The two then ran into a nearby alley with Arson close behind.

The ran a little way before they stopped, and Ares set Naiad down against a wall. Arson knelt down beside her and gently rolled up the leg of her wetsuit revealing a deep cut. He made a noise of distress before saying,

“We don’t have any first aid supplies.”

“I do.” Theseus said reaching into his utility belt and pulling out a piece of gauze and a roll of tape, handing them to Arson. Who quickly set to work pressing the gauze onto Naiad’s wound and securing it with the tape. He then handed the tape roll back to Theseus and helped Naiad to her feet. Who turned to them and asked,

“You’re Theseus aren’t you?”

Theseus nodded, looking down at his feet.

“And what’s your name?” She asked Ares kindly,

“Ares.” He responded gruffly. She smiled and nodded.

“Well, if you ever need anything just find us and we’ll help, we owe you.” With that the duo turned and walked away Naiad leaning heavily on Arson’s shoulder.

Techno and Tommy had just finished changing out of their costumes when Phil returned home.

They went out to meet him and found him struggling to get the flowers he had bought out of the car. When he saw them, he waved and called out,

“Could you boys come and help me with this?”

Tommy and Techno helped Phil take the flowers out of the car and set them on the lawn for them all to see. Phil had bought roses, chrysanthemums, lavender, and petunias. He was going on about how to plant and care for them not really caring if Tommy or Techno were listening. When he had gotten garden tool out of the car and had begun attempting to plant the flowers Techno took that as his cue to go back inside. Tommy had stayed with Phil to help and was somehow already covered in dirt.

Techno entered his bedroom and flopped down on the bed, closing his eyes. Mask was becoming much more of a problem than he had originally anticipated.

Chapter Text

Phil’s date with Kristin had been amazing. They had gone to a nursery, and he had gotten to listen to her talk excitedly about plants. She had helped him pick out some flowers for the garden and had explained in detail how to care for them.

When he came home, he had found Tommy and Techno waiting for him. They had both seemed upset and Techno had quickly helped take the flowers out of the car and then retreated inside. Tommy had stayed to help him plant the flowers and seemed much happier now that he had gotten to throw dirt around.

Eventually, even with Tommy distracting him Phil managed to plant all the flowers. After they had gone inside Phil immediately sent Tommy to take a shower. Soon after Phil had finished a shower of his own, Wilbur returned from his hangout with Fundy. Phil was in the kitchen beginning to prepare dinner when he walked in,

“Dad! You’ll never believe it but the shop we went to had the record I’ve been looking for!”

Wilbur continued to chatter excitedly, and Phil listened silently as he pulled the dry pasta down from the cupboard. There was a sudden slamming of a door and Phil heard the television turn on and the evening news begin to play. Wilbur and Phil shared a confused look before going into the living room. There they found Techno standing and glaring at the screen, which was saying,

“-down at the dockyard between Mask and vigilantes Arson and Naiad.” The screen was showing grainy footage of Mask floating above Arson and Naiad who were glaring up at him from beside a smashed car. The camera switched back to the anchor,

“More footage shows the vigilantes attacking our hero. However, even this isn’t the most surprising part of our story a few moments later we see Mask being attacked by the vigilante Theseus and another who we believe to be his accomplice Ares.”

The television began showing more grainy footage, Naiad was now lying on the ground with Arson beside her. Mask had landed on the ground and was stalking towards them but before he could reach them his cape flipped over his head seemingly on its own. Theseus appeared out of nowhere as another man, presumably Ares, burst into the frame and begun to run towards Naiad. The screen switched back again as the reporter continued to speak,

“Unfortunately, all the vigilantes escaped. If you have any information about any of them, please immediately contact Hero Tower.”

Techno switched off the television continuing to frown before heading upstairs and knocking on Tommy’s door. Phil turned to Wilbur and saw him also frowning and staring into space. Phil sighed, why couldn’t any of his children act normally and not like it was the world was ending. He turned back into the kitchen to continue cooking.

Dinner was a quiet affair. Tommy seemed annoyed and was stabbing his pasta aggressively while scowling, Techno was glaring at his meal as though it had personally wronged him, and Wilbur seemed lost in thought. Phil attempted to start a conversation a few times, but they quickly died, and he eventually gave up.

Once everyone had finished eating Wilbur offered to do the dishes and Tommy and Techno drifted off to their bedrooms. Phil went into his room as well, the walls of his room were covered with everything from family photos to old art his kids had made, he had similar things on a bookshelf along with small crow figurines he had collected over the years. After shutting his door behind him he sat on the bed, his wings brushing the dark green bedspread and pulled out his phone, he opened Kristin’s contact and paused for only a second before hitting call. It only rang once before she picked up,

“Hi, Phil! What’s up?”

Phil smiled softly to himself, “Nothing much, I just wanted to hear your voice.”

Kristin giggled lightly, “Have you planted the flowers yet?”

“Yeah, Tommy helped though he mostly just got dirt everywhere.”

“Oh, speaking of how are your boys?”

Phil sighed, “I don’t know they’re all acting strangely. Tommy and Techno have been all worried and mopey for a bit now and I thought Wil was alright but at dinner he barely said anything. That’s partly why I called you, figured you could get my mind off things.”

“Well then why don’t we talk about something else. Oh, I found a new recipe that I tried today, and it was delicious.”

Phil listened as Kristin rambled on about anything she could think of, occasionally butting in with a comment of his own and slowly he began to feel better and his worry about whatever troubles his kids might be having lessened.

Chapter Text

Tommy hated Mask. It was a rare feeling for him as he didn’t often hate people at most, he just strongly disliked them, but he hated Mask. He hadn’t liked him when he had said that he wanted to get rid of all vigilantes, but Techno was right, a lot of heroes thought that. Tommy had started to hate Mask when he had attacked Arson and Naiad when they were just trying to help. He had tried to kill them and let the real criminal get away. Then he had turned around and covered it up, making it seem like he had been the victim and that the vigilantes were the ones in the wrong.

So, Tommy hated Mask, and nothing was going to change that. He wanted to tell everyone he knew the truth that Mask was a liar, but he couldn’t do it without revealing that he was Theseus.

“Tommy! Tommy!”

Tommy was snapped out of his thoughts by Tubbo calling his name. He looked up and found Tubbo glaring at him and Ranboo looking concerned. They were in class and when Tommy glanced around he saw that the other students were packing up.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

Tubbo sighed, “I was just asking if you wanted to come over after school to work on our project.”

“We still have a few weeks before the fair though.” Tommy said while beginning to pack his bag and leaving the classroom.

“Yeah, but if we want it to be amazing, we should start working now.” Tubbo replied jogging to catch up.

“Are you sure you’re okay Tommy?” Ranboo asked quietly. Tommy blinked and looked at them before replying.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just have a lot on my mind right now.”

“Like what?” Tubbo asked suspiciously. Ranboo lightly tapped him on the head in warning.

“Just family drama. You don’t want to hear about it.”

They had reached Tommy’s next class and he turned to go in calling over his shoulder, “I’ll come over after school.”

At Tubbo’s house that day Ranboo and Tubbo chatted happily while working occasionally throwing worried glances at Tommy who was staying silent glaring down at the carpet, but they didn’t ask him anymore questions which he was grateful for.

They had been working for a little more than an hour when Tubbo slammed down his hands and declared,

“Tommy, I don’t know what’s wrong with you and you don’t have to tell us, but you’re really bring me down and I can’t work when I’m down so we’re going to stop and go to the café down the street and eat some really good muffins.”

With that Tubbo got up and walked out the door. After a moment Ranboo and Tommy got up to follow.

Tubbo marched down the street with the others trailing behind. He stopped in front of a building with a red overhang and a sign written in cursive reading, Eggpire Café. Tubbo opened the door gestured for the others to go in before following behind. Tommy looked up at the menu, it had many options, but it seemed to mostly be muffins, some Tommy hadn’t even heard of before. A man walked out of the back and started over towards the trio, he had dark hair, light blue eyes and patches of his skin seemed to be made of diamond. He was wearing a blue hoodie with a red apron over it. Smiling at the teens he said,

“Hi, welcome to Eggpire Café! What can I get for you today?”

Tubbo ordered a honey oat muffin, Ranboo a blueberry muffin, and Tommy a chocolate cherry muffin. They took their food and sat down at a table.

Tubbo sighed, “Listen Tommy, I wish you would talk to us we’re your friends and we want to help you, but I understand not wanting too I just hope you do talk to someone even it isn’t us.”

“I do want to tell you guys I just-” Tommy paused not wanting to say that it was dangerous for them to know anything about his life as a vigilante. “I just don’t want you guys to worry.”

“You’re worrying us by not telling us anything.”

“I know I’m sorry I just can’t.”

They went back to their muffins continuing to eat in silence.

Chapter Text

All of Wilbur’s family members were acting strange. His father was definitely dating someone, it was painfully obvious even if he thought he was hiding it well. Techno and Tommy were upset about something to do with superheroes, Wilbur thought he had an idea of why that might be, but he couldn’t be sure, not yet. The patrons in the music shop he worked in, The Phantom Record, were not helping settle his mind at all. He had spent 20 minutes convincing a man that, no they did not sell cookbooks try the bookstore down the street. He also had to deal with a woman who was not pleased with the fact that some of the album covers had, gasp, swear words on them.

So, for once Wilbur was pleased that the shop was empty, and he had a break from having to deal with people’s crises. The bell on the door rang, interrupting his musings, and Wilbur was preparing to put on his customer service smile when he caught sight of orange hair and foxlike smirk and gave an actual smile,

“Fundy! My son are you here to visit your father?’

Fundy rolled his eyes but recognized the bit which they’d had since high school when Fundy was a freshman, following around senior Wilbur.

“You’re practically on your deathbed Wil. I just wanted to see my father one last time.”

Wilbur grinned, “My shift is almost over do you want to wait around and then go get something for lunch together?’

“Sure.”

Fundy wandered around the shop browsing the various music related things they sold until Wilbur could leave. Then together they walked down to a nearby burger restaurant. They ordered their food and sat down at a table,

“I wasn’t expecting to see you today.” Wilbur said before taking a bite of his burger.

“Yeah, I was just in the area and figured I would stop by.”

“Are you still job searching? Last time we talked about it you told me that you found something, but you weren’t sure about taking it.”

“Er, I did end up taking it. I actually was already working last time we hung out I just forgot to tell you.” Fundy said his eyes flicking around as though he was nervous.

“Well, congrats. What’s the job?”

“I’m a waiter at this new restaurant. Your dad was there the other day, actually.”

Wilbur grinned and leaned forward, “Really?”

Fundy’s eyes widened, “Shit. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

“Why? Was he on a date?”

Fundy stubbornly kept his mouth shut.

“Come one Fundy you can tell me. Phil doesn’t have to know you said anything.”

Fundy shook his head fervently. Wilbur opened his mouth to continue trying to convince him to say something, when Fundy’s phone dinged loudly with a notification. He quickly pulled it out and opened it reading whatever was on the screen before standing up,

“Sorry Wil I have to go something’s come up. It was nice seeing you.”

Fundy left before Wilbur could say goodbye to him.

Wilbur was walking down the sidewalk to the subway station to go home when a black car came rocketing down the street chased by a man with flaming hands pushing him up in the air and through the sky. It was Ember, the new number three hero. Ember raised his hand and a wall of flames appeared in front of the car. It swerved to avoid the fire and skidded to a stop facing the hero. The driver's door opened and out stepped Kitsune, a fairly new villain, he had flaming orange hair and wore a long black coat with a fox mask covering his entire face, he also had the ability to run at impossibly fast speeds.

At the moment Kitsune was holding a gun which he rose and pointed at Ember who dodged out of the way of the shot and fired back a ball of fire, he missed Kitsune and instead sent the flames directly at Wilbur. Ember gave a shout of alarm while Wilbur stood there in shock unable to do anything but stand there and watch a fireball that would end his life the instant it hit barrel towards him, however before the fireball could do that Kitsune tackled him out of the way. Wilbur, still laying on the ground, watched as the villain grabbed something out of the back of the car and used his power to run away. Ember didn’t even try to go after him and instead landed on the ground beside Wilbur.

“Oh my god! Are you okay? I didn’t see you there!” Ember said, offering Wilbur his hand.

“I’m fine.” He replied shakily taking the offered hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet still slightly in a daze. Had Kitsune really just saved him?

Wilbur didn’t feel like taking the subway anymore and Ember insisted on waiting with him until Techno arrived to drive him home. Luckily Techno didn’t ask him what happened and just let them sit in silence the whole way.

When they arrived home Wilbur went straight to his bedroom. The window of his room opened out onto the roof of the garage and when he was a teenager, he had used it to sneak out. Now as he stepped out onto the roof he simply sat down and pulled a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, putting one in his mouth and lighting it. He inhaled and as he exhaled the grey smoke into the afternoon air, he felt himself relax slightly.

Why had Kitsune saved him? It was common knowledge that if you helped a villain, they would repay you. It was part of the reason why people risked arrest it was useful to have someone dangerous on your side. But Wilbur had never helped Kitsune or any other villain for that matter, so why had he saved his life.

Lost in thought Wilbur didn’t notice Techno climbing through the window until he was sitting down beside him. Techno gently took the cigarette from Wilbur’s hand and stubbed it out.

They sat in silence for a moment longer before Wilbur said,

“Do you remember when I was in the car crash with dad, and I almost died?”

Techno nodded to show he was listening but continued to stare straight ahead.

“When I was lying there bleeding.” Wilbur touched his chest where there was a long scar, one of the physical reminders that the crash had happened. “I knew that I was dying I could feel it and I was okay with that even though I was only seventeen I felt I had lived long enough. But then today when that fireball was heading right at me, I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live, there are so many things that I have left to do, and it could have all been taken away in a split second. And then a villain saved me.”

Techno turned and hugged Wilbur. Wilbur startled, not expecting it and froze for a moment before hugging him back.

“I’m glad you didn’t die.” Techno said into Wilbur’s shoulder, “I would have missed my little brother.”

“We’re the same age, asshole.”

“You know I’m two months older.”

They sat like that for a moment longer before Techno broke the hug and laid down against the roof. Wilbur laid beside him and together they stared up at the sky watching the clouds in silence. When they finally went back inside all thoughts of villains were temporarily wiped from Wilbur’s mind.

Chapter Text

After his talk with Tubbo, Tommy had been trying to not let the vigilante part of his life affect everything else. It didn’t help that the rest of his family was still acting oddly. Phil was still all dreamy, Techno was still obsessing over the top heroes, and now even Wilbur was more often than not staring into space with a frown on his face as though lost in thought.

Ranboo and Tubbo were still acting normal luckily. Due to this Tommy had taken to spending more time with his friends to get away from his family. The science fair project had given him an excuse to spend nearly every day after school at Tubbo or Ranboo’s house. The project had gone fairly smoothly with only one explosion, which had made Ranboo’s mom ban the group from working in their room.

And after weeks of working the day of the fair finally arrived. Puffy and Sam were judging the groups, walking around the gym looking at all the different projects. When they got to Tubbo, Tommy, and Ranboo’s table they found the trio standing around something covered with a sheet. Sam cleared his throat.

“Would you like to show us your project?”

Tubbo grinned and whipped the sheet off revealing a robot spider.

“This is Shroud! He is a robot designed to look like a spider. His eight legs allow him to easily navigate terrain.”

Shroud began to crawl around. Easily moving through the obstacle course, they had set up, walking easily up and down mini stairs, across a tray of sand and through a small tunnel.

“He is controlled by the remote in Ranboo’s hands.” Tubbo continued gesturing at Ranboo who was indeed holding a controller and focusing intently on directing Shroud.

“He can also do this!” Tommy exclaimed, pulling out a piece of cardboard with a bullseye drawn on it and holding it in front of himself. Ranboo carefully positioned Shroud, so he was facing Tommy and pressed a button on the controller causing a small blob of paint to shoot out and hit the cardboard directly on the bullseye.

“So that’s our project.” Tubbo finished with. The three students looked at the two teachers who had both begun to clap.

“That’s really cool!” Puffy said smiling.

“Yes, it is.” Sam agreed

“Well, we need to keep moving but I think you did really good.” Puffy said, continuing to smile while dragging Sam to the next table.

In the end they got second to a group who had built a robot that could solve a rubix cube in thirty seconds.

When Tommy got home that afternoon, he immediately went into the living room where he found Wilbur and Phil watching a documentary about polar bears,

“Dad! Me, Tubbo and Ranboo got second place in the science fair!”

Phil got up from the couch and came over to hug Tommy.

“Good job, Toms! I’m so proud of you. I know you worked hard.”

Phil let go of Tommy and stepped back.

“I think this calls for a celebration! Why don’t we go out for dinner at that pizza place you like?”

“Yeah!”

It took a while to drag Techno out of his room and away from his “research”. But eventually the whole family managed to get to the restaurant. Tommy had already eaten two pieces of the delicious pizza when Wilbur asked,

“So, what exactly did you make for the fair?”

“We made a robot spider which spits paint.”

Techno raised his eyebrow but didn’t comment.

“Fun.” Wilbur replied.

“As long as it doesn’t get near the house I don’t care.” Phil said smiling.

Suddenly Phil’s phone vibrated, and he picked it up. Whatever he had received made him grin happily and he quickly typed something back before putting his phone down and looking up to find all three of his children looking at him.

“What was that about dad?” Wilbur asked with a mischievous smile.

“Nothing important. You don’t need to worry about it.”

Wilbur’s grin only grew. “Oh, so it has nothing to do with person you’re dating.”

Phil’s eyes widened slightly before he smoothed his expression, sipping his water and saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on dad there’s no reason to hide it from us it’s so obvious and don’t we as your children deserve to know.”

Phil looked at his sons, Wilbur who was grinning smugly, Tommy who was looking confused, and Techno who just looked bored. He sighed,

“Alright fine, I am seeing someone.”

Wilbur shouted in delight, Techno just blinked, and Tommy looked at his dad and asked,

“Really?!”

“Yes Tommy. Really.”

Tommy sat back in shock while Wilbur leaned forward,

“Tell us about them!”

Phil got that dreamy look again, “Her name is Kristin and I met her at the park a couple months ago.” Phil continued to tell the boys all about Kristin and when he finally stopped Techno sighed,

“I can’t believe Wilbur was right.”

Tommy went into school the next day excited to talk to his friends. He found them at their table both looking at Ranboo’s phone. Tommy sat down excitedly and started to talk.

“I have something to tell you guys. You’re never going to believe it.” But before he could continue, he caught sight of their faces and stopped,

“What’s wrong?”

“Have you seen the news?” Tubbo asked with a frown on his face.

“No?”

“Majesty’s gone rogue.” Ranboo informed Tommy.

“What?!”

“Yeah, apparently, they stopped showing up to Hero Tower and when they sent Mask to find them, Majesty attacked him and ran off. The heroes have no idea where they went.”

Tommy sat in a shocked silence. Tubbo sighed,

“But with everything that’s going on I guess a hero going rogue was the cherry on top. Anyway, what were you going to tell us Tommy?”

“I was just going to say that my dad has a girlfriend but that doesn’t seem too big now.”

Ranboo and Tubbo stared at him in shock before simultaneously shouting,

“What!?!”

Tommy told the others everything he knew about Kristin, which was a lot, Phil seemed to love talking about her. By the time class had ended the trio hadn’t said another word about Majesty and Tommy had pushed them to the back of his mind.

The next day was the weekend and Tommy was set on convincing Techno to go out to patrol. After breakfast he went up to Techno’s door and knocked. Techno opened the door and Tommy pushed past him and sat on the bed,

“We’re going out to patrol today.”

“No Tommy.”

“Yes, we are. We don’t even have to do anything crazy we can just go downtown and stop a mugging or something.”

“Tommy.”

“Come on Techno I’m bored. Plus, today is the perfect day to patrol, dad and Wilbur are out shopping so we won’t have to worry about sneaking out, please. Anyway, even if you don’t agree I'm going with or without you.”

Techno sighed, “Fine.” Tommy cheered.

“But only because I can’t find anything about Mask so staying here to research would be useless anyway.”

A couple hours later and Theseus had managed to get away from Ares. The older vigilante had been distracted by two fourteen-year-old girls who had wanted a picture and autograph from him after he had saved their dog from a tree. Theseus wasn’t exactly sure how the dog had gotten in the tree, but he was grateful for the opportunity to slip away.

He hadn’t gone far and was just sitting on the roof of a nearby convenience store. Which allowed him to hear the voices in the alley below him. He couldn’t quite hear what the voices were saying but one voice sounded scared, so he decided to go investigate. He got up from his spot and walked over to the edge of the roof so that he was standing directly over the alleyway. What he saw startled him, there was man holding a knife and threatening none other than Ranboo with it.

The teenager was shaking and pleading in a terrified voice,

“Please I don’t have anything on me I promise.”

The man smirked and leaned closer, “And I don’t believe you.”

Theseus decided he had seen enough and spread his wings gliding down and landing right behind the man. Theseus cleared his throat and the man turned around startled but before he could attack Theseus raised his foot and kicked the man hard in the chest knocking him to the ground. Theseus grabbed Ranboo’s hand and began to run away before the man could get up. Theseus ran a couple blocks dragging Ranboo behind him before stopping and turning to look at the taller teen.

“Are you alright?”

“Y-yeah. I’ll be fine. Thank you for saving me.”

“Of course. It’s my job isn’t it.”

“You’re Theseus aren’t you.”

Theseus puffed up his chest and wings proudly, “Yup. That’s me.”

“You know this is going to sound really weird, but I feel like I know- “

Before Ranboo could finish Theseus interrupted them, “Well I’m glad you’re okay, but I have to go now so bye.”

With that Theseus turned and ran down the nearest alley leaving a very confused Ranboo standing on the sidewalk.

When he got to the end of the alleyway, he slowed to a walk wondering how he was going to find Ares. When he turned the corner and walked into something he stepped back and looked up, finding the same person he had been looking for glaring down at him.

“Theseus, where were you?”

“Saving someone from a mugging.”

Ares sighed, “We’re going home now.”

Theseus groaned, “Ugh, fine.”

Tommy had finished changing out of his costume and was walking downstairs to get a snack when there was a knock on the door. Figuring it was Phil and Wilbur returning home he went over and opened it, finding on the other side a glaring Tubbo and a sheepish Ranboo.

“We need to talk.” Tubbo snapped.

Tommy sighed, “Listen big man I don’t know what’s up, but can this wait I'm tired right now and- “

“We know you’re Theseus.” Tubbo interrupted.

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Tommy managed to stutter out.

“Don’t bullshit me, Tommy.”

“Maybe we should talk about this inside.” Ranboo said looking nervously up and down the street.

“Fine. Come in.” Tommy said leading the others inside and up to his room.”

After shutting the door, he turned to them and asked with a frown, “How did you figure it out?”

“It was easy.” Tubbo said collapsing onto the unmade bed. “We started suspecting that Theseus might be you when you were all over the news since we thought you looked similar. But then when Ranboo ran into you today and said you even act the same, it confirmed it.”

Tommy groaned, “Was it really that easy.”

“For us, yeah, but we’re your best friends.” Tubbo then frowned, “Speaking of the real reason we came here, we’re your best friends so why didn’t you tell us you’re a vigilante.”

“I wanted to tell you really, but it would be dangerous for you to know if something happened because you knew who I really was, I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing you hurt.”

“You could get hurt.”

“Yeah, but I have Techno to protect me and if worst comes to worst, we could tell Wilbur and he could use his powers to heal me.”

“So, Techno is Ares then.”

Tommy’s eyes widened in horror which caused Tubbo to burst out laughing.

“I’m joking. We already knew that Techno is Ares.”

Tommy relaxed and cracked a small smile before his face fell again. “I am sorry I kept things from you I just really want to keep you safe.”

“It’s okay Tommy.” Ranboo said stepping forward, “We forgive you, right Tubbo.”

Tubbo nodded his head in agreement before bounding forward and wrapping Tommy and Ranboo in a crushing hug, “Yeah, I forgive you, and now that we know we want to help.”

“What?” Tommy squawked still being suffocated, “How, you don’t have powers?”

“No, but Ranboo does!” Tubbo said finally letting go. “Show him Ranboo!”

Ranboo screwed up their face in concentration and disappeared in a flurry of purple particles and reappeared looking slightly dizzy on the other side of the room.

Tommy shouted in surprise.

“As for me, I have this.” Tommy turned to see Tubbo pulling something out of the backpack he had brought. He held up the object and Tommy saw it was a robot spider.

“Shroud?”

“Yeah!”

“But how does a paint spitting spider help you.”

“He doesn’t just spit paint anymore. I gave him drone propellers so he can fly now. He can also walk on walls and even the ceiling. And I made it so you can control him from farther away and I put a camera, speaker and microphone on him. That way I can go with you without going with you.”

“Also” Ranboo said suddenly, “I don’t actually want to be a vigilante but with my powers I can be backup. Though they aren’t very strong so that should only be for emergencies.”

Tommy looked at the other two nervously. “If you’re really sure you want to.”

“We are, there’s nothing you could say that would convince us otherwise.”

“Then I don’t see why you shouldn’t, but we have to tell Techno first.”

The others nodded and followed Tommy as he went downstairs and knocked on Techno’s bedroom door. He opened it and looked and the trio with a questioning look,

“Tubbo and Ranboo know we’re vigilantes.”

“They what!?”

Chapter Text

Phil stared across the dark green lake, it was a beautiful day. The sky was a brilliant blue and there was a slight breeze in the air. He was sitting on a bench waiting for Kristin. She had texted him not long ago that she was going to be a little late, but Phil didn’t mind waiting, he would wait the rest of the eternity if it meant he got to see Kristin.

He had closed his eyes and tilted his face towards the sun soaking in its warmth when he felt his phone begin to buzz incessantly in his pocket, he pulled it out and a warning popped up on his screen.

WARNING: HERO ALTERCATION NEARBY! DO NOT APPROACH!

Underneath the warning was more details including the exact location of the fight. It was far enough away from where Phil was that he wasn’t too worried about himself, but it was very close to Kristin’s house. Concerned Phil clicked on the link that would show live news footage of the fight.

On the screen Phil saw Mask and Ember engaged in a fight with none other than Lady Death. She was in her usual outfit of a flowing black robe paired with a black sunhat with a veil over it protecting her face. In her hand was a sword which she was using to counter the projectiles Mask was hurling at her. Ember lunged forward his hands blazing preparing to strike, but Lady Death simply stepped out of the way and reached out her hand to gently brush against his arm. Phil watched in horror as Ember collapsed to the ground. Mask ran to his side and fell to his knees. Lady Death took this as her opportunity to escape climbing on to her motorcycle and speeding off.

After a moment Ember began to stir and tried to sit up. Phil sighed in relief, even if he didn’t particularly like the new top heroes he didn’t want then to die. He shut off his phone and tucked it back into his pocket. Soon after Kristin arrived looking slightly disheveled and with apologies on her tongue. Phil got up and hugged her muttering into her ear,

“I’m so glad you’re okay.”

He felt Kristin stiffen slightly even as she hugged him back.

“What do you mean?”

“I saw the fight was near where you were, and I was worried you might have gotten caught in the crossfire.”

“Oh” Kristin said relaxing, “No, I’m fine I didn’t even see the fight. It just caused a backup on the road which is why I’m late.”

She pulled back from the hug and took Phil’s hand. “Shall we walk.”

Phil nodded and they began to walk in silence before Kristin suddenly said,

“You know even if I had been there for the fight, I probably wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Lady Death doesn’t usually hurt civilians.”

“That’s true. But I’m not sure if Mask follows the same rule.” Phil replied with a scowl.

“You don’t really like Mask, do you?”

“No. He seems so full of himself. He just shows out of nowhere and suddenly he’s number one hero? I just hope getting his ass beaten by Lady Death brings his ego down a few rungs. I mean seriously what did he think would happen fighting her she’s the most powerful person in the entire city.”

“You really think she’s the most powerful?” Kristin asked her face tinged pink.

“Of course. Energy manipulation is a really rare power that's difficult to master and she’s really good at it. It’s too bad she’s a villain if she was a hero, I think she could do some real good in the world instead of just patrolling the expensive neighborhoods and doing nothing to fix the real problems in the city.” Phil said fuming.

The couple continued to walk in silence before Kristin said,

“Why don’t we talk about something else. How are your kids?”

“Oh, speaking of my kids I actually told them about you. About us.”

Kristin smiled. “Really?”

“Yeah, they want to meet you. So, I was wondering, only if you’re okay with it of course, if you would want to come over to my house for dinner and to meet them.”

“I would love to.”

A couple days later, it was the evening of Kristin meeting his sons. Phil was nervous of course. He had stressed about what to cook before deciding on soup and bread, figuring it was hard to go wrong with that. Phil had just put the bread in the oven when he heard the doorbell ring. He opened the door to find Kristin standing on the other side looking lovely as ever in casual clothes with her hair pulled back in a low ponytail.

“Hi.” Phil greeted with a smile.

“Hi.” Kristin said smiling back.

Behind him Phil heard the sound of two sets of feet racing down the stairs and turned around to find Wilbur and Tommy standing and staring at Kristin. They stood in silence before Tommy said,

“So, you are real.”

Phil frowned at his son, “Tommy why don’t you get Techno.”

He watched his youngest stomp off before turning back to Kristin.

“Sorry about that. Why don’t you come in?”

Kristin stepped into the house and looked around smiling at a framed family picture hanging on the wall of the hallway. Wilbur chose this moment to step forward and hold out his hand for Kristin to shake,

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Wilbur. I’ve heard all about you.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well.” Kristin said shaking Wilbur’s hand. At that moment Phil heard a timer in the kitchen beep and he ran off leaving the others to get to know each other better.

An hour later, after Techno had been introduced to Kristin and everyone had sat down at the table to eat. Phil found himself smiling. The night had gone well. Kristin got along well with all three of his children and there hadn’t been any crises all evening. By the time Phil was walking Kristin to the door leaving the boys to do the dishes he felt like he could burst with happiness. When they got out to the front step Kristin wrapped her arms around Phil’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss. When she pulled back, she smiled softly.

“Thank you for introducing me to your family.”

“Thank you for wanting to meet them.”

After they had said good night, Phil walked back inside to find all three of his children waiting for him.

“Yes?” He said slightly worried.

“We just wanted to say that we think Kristin is good for you.” Wilbur said with a small smile.

“Oh, well I’m glad.” Phil said before smiling at his children again and turning to walk past them to his room.

Chapter Text

Techno liked the idea of having backup, he really did. The reason he had been so hesitant to let Tubbo and Ranboo help wasn’t because he didn’t want someone standing to the side just in case it was because they were kids. They were just kids who he wasn’t sure knew the kind of danger they were signing themselves up for. He hadn’t wanted to be a vigilante in the first place, he had known it was dangerous, but he had to protect Tommy. He couldn’t stand to see anyone he cared about getting hurt, especially his baby brother.

But he also knew though that if he hadn’t agreed to let the others help, they would have anyway, going behind his back and putting themselves in more danger. So, he had agreed to let Ranboo be there to get them out of danger quickly and to let Tubbo go with them through Shroud.

Techno hadn’t realized that Tubbo didn’t plan to be just Shroud’s pilot until he was telling Tommy and Techno about a weapons dealer he had “heard about”. No matter how much Techno pried Tubbo refused to say anything else about how he got the information.

Tubbo had agreed to send in Shroud first to check out the place before sending Theseus and Ares in. After Shroud had scouted it out, Ares found himself following the robot spider through a warehouse Tubbo’s voice coming out of the speaker to guide them as well.

Shroud stopped moving and Theseus tripped over him and would have fallen if Ares hadn’t grabbed him. Ares stepped forward much more carefully and peaked around the storage container Shroud had stopped behind, looking out into the main part of the warehouse.

Standing in the middle was a woman in one hand she had a locked briefcase, she was looking down at the watch on her wrist and tapping her foot impatiently.

The doors of the warehouse opened, and two men walked in both wearing suits. The man in front was shorter and had a smug smirk on his face. The other man was much taller and broader, and his face was neutral, a bodyguard, Ares thought to himself.

The woman looked up at the two men and scowled before calling out,

“Took you long enough.”

The shorter man grinned. “Good to see you too.”

As the two continued their banter Ares turned to Theseus and silently called his attention from where the younger was squatting next to Shroud. Ares pointed at Theseus and then at the briefcase. Theseus nodded and gave a thumbs up. Ares turned back to the man and woman. As the man was saying,

“Well, as much as I would love to continue chatting, I think it’s time for you to get your pay.”

He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a wad of money. He handed it to the woman, and she handed the briefcase to the man. He smiled and nodded at the woman.

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

The woman frowned as she counted the money in her hand before calling out,

“Hey! This isn’t what we agreed on.”

The man smirked. “Maybe not but it’s what you deserve.”

“You son of a bitch!” The woman screamed and lunged for the man. The man’s bodyguard stepped in between the two stopping the woman from getting to the man. Ares took this as the perfect moment and signaled for Theseus. The chicken winged vigilante sprinted forward and turned invisible. The briefcase was ripped out of the man’s hands, and he looked around in confusion.

At the same time Ares ran forward and tackled the bodyguard to the ground. The bodyguard growled and pulled out a baton crackling with electricity, he swung at Ares and the vigilante countered it with the sword pulled from his belt. The bodyguard lunged forward, and Ares stepped aside. The bodyguard continued to barrel forward, before turning around, before he could attack again Ares swung the butt of his sword at the bodyguard’s head knocking him out.

Ares turned to see what was going on with Theseus. The blonde was now visible and holding the briefcase close to his chest. The woman seeing that the bodyguard was knocked out had begun running towards Theseus and the man who was standing to the side in confusion. The man seeing the women shouted,

“Fuck this.” And began to run toward the exit. Ares ran after him but before he could reach the man, he heard a crash behind him and turned.

The briefcase was now laying on the ground smashed; it seemed that Theseus had thrown it against the wall as hard as he could. The woman was staring at Theseus with a mixture of shock and disgust on her face.

“You’re going to pay for that, you little shit.” She said pulling out a knife. She lunged forward and Theseus tried to dodge out of the way, but it was too late. Ares watched in horror as the knife plunged into Theseus’ side.

Time seemed to slow down for Ares, he watched as the woman pulled the knife out and Theseus fell to the ground. It was only when Theseus screamed that the world came rushing back. Ares leapt forward and grabbed the woman wrist to stop her from stabbing Theseus again then he grabbed her by the neck and slammed her head into the ground causing her body to go limp.

Techno turned to Tommy who was clutching his side. The wound was deep and bleeding rapidly. Techno took off his cape and wrapped it tightly around his little brother’s side, before gently picking him up.

“Tubbo are you there?” Techno called out sharply.

“Yeah, I’m here.” Tubbo responded in a shaky voice Shroud crawling forward slowly. “What happened?”

“Tommy got stabbed. Get Ranboo here now.”

There was silence for a moment before Techno heard a quiet noise and looked up to find a very pale Ranboo. They rushed over to Techno’s side and grabbed his arm.

“Where should I take you?”

“Our house. Quickly.”

Ranboo gripped his arm tighter, Techno’s vision went black had he had a feeling like stepping off a cliff. When his vision returned, he was standing in front of his house.

Phil’s car was gone so Techno wouldn’t have to worry about avoiding him, but he didn’t know where Wilbur was, so he walked up to the door carefully and peeked his head in. Seeing the first floor at least was empty we quickly carried Tommy into the bathroom and set him down in the bathtub before turning to find the first aid kit under the sink.

He turned back to the younger boy and removed his cape, finding the wound still oozing blood.

“I’m so sorry Toms I can’t believe I let this happen.”

“S’ok. Not your fault.” Tommy slurred.

Techno lifted up Tommy’s shirt to better examine the wound. He would need stitches which Techno luckily knew how to do. He had turned back to the first aid kit when he heard the bathroom door creak open. Techno turned to find Wilbur standing in the doorway observing the scene before him.

“Wil.” Techno said jumping to his feet. Wilbur’s eyes widened when he caught sight of Tommy and ignoring Techno he shoved into the bathroom and knelt by the bathtub.

Wilbur gasped seeing Tommy’s wound up close, but he quickly reached forward and placed his hands on top of it. His hands began to glow as he began to heal the injury. When he pulled his hands back, all that remained of the wound was a white scar.

“I knew it.” Wilbur said quietly.

“What?” Techno replied confused.

“I knew you guys were vigilantes.” Wilbur said with excitement before his face fell into a frown. “Why didn’t you tell me I could have helped you.”

“It’s dangerous for you-“ Techno started, but Wilbur interrupted him.

“Well obviously it’s dangerous for you too!” He exclaimed gesturing at Tommy’s blood-soaked form. “I doubt this is the first time you’ve gotten hurt and if you had told me I could have healed you!”

“Or you could have gotten hurt as well and then I would have two injured brothers on my conscience!” Techno argued back.

“Do you hear yourself right now? If you truly know it’s so dangerous then why would you let Tommy go in the first place.”

“Like I could stop him! Do you know-“

“Stop arguing!” Tommy shouted. “Please.” He added when his brothers turned to look at him. Tommy took a deep breath before continuing.

“Techno, I think it’s good that Wilbur knows now. Wilbur, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you, but we really thought it might be dangerous for you to know. Also, please don’t tell anyone especially dad.”

Wilbur softened. Going over to Tommy he took his hand saying, “You don’t have to apologize Toms, and I won’t tell anyone I promise I just want to help.”

Techno sighed. “And I think you should. I’m sorry I yelled I was just worried.”

Wilbur smiled. “It’s fine Tech. Although if you don’t want dad to find out we should probably clean this up.” He said gesturing at the blood-stained bathroom.

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up to the sound of his blaring alarm clock. He sighed and turned it off while sitting up. You would think that after being stabbed you wouldn’t have to go to school, but Techno had said to “act normal” so that meant Tommy had to go to his regularly scheduled six hours of torture.

Yesterday after he had changed out of his blood-soaked clothes, he had opened his phone to find about two hundred texts from Tubbo and Ranboo asking what was happening. After confirming that yes, he was okay, and he would tell them more about it tomorrow he had collapsed into bed and fallen asleep apparently no one had wanted to disturb him not even to wake him up for dinner. Tommy’s stomach growled reminding him of this fact. Tommy got up and headed downstairs and into the kitchen. Leaning against the counter he found Wilbur, already eating breakfast. When Tommy entered, he looked up.

“Good morning. How did you sleep?”

“Fine.” Tommy responded, digging through the cupboards. “I am starving though. You didn’t wake me up for dinner.”

“We wanted to let you sleep.”

Tommy hummed in response.

“Would you like me to drive you to school today?” Wilbur asked. “I would have to drop you off a bit early, but you wouldn’t have to walk.”

“Sure. Thanks.”

Wilbur nodded.

After Tommy had finished getting ready for school. He went outside to find Wilbur already waiting for him leaning against the car. The drive to school was mostly silent, the only noise was Wilbur occasionally humming along to the song playing on the radio. Before long they were pulling up outside of the school.

“Have a good day.” Wilbur said as Tommy stepped out of the car.

“Yeah, you too.” Tommy replied slamming the door shut. He turned around and began to walk toward the school but before he could reach the front door, he was tackled by Tubbo.

“You’re okay!” He exclaimed before dragging Tommy off to a picnic table where Ranboo was waiting for them.

“How are you okay? You got stabbed.” Ranboo said as soon as Tommy sat on the bench.

“Wilbur healed me.”

“Wilbur knows!”

“Yeah, he found out but it’s fine he isn’t going to tell anyone.”

“Does he know that we know?” Tubbo asked

“Yeah, we caught him up on pretty much everything, don’t worry.”

Before Tommy could be questioned any further the bell rang.

Tommy was in history; he was bored out of his mind. His teacher was droning on and on about some old guy that had done something amazing apparently. He glanced at his teacher who wasn’t paying attention and subtly pulled out his phone and opened the message app.

BIG MAN started new conversation

BIG MAN

now we can make plans

wilby

Cool

BIG MAN named conversation “pog vigilante shit”

pig man

Aren’t you supposed to be in class?

BIG MAN

history is boring

wilby

Careful Tommy that’s the only class techno liked

bee boi

s ths evryne tht nows?

BIG MAN

think so

pig man

History is not boring, Tommy. Also, we should meet at our house after school to make an attack plan.

bee boi

gud ida

After school Tommy met Tubbo and Ranboo in front of the school and together they walked back to his house. The trio plus Techno and Wilbur gathered in Tommy’s room. Techno sat at the desk, Wilbur sat on the floor, and the others all piled on the bed together.

“So, what exactly are we planning?” Wilbur asked, starting the conversation.

“How we’re going to take down Mask.” Techno replied simply.

Wilbur blinked and turned to the others. Tommy sighed. “He’s been trying to dig up dirt on Mask to get him kicked out of Hero Tower. But so far, he hasn’t actually found anything.”

“I actually might have an idea to get information.” Tubbo said hesitantly.

“Really?” Techno asked, turning to look at him.

“Yeah. But you’re not going to like it.”

“What is it?” Tommy asked.

“Well, through some of the research I did I found out that Gamble has access to a lot of information on heroes, it’s how his casino doesn’t get shut down even though it’s well known, and I was thinking that maybe you could make a deal with him to find the information you want.”

“No.” Techno said immediately, and Tubbo deflated.

“What would they give Gamble?” Wilbur asked, when everyone looked at him, he clarified, “I mean you would need to give him something in exchange for information on Mask and we don’t exactly have a lot of money, though I doubt he would want that anyway, and I don’t think we know anything that he would want to know.”

“I heard of people working for him in exchange for whatever they wanted.” Tubbo answered.

“It doesn’t matter what we would trade.” Techno interrupted. “It’s too dangerous he’s one of the biggest villains out there.”

“Villains aren’t all bad.” Wilbur said with a thoughtful look. “Kitsune saved my life the other day.”

“You all can’t seriously be considering this?” Techno said incredulously.

“Well, do you have any ideas?” Tommy asked.

“No, but-”

“Great. Then how do we meet with Gamble?” Tommy said, turning to Tubbo.

“Um, I don’t know.” Tubbo said sheepishly.

“Then why did you bring up the idea in the first place?” Techno almost shouted sounding exasperated.

“I haven’t been doing this kind of thing for very long. I don’t have any connections. But you might. Have you helped a villain or even another vigilante recently who might be able to get in contact with Gamble.”

“Well maybe.” Tommy said slowly.

Tubbo had been closely following any news about Naiad and Arson he could find, and he was pretty sure he knew when and where they usually patrolled. Today Theseus and Ares had finally gone out to try and track them down. They wandered the area looking for the other vigilantes while keeping on rooftops and in alleys. They ended up finally running into Naiad and Arson while the duo was stopping a robbery.

Theseus and Ares spotted them as they were leaving the store an unconscious robber on the floor behind them. Theseus spread his wings and glided down from the roof landing in front of Naiad startling her.

“Theseus? What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. Can we talk?”

“Maybe somewhere a bit more private.” Naiad said glancing towards the red and blue lights and sirens coming toward the store.

Theseus nodded and gestured for Ares to join him then together they began to follow Naiad and Arson through alleyways eventually stopping behind a shop that Theseus recognized. It was the bakery Niki worked at.

“What did you want to talk about?” Arson asked.

“We wanted to know if you knew a way to get in contact with Gamble.” Ares said.

“Why do you want to talk to Gamble?” Naiad asked concern in her voice.

“I don’t know why that matters.” Ares said.

“He’s dangerous!” Naiad exclaimed. “You could get hurt.”

“Why do you care so much? We can take care of ourselves.” Theseus said shrugging.

“Why do I care so much? Are you being serious?” Naiad said exasperated. “Do you really not know who we are?”

“You’re Naiad and Arson?” Theseus said confused.

Naiad sighed. “That’s not what I meant.” She hesitated before saying, “Tommy.”

Theseus froze before sputtering out, “I don’t know what you're talking about.”

“How do you know that?” Ares asked, his voice threatening as he clutched the sword at his side.

“I’ll explain everything.” Naiad said before glancing around. “Just not here.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a key ring selecting a key she stepped forward and unlocked the bakery’s back door. She opened it and gestured for them to go inside.

As soon as they were inside, and the door was shut behind them Ares turned to Naiad.

“Explain.”

Naiad sighed and reached up to pull off her mask.

“Niki?” Tommy said in shock as he stared at the face of his brother's friend.

Arson pulled his mask off as well, revealing Jack’s face. After a moment Tommy pulled his mask down and Techno hesitantly removed his mask as well.

“Let’s sit down. I’m sure there's a lot to talk about.” Niki said as she lowered herself onto the floor.

Once they had all sat down in a circle Tommy asked, “How are you guys' vigilantes?”

“Well, a couple years back we decided we didn’t like how the heroes were doing things and took it into our own hands.” Jack said.

“That’s the simple version, yes.” Niki said.

“How did you know we were Ares and Theseus?” Techno asked with a frown.

Niki gave him a look and said dryly, “I don’t know maybe because you’re powers and looks matched them exactly.”

“Does Wilbur know about this?” Tommy asked.

“Does he know that you’re vigilantes and that you’re trying to track down a major villain?” Niki replied raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Tommy replied. Niki’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

“Speaking of tracking down villains.” Jack interrupted. “Why are you trying to talk to Gamble?”

“We need information that will get Mask kicked out of Hero Tower, and we heard that Gamble has information on the heroes or at least the means to get it.”

“And where did you hear this exactly?” Niki asked, raising an eyebrow.

“From Tubbo.” Tommy said simply.

“Who knows that you’re vigilantes?” Jack asked.

“Tubbo, Ranboo, Wilbur, and now you two.” Tommy listed off. “Why? Who knows that you’re vigilantes?”

“No one.” Niki said pointedly.

“I mean-“ Jack started but Niki cut him off with a sharp glare.

Niki sighed and studied Techno and Tommy before saying, “I do like the idea of taking down Mask.”

“So do you have a way of contacting Gamble?” Techno asked.

“Not directly, but we do know someone that does it’s just a matter of convincing them to help.” Niki replied.

“I think they probably will though.” Jack added.

“We’ll reach out to them and ask.” Niki said getting up. Techno nodded and stood up as well before putting his mask back on. Tommy followed suit and they turned to leave.

“Don’t tell anyone else you know our identities, okay.” Niki said following them out after putting her mask back on as well.

“We won’t.” Techno promised. “But I do think you should tell Wilbur. He won’t reveal your secret and think he would be glad to know.”

With that Ares and Theseus walked away leaving Naiad and Arson standing in an alley.

Chapter Text

When Tommy and Techno returned to the house, they told Wilbur that they had found Naiad and Arson and that they were willing to help but refused to go into details about what had happened no matter how much Wilbur pressed.

Wilbur was sitting on the couch watching a documentary on the history of explosives when his phone buzzed. He picked it up to find a text from Niki.

Niki

Can we meet up today?

Me

Sure when?

Niki

Are you free now?

Me

Yeah

Niki

Come over to my apartment.

Me

Thats ominous

Niki

Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.

Still slightly concerned Wilbur turned off the television and put on his coat grabbing his keys on the way out the door. He parked his car outside Niki’s building and walked up to her apartment which had a pot of wisteria growing up the wall beside the door. He knocked and almost instantly the door was opened by Niki who gestured for Wilbur to come inside with barely even a hello. Now even more concerned about his friend he followed her into the living room where he found Jack and Fundy waiting for him. Jack gave Wilbur a small smile and Fundy stared at him as though Wilbur was about to announce his death.

“Do you want anything to drink?” Niki asked.

“No, thanks. Um, what’s going on?” Wilbur said settling onto the plush couch and looking at his friends with concern.

“Alright first of all you can’t freak out.” Niki started.

“What-” Wilbur started now even more worried.

“Promise, Wilbur. Promise me you won’t freak out.” Niki said desperately.

“Okay. I promise.”

Niki took a deep breath before saying, “Me and Jack are vigilantes.”

Wilbur blinked at her.

“We can prove it.” Jack said suddenly. He went over to a duffle bag Wilbur hadn’t noticed before and pulled out two masks. Bringing them over and handing them to Wilbur. Seeing them up close, Wilbur saw that they were the masks of Naiad and Arson.

“Why are you telling me now?”

Niki looked at him in surprise before responding. “Your brothers found out and Techno said we should tell you.”

“So, you know about Tommy and Techno then.” Wilbur asked, continuing to study the masks.

“Yeah, we do.” Niki said, still looking anxiously at him.

“Okay.” Wilbur said, finally looking up.

There was a moment of silence before Jack exclaimed, “Okay? That’s all you have to say?”

“Yeah, I mean it’s a better way to find out then finding your little brother bleeding out in a bathtub.”

“What!?”

“Yeah, I healed him. Which reminds me, I won’t tell anyone about this, don’t worry, but I do want to help.”

“How?” Jack asked

“The same way I help Tommy and Techno whenever they get hurt, I heal them. I mean being a vigilante is dangerous. So, what do you say?”

Niki and Jack exchanged a glance before Niki responded, “If you really are okay with it, I guess it would be nice to have a healer.”

“I am. But I do have a question.”

Niki and Jack had started to relax but when Wilbur said that they straightened up and looked and him.

“Yeah?” Niki said nervously.

“Yeah. Why’s Fundy here?”

The orange-haired man who had previously been standing in the corner as though trying to be forgotten, looked up with a panicked expression.

“Me?”

“Yeah, I mean I would assume that you were here for the same reason as me, but you didn’t look surprised at all, and you’ve barely said anything.”

“Um, moral support for them?” Fundy replied continuing to look anywhere but at Wilbur.

“Come on, Fundy.” Niki said slightly annoyed. “You promised you would tell him.”

Fundy sighed, “Okay but, be prepared this might actually freak you out. Um, I’m Kitsune.”

Wilbur blinked. “The villain?”

Fundy nodded nervously. “Remember how I told you that I got a job at a restaurant? Well, that is true, but it’s owned by Gamble. When I was job hunting, he reached out to me and said that he thought my powers would be useful and that I would be paid really well.”

“And you’re fine with all the illegal things he does?” Wilbur asked.

“Don’t pretend you could care less about breaking laws Wilbur. And besides I don’t hurt innocent people.”

“You guys knew?” Wilbur asked Jack and Niki.

“Yeah, we did.” Jack said.

The group sat in silence for a moment, Fundy looking anxiously at Wilbur. Finally, Wilbur broke the silence saying,

“Well, if you ever get hurt, I’ll help you too.”

“Really?” Fundy asked. “But I’m a villain.”

“You’re my friend first.”

Fundy smiled and let out a relieved sigh collapsing on the couch beside Wilbur. “Well, thanks for not caring that we’re breaking the law.”

Wilbur laughed. “You’re welcome.”

Niki smiled and sat on Wilbur’s other side, Jack squeezing in beside her. “I think that’s enough of serious talk why don’t we do something fun?”

“Let’s watch a movie.” Jack suggested.

“Good idea! And you can all stay for dinner I’ll make deep dish pizza.” Niki added.

Jack picked up the remote for the television and asked, “What do you want to watch?”

“I was watching this documentary before I came over it was about explosiv-“ Wilbur started to suggest before he was interrupted by all his friends,

“No!”

“Why not?” He said pouting.

“What about Hamilton?” Fundy suggested ignoring Wilbur.

“That sounds good.” Jack replied.

“I’ll go make popcorn you guys start it.” Niki said, getting up from the couch and walking into the kitchen.

Four hours later Hamilton was finishing. Jack had fallen asleep on the floor and Niki had gone to the kitchen to get more of the ice cream they had eaten for dessert. Fundy was leaning against Wilbur’s shoulder half asleep. Wilbur glanced at the time, it was late, and he should probably head home soon. He turned to the younger man leaning against him and nudged him awake,

“Fundy, can I ask you something?”

“What’s up, Wil?” Fundy said sleepily.

“Can I tell Techno and Tommy about you being Kitsune.”

Fundy was silent for a moment before responding, “Yeah, that’s fine. I mean I know that they’re Theseus and Ares so it’s only fair.”

“Okay, I should get going I have work tomorrow.”

Fundy sat up allowing Wilbur to stand. Wilbur carefully stepped over Jack and went into the kitchen to say goodbye to Niki.

Chapter Text

When Tommy woke up that weekend, the house was mostly empty. Wilbur and Techno were out, and Phil was in his office doing something. He grabbed his phone and walked downstairs to the kitchen to get breakfast. While he was eating, he got a notification.

wilby sent a message in “pog vigilante shit”

Tommy opened the message to the group chat to read it.

wilby

I’m adding Niki and Jack to the chat.

bee boi

y

pig man

They are Naiad and Arson. We forgot to tell you.

bee boi

Wat???????!!!?!?!?!?

ranboob

What?

BIG MAN

yeah!

wilby added fish lady

wilby added manibald

fish lady

What’s this?

wilby

Alright now that everyones here I got to tell you that fundy is kitsune

bee boi

th vilan?!?!?!?

wilby

Yup

pig man

Is he your contact Niki?

fish lady

Yup.

wilby

Are you done freaking out so I can add him?

BIG MAN

yeah weirder things have happened

bee boi

yup

wilby

Cool

wilby added furry

pig man

Can you help us get in contact with Gamble?

furry

wtf y am i here

fish lady

Techno and Tommy are trying to take down Mask.

furry

k y do u need gamble

pig man

He has information. Can you help us meet with him or not?

furry

i can but im not in work right now

pig man

Just keep us updated.

wilby

Why are you so obsessed with this techno

BIG MAN

hes hyperfixating leave him alone

pig man

Both of you, shut up.

Tommy snickered and put his phone down, continuing to eat his breakfast. After he finished eating, he sat on the couch and started to watch a show. He was in the middle of his fifth episode when Phil walked into the living room and gave Tommy a look.

“It’s such a nice day, mate. Why don’t you go outside?”

Tommy groaned. “I knew you would say that.”

“Well, it’s true. How about this why don’t you get ready and then we go down to the lake, it’s been a while since we had a day just us.”

Tommy sighed but turned off the television and stalked upstairs to get ready.

The tires of Phil’s car crunched against the concrete as he pulled into a parking space. Phil was right, it was a nice day and people were out and about taking advantage of the sun. Tommy walked beside Phil on the path that went around the lake. They walked past the busy beach where people were swimming or launching small boats. They only stopped when they reached a group of picnic tables beside the water.

“Should we feed the ducks?” Phil asked.

“Did you bring corn?”

Phil responded by pulling a plastic baggie out of his pocket and handing it to Tommy. Tommy took it and walked closer to the water. A group of ducks swam closer to him quacking for food. Tommy reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of corn which he scattered in the water. The ducks lunged for the pieces fighting each other for the corn. Phil chuckled to himself and took a handful of his own to scatter.

“Do you remember, when you were little, and the ducks would fight for the corn you would yell at them telling them they had to share?” Phil asked with a smile.

“Yeah, I also remember Wilbur telling me that ducks are cannibals.” Tommy responded.

“Oh, God I remember that. You wouldn’t stop crying the whole ride home and refused to feed the ducks for a month.” Phil said grimacing slightly at the memory and then laughing. The pair continued to scatter the corn for the ducks until the bag was empty.

“Do you want to keep walking?” Phil asked.

Tommy hummed thoughtfully glancing around.

“Can we get ice cream?” He asked, pointing at the stand that had been set up.

“Sure.” Phil said.

The duo walked over to the stand and got into the line that had formed. When they reached the front the person behind the counter turned to them and smiled cheerfully,

“Hi, there! What can I get for you today?”

“I’ll just have a single scoop of vanilla in a cone. What about you Tommy?”

“I’ll have the chocolate caramel brownie explosion in a cone with sprinkles, please.”

“Alright two cones coming up.”

The server scooped the ice cream and handed it to Tommy while Phil paid.

After Phil had taken his ice cream from Tommy they began to walk again. They continued eating their ice creams in silence until Tommy pointed at a bush and said,

“That’s a pretty flower.”

“It’s a hydrangea.” Phil said glancing at it.

“You seem to know a lot about flowers and gardening. Does Kristin like gardening?” Tommy said with a shit eating grin.

Phil glared at Tommy before responding, “For your information, yes, she does. She even started a community garden.”

“Well, I think it’s cool that you're getting into gardening.” Tommy said smirking slightly.

“Really?” Phil asked suspiciously.

“Yup, and it’s definitely not simp behavior at all.”

Phil smacked Tommy with his wing, Tommy shrieked and started to run away, carefully holding his ice cream to make sure it didn’t fall. When he had run forward a few yards he turned around and looked at Phil who was continuing to walk at the same pace while glaring at Tommy.

When they got back to the car after walking the rest of the way around the lake, Phil was back to laughing with Tommy.

“I had a nice time today.” Phil said with a small smile.

“Me too.” Tommy said yawning slightly.

“Did driving me crazy wear you out?” Phil said.

Tommy was about to respond when his phone buzzed, he pulled it out and opened it to find a message from Fundy.

furry

i got u a meeting ur welcome meet me here tomorrow

Under the message was an address and a time.

Chapter Text

The address Fundy had sent turned out to be a parking garage near Las Nevadas. After parking the car Tommy and Techno put on their masks and stepped out. Fundy had texted saying to meet him near the entrance on the first floor. When they arrived the found the orange-haired man pacing about nervously wearing his full villain regalia. When Ares and Theseus arrived, he stopped pacing but didn’t relax at all.

“Won’t it be a little suspicious for two vigilantes and a villain to just be walking down the street?” Ares asked.

“Right, I forgot to tell you I got a car to drive us.” Kitsune responded.

The vigilantes followed Kitsune out of the garage where they found an unmarked black car waiting for them. Kitsune opened the backdoor and gestured for them to climb in before sitting in the passenger seat himself. The person in the driver's seat turned around and smiled at Theseus and Ares. The driver was a man wearing a gold mask with green eyes, most of his outfit was gold except for the light blue hood he was wearing to cover his hair. When he smiled, he revealed sharp teeth like those of a shark.

“Hi!” He greeted cheerfully.

“Theseus and Ares this is Totem. Totem this is Theseus and Ares.”

“I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.” Totem said turning back around and starting the car.

“Really?” Theseus asked.

“Yup! You’ve done a really good job of pissing off the heroes, so that makes you good in my book.”

“Ah.”

“It’s your first time in Las Nevadas, right? Well, you're in for a treat. It’s a beautiful place if I do say so myself. Though, I designed it so I’m not really impartial.”

As he turned the corner the casino came into view. And Theseus had to admit it was beautiful, with its fountains and lush landscaping. There were other cars pulling up in front of the casino and people dressed in expensive clothes were stepping out. When they reached the front of the line the vigilantes and Kitsune stepped out, with Totem calling goodbye to them.

Theseus and Ares followed the villain up to the front door and inside the building. Theseus had expected more people to be staring at them but apparently villains were a normal occurrence as barely anyone spared them a second glance. From across the room Theseus heard a loud voice call,

“Hello Kitsune from Las Nevadas!”

Theseus turned to see a man. He was very green and slimy and was wearing suspenders over a dress shirt that was stained with slime. He was waving enthusiastically and grinning while he walked over to them.

“Slime? What are you doing here?” Kitsune asked.

“Gamble from Las Nevadas told me to bring Theseus and Ares the vigilantes to him!” Slime replied enthusiastically.

“I was going to do that.”

“He also said that you have important human things you need to do.”

Kitsune sighed before turning to Theseus and Ares, “I guess I have to leave you here. Go with Slime and I’ll try and meet back up with you later.”

Theseus watched Kitsune walk away before turning back to Slime who was still grinning enthusiastically.

“Follow me!” Slime turned and began to walk across the floor of the casino with the vigilantes following close behind. They reached a door that was marked ‘Employees Only’ which Slime pushed open and led them through. On the other side was a hallway, the floor was a plush red carpet, and the walls were paneled with dark wood giving the space an expensive feel.

They followed Slime as he led them around corners and through archways until they reached a pair of large wooden doors. Slime didn’t knock and just pushed the doors open revealing the interior. It was an office with a plush couch, fireplace and floor to ceiling windows on the wall behind the desk.

At the desk sat a man wearing a similar outfit to Slime with a dress shirt and suspenders, though much less slimy and with holes cut in the back to allow his yellow duck wings to be free. He wore a beanie keeping his long dark hair out of his face and a mask that covered the upper half of his face, it was plain black on one half with the other styled to look like a hand of cards fanned out. He stood up as they entered and smiled charmingly.

“Welcome.” He greeted. “Please sit down.” He said gesturing at the seats in front of his desk.

Once Theseus and Ares had sat down the man turned to Slime. “You can leave now Slime.” He said smiling charmingly again. His smile made Theseus anxious, before they had arrived Ares had warned him that Gamble had the power to charm anyone and they and to stay aware that he could be charming them at any time. Slime nodded happily and left the room shutting the doors behind him. Gamble turned to the vigilantes again.

“So, what exactly did you want to meet about? Kitsune wouldn’t tell me.” He asked.

“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard of Mask.” Ares started.

“Yes, he’s been a real pain in my ass.” Gamble interrupted scowling before gesturing for Ares to continue.

“We’ve been trying to gather information on him to get him kicked out of Hero Tower, but so far, we’ve come up empty handed. We heard that you have ways of getting information from heroes and hoped you would help us.”

“What do I get?” Gamble asking folding his hands on the desk and leaning forward.

“What do you want?” Ares shot back.

Gamble smiled, “Well, I have no information on Mask at the moment, so I would have to use my resources to get it for you. You also haven’t been the most specific about what you're looking for and unless you have more details it will take a while to find anything. I want to make sure that I get paid one way or another.”

“Does taking down Mask count as payment?” Theseus asked nervously.

“No, you see there’s no guarantee that you will succeed I want to make sure I get something no matter the outcome.”

“What do you suggest we give you?” Ares asked.

Gamble smiled again this time it seemed more dangerous. “I suggest you work for me, until you get what you want.”

“We aren’t becoming villains just for information.” Ares said.

“And I’m not asking you to. No one has to know you're working for me. You can continue to do your normal vigilante things, but I can call you in for a job anytime. So, what do think?”

Ares stayed silent.

“Unless you can give me something better, I think you should agree.”

Ares sighed, “Fine we agree. Do you want to shake on it or something?”

Gamble shook his head. “Not quite. You two will sign a contract after one job.”

“Why?” Theseus asked.

“You know that this will benefit you. But as I said I need to make sure it benefits me too. So, I need to check that having you two working for me is worth it.”

Ares groaned, “What’s the job?”

“Have you heard of the politician J. Schlatt?”

“Yes.” Theseus said suspiciously.

“Recently he was in a meeting with the CEO of Awesome Tech and other technology companies that specialize in weaponry. The meeting was recorded but he’s the only one that’s known to have a copy. I want you to get the copy and bring it to me.”

“Okay.” Theseus said. “Is that all?”

“I mean, yeah?” Gamble said sounding slightly confused.

“How long do we have?” Ares asked.

“Two weeks.”

“Alright.” Ares said standing up. “Thank you.” Ares held out his hand which Gamble shook.

Theseus followed Ares over to the door which he opened as he was closing it behind him, he heard Gamble call out,

“Disappoint me and you’ll regret it.”

Waiting on the other side of the door they found Kitsune waiting for them leaning against the wall. When they exited, he stood up straight and asked,

“How’d it go?”

“Fine.” Ares replied simply.

“It went good. He agreed to let us work for him in exchange for the information.” Theseus said.

Kitsune led them back through the maze of hallways out through a backdoor this time where they found Totem waiting for them in the car. They were driven back to the garage where they got into the car before taking their masks off. Techno started the car and started to drive while Tommy pulled his phone out and opened the chat between him and Tubbo.

BIG MAN

hey what can you get something from your dad for us?

Chapter Text

It was two days before Tubbo managed to sneak onto his dad's computer and download the recording onto a flash drive. He walked into the classroom and up to Tommy proudly presenting him with a Barbie flash drive.

“This is it?” Tommy asked turning it over in his hands

“Yup. I also have another surprise for you.” Tubbo said winking and patting his backpack.

“What is it?” Tommy asked eagerly.

“I’ll show you after school.” Tubbo whispered as Sam clapped his hands together and began to talk.

After school the duo plus Ranboo met in front of the school.

“Are you going to tell me what your surprise is now?” Tommy asked.

“Not here.” Tubbo said glancing around at the other students. “Can we go back to your house?”

Tommy sighed, “Fine, but this better be good.”

The trio began to walk Tubbo leading the way down the street. Tommy turned to Ranboo.

“Do you know what his ‘surprise’ is?” Tommy asked in a whisper.

“Nope.” Ranboo whispered back. “I tried to convince him to tell me, but it didn’t work.”

“Do you think he actually managed to make a nuke?” Tommy asked still whispering

“I hope not!” Ranboo said alarmed and in a louder voice which caused Tubbo to glance back at them.

“What are you two talking about?” He asked, turning to walk backwards.

“Whether or not you’ve made a nuke.” Tommy responded.

Tubbo grinned evilly and didn’t respond instead saying, “You know if I had a vigilante name, I think I would want it to be Nuke.”

“You don’t need a vigilante name though.” Tommy said.

“Well, maybe I want one.” Tubbo said.

“I think Nuke is a cool name.” Ranboo said hesitantly.

“See Ranboo agrees. Don’t you think we deserve secret identities?” Tubbo said pointedly.

“If you want one. I don’t care.” Tommy said shrugging.

Tubbo cheered and turned to Ranboo, “What do you want your name to be?”

“Ender.” Ranboo said without hesitation.

“Seems like you’ve thought about this.” Tommy said raising an eyebrow.

Ranboo flushed, “When I was younger, I wanted to be a hero I came up with a whole design for my outfit and everything. The name I called myself was Ender.”

Tubbo and Tommy both aww’ed which caused the taller teen to flush even more.

When the trio walked through the front door of Tommy’s house, they found Wilbur and Techno sitting on the couch watching something on the television. When they walked into the living room Techno glanced up and spotting Tubbo asked,

“Did you get the recording?”

“Yup.” Tubbo replied proudly pulling out the Barbie flash drive to show to Techno.

“What are you watching?” Tommy asked.

Wilbur responded by saying, “Did you know that sand is divided into five sub-categories based on size.”

“It’s a documentary on sand.” Techno said wrinkling up his nose in disgust.

“Now can you tell us your ‘surprise’?” Ranboo asked.

“Suprise?” WIlbur said looking up from the television.

“Phil isn’t here is he?” Tubbo asked looking around nervously.

“Nope. He’s at work.” Wilbur said pausing the documentary and looking expectantly at Tubbo.

“Cool.” Tubbo said reaching into his backpack and pulling out Shroud.

“Now, Shroud is perfect in every way obviously. But he does have some setbacks like how he isn’t easily portable unless you have a bag, he’s difficult to carry around. But I have fixed this problem!” Tubbo pressed a button on Shroud’s back and the robot spider seemed to fold into itself becoming a small palm sized ball.

“Now, you can carry him around in your pocket!” Tubbo said excitedly, handing the ball to Tommy.

“Cool!”

“The speaker and microphone still work when he’s like that too. So, when you go to give Gamble the recording you can just put Shroud in your pocket, and we should hear everything that’s going on.” Tubbo said proudly.

“Speaking of giving Gamble the recording. Wilbur, can you ask Fundy-” Techno started.

“Already on it.” Wilbur said pulling out his phone.

“It’s kind of inconvenient that we have to go through Fundy every time we want to contact Gamble.” Ranboo pointed out.

“That’s a good point, Ranbus. That’s why I got this.” Wilbur said, and pulling something out of his pocket which he threw at Techno who startled and caught it.

“Is this a burner phone?” Techno asked looking at the object.

“Yes, see I can be helpful. Aren’t you glad to have me on the team.” Wilbur said smiling smugly.

Wilbur glanced down at his phone again before looking up, “Fundy says if you go now you can meet with Gamble.”

This time when Theseus and Ares arrived at Las Nevadas Kitsune led them into the building through a backdoor that opened straight into the maze of hallways. Kitsune led them through it until they again reached the doors to Gamble’s office.

“I’ll wait here.” Kitsune said. “You two can go in he’s expecting you.”

The vigilantes made eye contact before Theseus nodded and Ares pushed the doors open. Gamble glanced up from his paperwork when they entered.

“You know I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.” Putting down his pen he folded his hands together and tilted his head to the side. “I do hope you have the recording. If you don’t things will be very bad for you.”

“Don’t worry about us.” Ares said pulling out the flash drive and setting it on the desk.

Gamble picked it up and smirked slightly. “Is there a reason it’s pink with the word ‘Barbie’ on it?”

“Why does everyone keep judging that?” Tubbo’s voice suddenly said affronted.

Theseus and Ares froze while Gamble looked around in confusion before asking, “Where is that coming from?”

Theseus pulled balled up Shroud from his pocket and frowned at it. “I thought you weren’t going to talk.”

“I changed my mind. Now put me on the desk I want to talk to him face to face.”

Theseus shrugged and set the ball on the desk. As soon as he did it expanded into its spider form and turned to face Gamble. “Listen here, there is nothing wrong with Barbie and it was the only flash drive I had that I was willing to give up so deal with it.”

“Who are you exactly?” Gamble asked leaning forward.

“You can call me Nuke.” Nuke responded

“Is this why you wanted a name?” Theseus asked, crossing his arms.

“Maybe.” Nuke said.

“Why are you here?” Gamble asked, continuing to look suspicious.

“I help Theseus and Ares.”

“How?”

“Surveillance through Shroud, that’s the robot spider in front of you be the way, I also get information, like the flash drive your holding.”

“And this really does have the recording, right?” Gamble asked.

“Yeah, you can check it.”

Gamble plugged the flash drive into his computer, he clicked something on the screen and Schlatt’s voice came out of the speakers. Gamble smiled and paused the recording, turning to Theseus and Ares.

“You did very well. You got what I wanted in less than the time I gave you.”

“Does that mean you’ll help us.” Ares asked.

“Yes, it does.” Gamble pulled a sheet of paper from a stack and handed it and a pen to Ares. “There’s your contact. You can read through it of course and to agree just sign on the line.”

There was silence for a moment as Ares scanned the page. Then the vigilante signed it and handed it to Theseus who signed it as well before handing it back to Gamble. The villain smiled before sticking out his hand for the vigilantes to shake, “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Chapter Text

It was rare for Wilbur to be the first one awake in the house but today when Techno woke up and came into the kitchen, he found Wilbur waiting for him already dressed and sipping from a mug.

“Good morning.” He greeted cheerily.

Techno stared at him in confusion. “Why are you awake?”

“Dad’s birthday is tomorrow, and we haven’t gotten presents yet. So, we’re going shopping today.” Wilbur responded.

“Are we?” Techno said while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“Yes.” Wilbur took another sip from his mug, finishing the drink before putting it in the sink and beginning to exit the room.

“Where are you going?” Techno asked suspiciously.

“To wake up Tommy.” Wilbur said walking toward the stairs.

“Your funeral.” Techno said taking another sip from his mug.

Wilbur reached the landing and being careful not to make a sound he snuck over to Tommy’s door and gently pushed it open. Inside Tommy was sleeping peacefully curled up in a ball under his red comforter. Grinning evilly Wilbur made his way over to the window, whose curtains were closed blocking out the morning sun.

In one smooth motion, the brunette threw open the curtains shouting, “Wake up!”

The sudden intrusion of light and sound caused Tommy to jolt awake with a shriek. Spotting his grinning older brother Tommy pointed at him angrily while screaming, “You bitch!” And lunging forward.

Laughing Wilbur sprinted out of the room, there was a thump behind him, and Wilbur glanced over his shoulder to see Tommy had fallen out of his bed tangled in the blankets. He managed to free himself and chased after Wilbur who had reached the bottom of the stairs and jumped down the last few steps. Tommy caught up to Wilbur in the living room where he jumped onto his back causing the two of them to tumble to the floor. Tommy grabbed a pillow from the couch and sitting on top of Wilbur, began to hit him with it repeatedly shouting various profanities.

Wilbur simply laughed using his arms to try and protect himself from the attacks. Phil, who had been woken up by the commotion and had followed his sons downstairs, now stood in the doorway to the living room observing the scene. Wilbur catching sight of him, shouted, “Dad! Save me!”

Phil sighed dramatically, “Tommy. Please stop hitting your brother.”

Tommy stopped but continued to sit on top of Wilbur pouting at Phil, “But he woke me up.”

Phil raised an eyebrow and Tommy groaned getting off of Wilbur. Phil sighed again and rubbed his eyes, “Well now that we’re all awake why don’t I make breakfast?”

“Sur-” Tommy started but Wilbur cut him off.

“That’s okay dad. We have things we need to get to.”

“Things?” Phil said suspiciously.

Wilbur nodded and guided Tommy into the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” Tommy asked squinting at his older brother.

“We’re going shopping for dad’s birthday.” Wilbur informed him.

“Oh. I forgot about that.”

“I figured you might. Now eat and get ready to go.”

A little less than an hour later Wilbur had managed to get his brothers out of the house and into the car. Tommy was singing along loudly to the radio from the backseat. And Techno was in the passenger seat staring out the window.

Wilbur pulled into the parking lot of the mall shutting off the engine. Tommy immediately jumped out of the car, bouncing up and down in excitement.

“Where are we going first?” He asked excitedly.

“I don’t know. Do you have any ideas of what you want to get dad?” Wilbur asked.

“I do.” Techno said stepping out of the car.

“Alright why don’t we go get there first and see if we get any ideas on the way.” Wilbur said.

Wilbur and Tommy followed Techno as he led them through the mall to a large bookstore.

“Doesn’t dad already have enough books?” Tommy asked, running his hand over the spines of the books on the shelves.

“You can never have enough books.” Wilbur responded, glancing around as they followed Techno through the store. Techno stopped by a bookshelf which an employee was restocking and grabbed Wilbur dragging him off to the side.

“Can you ask them if the store has these books?” Techno asked shoving a piece of paper with a list written on it in Wilbur’s face.

“Can’t you ask them yourself?” Wilbur asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Please Wilbur.” Techno practically begged.

Wilbur rolled his eyes but took the paper from Techno and walked up to the employee.

“Hi.” He said, smiling charmingly. “Do you have these books here?” He showed them the list.

“Yeah. Right this way.” They said beginning to walk.

Wilbur followed them with Techno trailing behind. The employee showed Wilbur where the books on the list were, and he handed them to Techno.

“You have to go and pay for these yourself I’m not doing that for you too.” Wilbur said.

“Where’s Tommy?” Techno asked glancing around.

Wilbur looked around too and not seeing his younger brother groaned, “I’ll go find him. You go pay.”

Wilbur walked off to find Tommy. He retraced his steps back to the place where he’d last seen Tommy and then searched the area still not finding him. He’d almost given up and was reaching for his phone to try and call his younger brother when he heard a crash.

Wilbur walked quickly towards the sound until he found Tommy lying on the ground beside a stool with an employee glaring at him.

“Tommy!” Wilbur said alarmed.

“Hey Wil.” Tommy said with a sheepish look on his face.

“What did you do?!”

“I fell off the stool.” Tommy said, slowly standing up.

Wilbur groaned and grabbed Tommy’s arm dragging him toward the entrance of the store where Techno was.

“Can you go thirty seconds without causing chaos?” Wilbur said exasperated.

“Sorry.” Tommy said looking dejected.

“It’s okay Toms.” Wilbur said with a sigh.

The brothers caught up to Techno who was waiting for them with a bag in his hand with the bookstore’s name on it.

“Do you know where you want to go next?” He asked.

“I saw a store that looked cool.” Tommy said, leading the way back into the main area of the mall.

Wilbur and Techno followed Tommy as he led them to what looked like a cross between an antique store and a curiosity shop.

A bell rang as they walked through the door. Inside the store the walls were covered by shelves filled with all sorts of strange things. Tommy disappeared into the shop with Techno following behind. Wilbur wandered over to the section dedicated to music and began to flip through a box of records.

“Any ideas of what you want to get dad?”

Wilbur jumped when Techno spoke from right behind him and turned to glare at his brother.

“I thought you were with Tommy.”

“He told me to go away.” Techno said leaning against a nearby shelf.

Wilbur sighed, turning back to the records. “No, I don’t have any ideas of what to get him.”

“You do know it doesn’t matter that much, right? Dad will be happy with pretty much anything.” Techno said raising an eyebrow.

“I still want to give him something special.”

“Sure, but-“ Techno started but before he could finish Tommy appeared with a paper bag in his hand.

“Are you ready to go?” He asked.

“That was fast.” Wilbur said.

“I knew what I wanted to get.” Tommy said shrugging.

“And what did you get?” Techno asked as they followed Tommy out of the shop.

“This!” Tommy said pulling a green and white striped bucket hat out of the bag.

“That’s dad’s birthday present?” Techno asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah! He’s gonna love it.” Tommy said shoving the hat back into its bag.

“Any idea where you want to look next?” Techno asked, turning to Wilbur.

“I don’t know.” Wilbur said looking around at the other shops biting his lip.

“Can we get food then? I’m starving.” Tommy said, pointing towards the food court.

“Sure Toms.” Wilbur said.

After getting their food the brothers sat down at one of the tables to eat. Tommy immediately began stuffing his face while Techno took smaller bites and Wilbur picked at his fries with a frown on his face.

“Still thinking about what to get dad?” Techno asked.

“Just get him a something with crows on it.” Tommy said around his mouthful of food.

“I want it to be meaningful.” Wilbur said.

“You’re overthinking.” Techno said.

An hour later Wilbur still hadn’t found anything. Actually, he’d found a lot of things but none of them had been quite right. Tommy was whining and dragging his feet as Wilbur led them from store to store. He was in a clothing store looking at t-shirts when he heard a long-suffering sigh and looked up at Techno.

“What?” Wilbur said.

“Wilbur, we’ve been at this for hours can you just admit you’re not going to find anything so we can leave.” Techno said.

“What will I give dad then?” Wilbur asked.

“I don’t know.” Techno said exasperated. “Make him something?”

Something clicked in Wilbur’s mind and his face lit up, “You’re a genius! I just had an idea.”

“Does that mean we can leave now?” Tommy asked.