Chapter Text
“Tommy this is dumb. You’re being dumb.” Tubbo said through the com earpiece he made to be able to still talk to Tommy while the blond was out patrolling.
Tommy held a hand on the microphone on his earpiece. “Its fine Bee, I’ll even come home early.”
“I don’t want you out at all! Tommy, you need this job, we need you to get this job! You can’t be out fighting criminals all night!” Tubbo told him. He was right. About a month ago Tommy’s last job at a local coffee shop got destroyed in a villain attack. Despite the fact he had two roommates and lived in one of the poorest districts in L’manburg, losing the steady income Tommy brought had made things hard for the trio to afford much after rent.
Tommy had been to quite a few interviews since the café was destroyed, but he was never able to land the job. He was too loud, brash, annoying, and child-like. In his defense, he was only 16, not that any of the interviewers knew that. As far as his papers said, he was 19.
But he didn’t need to worry about that right now. He always felt the freest when he was a masked, name-less vigilante using his powers to fight local criminals in district 14.
Although it wasn’t on any of his legal papers, Tommy was able to control and manipulate energy.
Right now, he was using his powers to propel himself across roofs towards the red ping Tubbo had added on the map feature of his watch.
“Thanks for the ping big-T.” Tommy said into his mic.
“This is the only thing you’re doing tonight, ok? If I don’t see you on your way home right after, I’m sending Ranboo to come pick you up.” Tubbo threatened. This wasn’t the first time Tommy’s friend had said he’d make their roommate bring Tommy home, but Ranboo had gone to sleep roughly an hour ago before Tommy left on patrol.
Tommy could hear car alarm now, so he turned off his watch-map. Once he made it to the edge he took a moment to survey the scene. Two men stood in all black next too some old, but still decent looking van.
A van? Really? Out of all the different cars they could try to steal they choose someone’s old-ass van?
Well, it is one of the poorest districts, so it’s probably one of the nicest cars in the neighborhood.
Tommy jumped down from the roof, using his powers to soften the impact and calmly strolled over the car stealers. They didn’t even realize he was there until he tapped one on the shoulder.
When the man turned, Tommy promptly punched him in the face and listened to the deeply satisfying crunch that came along with it.
So what if it hurt his hand? It’s cool as fuck.
The first guy fell to his knees and clutched his bloody nose, the second guy seemed to notice what was happening and, ok where the fuck did that bat come from?
There was no way he was holding that before, could he have some kind of object creation power? That would be annoying to fight. Dudes probably a hoot in PE.
Baseball bat guy swung his weapon at Tommy’s head, but Tommy ducked down and hooked the man’s leg with his foot and yanked it towards himself The man became unbalanced and fell to the floor with a loud thump.
Tommy quickly jumped back onto his feet and used his powers to pull the bat the man had been holding into his own hand, swinging it at the man with a broken nose just hard enough to knock him out.
Unfortunately, the baseball bat man was apparently still conscious enough to make another baseball bat.
Really dude. Why not a gun or a knife or something? Literally anything would work better than a bat.
The bat guy took advantage of him pausing to judge and took a swing aiming for the ribs. Tommy heard a loud crack before sharp pain shot through his chest and he went flying into a nearby trash bin. Well, That’s probably not good.
Tommy recovered quickly and dodged the next attack which logged the bat in a pile of trash allowing the blond to grab the previous baseball bat and throw it at baseball bat guy’s head knocking him out cold for good this time.
Tommy pulls both the men’s knocked out bodies to the nearby bike rack and zip tied their hands together... just for good measure he hits baseball bat guy on the head again... you know... as a precaution... definitely not to let out some anger, not at all. Tommy grabbed a sticky note out of his pocket and quickly wrote in his best handwriting possible ‘We was caught stealing a van. Please arrest us ;D -T’
He shaved off baseball bat guy's head before slapping the sticky note on his bald head and called 911. In the most feminine (read: high pitched Karen) voice he could muster he said “hello? I found two men zip tied to a light pole down by [address here] with a note saying that they tried to rob a van.” and he ended the call before using his powers to boost himself up onto the roof to lurk until the police arrived.
Fuck, his chest was still hurting like hell. Tubbo was so going to kill him once he got home.
Thankfully the attempted car robbery was only a couple of blocks from Tommy’s apartment complex, or maybe not so thankfully because Tommy happens to not enjoy the thought of someone breaking into his house.
Tommy stepped through the small apartments window and looked around. They only had one mattress that they had spent weeks saving up for after buying the apartment that was just big enough to fit the three roommates.
Tubbo’s work desk was the only other thing in the room, sitting on the far back wall next to the door to the living space. Speaking of Tubbo he was sitting on the spinney chair by the desk and turned facing the window, arms and legs crossed like a disapproving mother that had just caught their child sneaking out.
“That took a little long for a two-person car robbery.” he said, glaring daggers at Tommy as the blond began removing the red hoodie he used for his costume.
“One of the guys had powers.” Tommy explained simply, falling back onto the mattress next to Ranboo and stifling a pained gasp at the fiery flares of pain that came from his chest.
Tubbo sighed before he too laid on the mattress. This was a fight they often had. Only a few months ago Tommy had decided to become a vigilante, Tubbo had been firmly against the idea at first and often told his friend how dangerous, and not to mention illegal it was. He eventually came around to the idea after Ranboo said he’d be Tommy’s backup in case anything when wrong, his teleporting powers having come in handy more than once when Tommy got in over his head.
It took Tommy a while to fall asleep that night, and not just because of Tubbo’s endless snoring and Ranboo’s cuddly-ness (no, it was not Tommy trying to cuddle with Ranboo it was totally 100% the other way around, I have no idea where you could’ve got that from)
If he was being honest, which he always is because big men like Tommy never lie, he was a little nervous for his interview in the morning. He hadn’t exactly told his roommates, especially Tubbo, what he was interviewing for, in all honesty he probably wasn’t going to get the job anyways, not because he wasn’t the most pog man on earth because he total is, he was just going through a bit of bad luck with jobs at the moment!
Which still didn’t make his idea any less stupid, but hey, at least it gives him a reason!
…
Tommy glanced nervously up at the large glass building, trying to remind himself that the worst thing that could happen here would be not getting the job, (or getting thrown in pandoras vault for illegal use of his powers and vigilantism.)
He stepped inside and was greeted with a large rather empty room with two rows of waiting seats on either side of the door leading over to a front desk. On the left of the front desk was an elevator, and a set of stairs to the right.
Sitting at what he presumed was the receptionist desk was a decently tall, tan man sitting in a wheelchair at a computer. He had fluffy brown hair, green eyes, and was wearing a maroon suit and a top hat with a green ribbon around it. His face was COVERED in scars ranging from explosions to large cuts that span the entirety of his face.
“Oooo, you gonna go see some of the top heroes?” The receptionist asked when Tommy approached.
“Yeah? Why else would I be in the hero tower?” Tommy asked, trying to calm his nerves.
“Well, if you’re going up to the SBI interview, you’ll need this,” He handed Tommy a white key card, “And this, tell Ghostbur it’s a gift from Scar.” The man, who Tommy now assumes is named Scar, gives the teen a small box ruffly the size of Tommys hand.
“Thanks, big man.”
“Head to floor 29 room 4 and make sure to give that key card back before you leave, I’m legally not allowed to let you keep it.” Scar said before he waved Tommy off to the elevator.
As he clicked the button for floor 29, he took a deep breath, which turned out to be a horrible idea because all it did was bring back the searing pain from the night before.
Tommy had to hide his pain as the elevator opened on… not floor 29. Instead, he was on floor 12 and someone came over to stand next to him.
She was a little shorter than Tommy himself and had puffy white hair that was dyed rainbow underneath. Ram horns curled around her ears and, unlike when she was in her hero costume, she was wearing a pink sweater and jeans.
Tommy was standing in an elevator with one of his favorite heroes ever. The captain.
“Oh hey, looks like you already clicked on the floor I was heading to, thanks kid.” The captain said, giving Tommy a warm smile, which he rarely got from adults. “So, what are you doing on the SBI floor?” She asked.
“Oh, uh,” Tommy’s chest aced painfully, “I have an interview for the assistant position.” He told her.
“Thank god, I’ve been bugging Phil about getting an assistant for months, I keep telling them that I can’t be bringing their papers around for them.” She sighed.
“So, Mrs. Captain, Why are you here? I thought you retired years ago?” About three years ago The Captain announced her retirement to the public and hadn’t been in a single battle since, despite her old position as the number 5 hero in La’manburg and no major injures.
Tommy flinched when The Captain burst out laughing. “Ok, first, I’m not The Captain anymore, please just call me Puffy. And not ‘Mrs. Puffy’ because that’ll make me feel old. And second, the reason I’m still hanging around the hero tower is because I like helping out with paperwork and talking to my old friends.” The- Puffy. Puffy told him.
“Oh, that’s nice.” Tommy did his best to give a polite smile as the elevator doors opened again to floor 29.
“Piece of advice kid, we all use our normal names around here, so you’ll probably get a similar reaction if you try and call Phil, ‘Mr. Angel’ Puffy said before she walked into room 2.
Great, Tommy had been here for less than 10 minutes and he’d already gotten laughed at by one of the coolest heroes in the history of the world.
How could this possibly get any worse?
Tommy stepped into room 4. Inside was a desk facing away from a wall of windows, a bookshelf full of books, and a green and white striped rug that reminded Tommy of the hat on The Angels hero costume. In the back corner Ghostbur was sitting in a spinning chair facing the wall.
“Hello, you’re our next interview, correct? Tomas Innit?” Ang- Phil asked, tapping a stack of papers against his desk before placing them to the side and taking one off the top, presumably Tommy’s resume.
“Yep, but I prefer Tommy,” He told Phil, who nodded in response, “Also the front desk guy wanted me to give this to Ghostbur.” He held up the small box and suddenly said man spinned his chair around and snatched the box out of Tommy’s hands.
“Thanks kid!” He said before walking through the wall, probably to his own office.
“Hey! I’m not a child!” Tommy yelled after him, “Why does everyone keep calling me that…” He mumbled before turning back to Phil.
“So Tommy, why do you want this position?” He asked, placing the paper on his desk, and folding his hands in his lap.
“When I was little I always wanted to be a hero, but when my powers still didn’t manifest by the time I turned 18 I knew it wouldn’t be an option for me. I think the reason I want this job is so that I can still feel some semblance of helping people, even if its just making the actual hero’s jobs easier by doing their paperwork for them.” That wasn’t too much of a lie, he had wanted to be a hero growing up and he is currently helping people.
Powers tend to manifest somewhere between the ages of 3 – 18, depending on how strong the power was. Tubbo got his power at 8 and Ranboo didn’t get his power until 15.
Tommy got his at 16, only a few months ago. So while he hasn’t had the chance to completely test out what he can do, all his vigilante work has taught him that he at least has some kind of energy manipulation that works similar to telekinesis.
As far as any legal papers know Tommy is 19, never manifested any powers, and finished high school 2 years ago.
“I see and are you-“ Tommy’s breath caught and he brought a hand to his mouth as he began a painful coughing fit. With every heave of his chest, it started to hurt more, until Tommy felt something smooth and hot rise in his throat.
Something that tasted metallic.
Tommy stopped coughing and looked down at his hand, which was now slightly dripping with hot red blood.
“You need to go to the med floor.” Phil said, his feathers ruffling in panic. The older blond quickly stood and took Tommy's arm as he led him down the hall and into the elevator, clicking on floor 43.
“I’m fine, really Phil-“ Tommy tried to say, if there was one thing Tommy hated in the world, it would be hospitals.
“Don’t try pulling that shit with me mate, you literally just coughed up blood mid-interview!” And just like that Phil pulled Tommy into the med floor.
Thankfully, it turned out to not be as bad as he was expecting. They didn’t do any blood work, just an x-ray that showed Tommy had 3 broken ribs, one of which had managed to puncture one of his lungs.
But the heroes only had the best healers as their doctors, so Dr. Ponk was able to use his powers to mend Tommy's bones and un-puncture his lung. Sure, it took a bit of explaining to tell his interviewer how exactly he had managed to break 3 ribs (He ultimately ended up telling Phil he had been threatened by someone walking home that night. Not too unlikely cloistering he had stopped several armed robberies in district 14)
Safe to say Tommy left the hero tower an hour and a half later than he was planning to and had definitely bombed another interview.
---
“Techno mate, can you clear the rest of our interviews for the day?” Phil asked as he stepped into the living space of floor 29.
“Why? We’ve only had like 3 so far and its only 12:30?” Techno said, while also standing next to a glitter covered Wilbur. Phil can guess what was in the gift from Scar.
“Wil, off the couch, you’re covered in glitter… again.” Phil said, both he and Techno shivered as they remembered the last time Wilbur had gotten glitter everywhere. Before turning back to his other son.
“We’re hiring Tommy.”