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Tommy knew that going to the store in his suit was a dumb idea, he knew that it couldn’t lead to anything positive. He also knew that he really fucking wanted some apple juice. He was on patrol as Riot— everyone’s favourite vigilante from the lower districts— assisting some drunk girl home when she started going on a rant about apple juice.
And that sparked something in Tommy— it made him remember his deep adoration of the juice. Long story short, no matter how impractical his decisions were, they were completely justified.
He had made it to the store just fine, only turning a few heads as he ran with the pace of someone who was being chased under the threat of death— which he was not but he was running towards his one true love, that seemed just as vital .
“Riot!” The employee, Tubular or something, greets enthusiastically. “Here for more bandages, bossman? We just restocked for you.” Tommy turns to face the teen— which feels dangerous, it’s a bit too late for someone of their age to be out so late, but who’s Tommy to judge— reading the name on the tag pinned to his shirt.
“No thanks, all my blood’s in my body for once. Do you guys have apple juice?”
Tubbo nodded, pointing over to the back corner. “Course we do, we’ve got everything here as long as you’ve got enough to afford it.” Tommy had heard the line enough for it to no longer be concerning but he was certain when Tubbo said they had everything he truly meant it.
“I think I’ll just settle with the apple juice,” Tommy said grabbing an apple juice that was in a cup fashioned to look like an apple, while he typically wasn’t one for fanfare, this was fucking poggers.
He heads back to the front, setting the drink down and waiting for Tubbo to ring him up. However the brunette just levels him with a strangely all knowing glare before shaking his head. “It’s free, you should be careful with it though.”
“What it is a bomb or something?”
“No,” Tubbo pauses, tilting his head, “that would be cool though. I mostly meant just be careful not to drop it, it’s glass.”
The interaction ends at that and Tommy makes his way outside. He’s fully intending to find a nice place— an empty roof or alleyway that doesn’t smell awful enough that he chokes all the apple juice back up— before he spots red eyes peering into his soul from across the street.
Now, earlier when Tommy had said he was everyone’s favourite vigilante, he may have been exaggerating just a bit. And by just a bit, he means that a certain group of villains hated him so much that they were fond of the concept of ending his life.
He personally thought it was fucked, all he wanted was apple juice! He didn’t mean to run into the Syndicate— even though all he sees is Shadow, the others usually aren’t far behind—, who he had been avoiding since he accidentally set one of their safehouses on fire. If Tommy was being honest, he truly didn’t mean to pour the highly flammable liquid and drop the match.
Well, okay, maybe he did, but he was bored! And sure, you might be thinking, doesn’t the blatant disrespect of property make him a bit of a villian? The answer is no, he’s just a vigilante who enjoys breaking a few laws.
It’s not like he’s a hero or anything! He’s just kinda vibing his way through life and only actively participating in the laws he likes. Sure, it was a bit hypocritical of him to target the Syndicate when one could argue that they were doing the same thing as him, but he truly was just a little guy, you can’t blame him for his actions.
Tommy clenches his apple juice tightly before darting down the street. He can hear Shadow’s heavy footfalls behind him but it doesn’t worry him much, he’s outrun the villain more times than he could count on both hands.
What does concern him though, is when another set of feet join Shadow. “Riot,” Charm called after him. Distantly, he can hear Crow’s wings carrying him across the sky. “Fucking slow down prick!” Charm yells.
One of the first times he had truly realized his powers was in a fight with Charm. The villain had attempted to use his vocal manipulation on Tommy and the blonde had simply not listened. Being resistant to other’s powers was nice, it was pretty much the only reason the Syndicate hadn’t been able to catch him yet.
He could hear Crow getting closer, probably getting ready to attempt to swoop down like he had so many times before. Tommy spared a glance at the apple juice in his hands, frowning at what he knew he would have to do.
“This is cruel and unusual,” Tommy said, mostly to himself before saying a prayer for his poor innocent apple juice. As soon as Crow was within his sights, he chucked the bottle as hard as he could.
He tried his hardest to keep even footing as he heard the bottle shatter against Crow's mask. And then he heard Crow not exactly fall from the sky, but he sure enough had a quick descent after he was met with the apple juice.
Tommy cursed to himself, while he occasionally took joy in targeting the Syndicate’s going ons, he had never directly hurt one of them. Well, he hadn’t attacked first. He was smart enough to see how close the group was— he wasn’t oblivious to the fact that they would kill for each other. He was already on their shit list and he didn’t want to be pushed up to a priority status.
That’s kind of too late now, he thinks, with the whole apple juice becoming the sun to Crow’s whole Icarus act . He speeds up, maybe if he can just outrun them again then they’ll just forget all about it. If he can run fast enough, he doesn’t have to die yet.
This is where the issue of how fucking fast they are comes in. It’s ridiculous, Charm doesn’t need to be quick, he can just tell anyone he’d be chasing— barring Tommy, of course— to stop and they would. Shadow’s just entirely too buff to be as quick as he is, that muscle mass should slow him down in some way. Then again, if this is the slowed down version of Shadow, Tommy’s truly terrified of the villain’s full potential.
Tommy doesn’t have much more time to think over how horrifying the people chasing him are, as a body slammed into him, dragging him to the ground. “Finally,” Charm cried triumphantly. “You’re not an easy one to catch, you know, Riot?”
“That’s kind of the whole point, dickhead.” This had got to be the worst night for him, he shattered his apple juice and the Syndicate had actually caught him. Charm had moved so that his knee was pressed in between Tommy’s shoulder blades, keeping him in place.
Shadow kneeled down in front of him. “Well it’s over now, isn’t it?” The villain reached back behind Tommy’s head— reached for the straps that held Tommy’s mask in place. He had known the Syndicate preferred to unmask the heroes and vigilantes they caught, just in case they got away, so they’d know their civilian identity. But Tommy had expected more fanfare, Charm was a dramatic fucker, it felt almost unfair to go down without an exaggerated speech.
Tommy could only lay defenseless, trapped in Charm’s hold as Shadow took his mask off. There was a moment of silence after the mask had been pulled away from his face and tossed to the side. “Uh, Wi- Charm, problem.”
“What?” Charm asked leaning forward to get a peak at Tommy’s face. “Oh shit.” Which felt rude, okay a bit more than felt. It was entirely fucking rude. You can’t just unmask a man and then talk shit about his face. Tommy would say as much if he wasn’t so paralyzed by fear.
“This is a child.” Tommy nearly scoffed, the fear overrides his innate urge to tell them how much he was simply not a child. No child would take to the streets and both cause and stop crime, so he wasn’t one.
Sure, you could argue that apple juice led to his downfall, which was a bit childish, but if you do that you’re not a good person, in Tommy’s opinion. “Oh fuck, dad’s going to be so upset.” Dad ? Is the Syndicate a family? That would make much more sense than Tommy’s running theory of an extremely codependent group of villains.
“What are you bitches talking about?” Tommy asked, vividly aware of how much higher his voice sounded without the assistance of his voice modulator. It was embarrassing in a way, but he was probably going to die tonight, so what’s it actually matter in the long run.
“Maybe we can just let him go, tell dad we weren’t able to catch him.” Tommy finds himself nodding along, he’s not sure what changed their opinion so quickly, but he’s not opposed if it means he can go home. And you know not fucking die.
“Too late,” Charm spoke looking past Shadow.
Tommy looked up. Crow’s mask had shattered, revealing the villain’s eyes and a nasty scratch on the bridge of his nose that the apple juice had caused. “Is that?” Crow got closer, practically shoving his face in Tommy’s. “That’s Riot?”
“In the flesh,” Tommy chimed. There’s only a certain level of fucked you can be and without his mask in front of people who very well may be his downfall, he feels that it’s as fucked as he’s going to get.
No point in holding back when they were going to do their worst anyway.“Yeah in the baby smooth toddler flesh, what the actual fuck,” Charm, the actual prick speaks. Sure, Tommy won’t deny that he has great skin, it that’s all due to the mass amounts of sunscreen he had found in a dumpster and had been using practically everyday. It’s not his fault, Charm has a skewed perception of what a massive big man looks like because he’s never used sunscreen in his fucking life.
He’s probably going to get all wrinkled and dry up and die like a worm or some shit. “What do we do now?” Shadow asks. “We can’t just kill him anymore…. can we?” Wait, they’re just going to not kill him because he’s a bit young? That’s probably the first time his age has ever benefited him. He can’t legally get a job yet, but not being a target for murder might trump that.
“Techno!” Crow hisses out and Tommy blanches at the name drop. Shadow— or Techno apparently— didn’t seem pleased at the fact his name was so carelessly flung into the conversation either. “We’ll take him back.”
“To the base?” Charm asks, shifting to stare at Crow, who Tommy is pretty sure is their dad. Charms knee get jammed even deeper in between Tommy’s shoulders blades and it’s pretty much the only thing he can focus on. It makes it quite a bit harder to breathe, but he’s certain that bit’s just psychological, it does hurt more than Tommy appreciates though.
“No, home,” Crow says and Tommy’s worry increases tenfold. Sure, he wasn’t that worried ever since the whole not killing him thing was made clear, but that was only a minute ago and he’s got lingering worry. Being kidnapped by the Syndicate is not something he necessarily has on his bucket list.
Being kidnapped by the Syndicate and then taken to their home is not something Tommy thought could ever be real. “Then what?” Yeah, then what? Tommy rots in a guest room at the house they live in, because they’re real people who live and breathe outside of their villain personas— it’s a weird thought, they’ve never been this real before.
“Then we’ll figure it out won’t we?” Crow says, standing up and walking away, not bothering to wait for the others. Tommy can see it now, that’s such a dad thing to do— at least he thinks, he doesn’t really have any prime examples. He imagines it is though, making a final decision and just walking off.
“This is going to be a shit show.” Charm stands up, no longer pinning Tommy to the ground. And though he knows escaping this situation is one of the least likely things that could ever happen to him at this moment, he still tries.
He doesn’t make it far, he had known he wasn’t going to. It still sucks when Techno grabs him by the back of his suit and hauls him up into his arms as if Tommy weighs nothing. Even as Techno holds him very close to his chest, Tommy tries very hard to get away. Kicking, hitting, scratching, it’s all pointless when aimed at the man who’s probably made of fucking concrete or something.
It only serves to tires Tommy out, he slumps into Techno’s hold far quicker than he would like to admit. As his eyes shut, all he can this is that it’s a true shame he never got his apple juice.