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When Tommy was first called into the meeting room, he didn't know what he did to be called there.
"Sir you-" he begins but cuts himself off when he sees who is sitting in the room. He isn't the only one that was called in today, he can see some Nemesis, Orpheus, the Blade and even Zephyrus sitting in the chairs around the table. "Sir, you requested my presence?" He recovers himself quickly, but he can see Orpheus holding back laughter.
"Yes, I will be leaving soon, but you know Zephyrus, right?"
"Yes, sir." Because, who doesn't know Zephyrus. Zephyrus, one of the best hero's in existence.
"Good, from now on, you will be listening to his orders, he is your boss, understood?"
Tommy needs to hold in his excitement, Zephyrus being his boss, oh hell yeah! "Yes, sir, understood," he says in his calmest voice possible, but inside he isn't calm at al, because, Zephyrus is his boss! His fulfillment of his childhood dream is coming closer every second he spends in this building!
"Thomathy?"
Tommy snaps out of his excitement, seeing that all the eyes in the room are watching him. "Sorry," he says, his face colouring more red every second.
"I requested you to take a seat," Zephyrus tells him, he listens and goes to sit on the only unoccupied seat. He doesn't like the fact at all that he is sitting in between the Blade and Orpheus, but for the only Zephyrus he can survive that.
"So, Thomathy, you are-"
"Tommy," he interrups Orpheus.
"Wha'?"
"Please, call me Tommy."
The hero nods thoughtfully, "Tommy, I heard you are new here, how'd you like it?"
"It has been alright, but Captain said this meeting was important, right?"
"Immediatly to business, good," Blade says, giving a nod to Zephyrus.
"There will be a heist this evening, we have been notified about this by an spy of ours, and we have been set as the ones that need to prevent this heist. Any questions?"
Tommy does have questions, but doesn't dare ask them. He looks around the table, seeing someone he first didn't see staring at him.
'What are the questions?' a voice in his head asks him, he doesn't know where the voice came from, but sees the hero opposing his give a small, almost unnoticeable, smile his way.
'How we know for certain this isn't a trap,' he answers back.
"And how do we know this isn't a trap?" They say, Tommy gives them a smile, glad that they noticed his hesitation.
"Monarch, you are saying that we can't trust our spies?"
"No, I am saying that someone could have said like 'oohh yes, I am your spy and I know there is a heist upcoming'," they say, changing their voice so that it sounds very feminen.
"This spy has been with us for quite some time now, we trust them and.." Zephyrus looks at Tommy, deciding if he wants to share the sectrets, Zephyrus shrugs and continues talking, "they spoke to us in a meeting, face to face, so there is nothing to worry about." Tommy knows that is a lie, there are shapeshifters in this world, they wouldn't just do this in a meeting.
'Don't worry about this, Phil knows what he is doing.'
'Phil?' he thinks, frowning.
'Zephyrus.'
-
Techno doesn't know what he is supposed to think about this kid, look, the kid seems smart, but also unexperienced for jobs like this. But Phil must have had a good look at the kid before requesting him on their team.
He already gave Wilbur a look, but Wilbur just shrugged at him. He knows what his twin means with this gesture, 'If Phil thinks this would work, this will,' and Techno couldn't argue with that, because Phil is, mostly, always right.
"Blade," Phil says, giving him a look that says he was talking to him for a while.
"Yes."
"So, what is your oppinion on the plan?"
"I.."
'Just tell them that you weren't listening.' He gives Ranboo a look of distaste, he doesn't like the fact that the boy can just go into his mind and say anything he wants without anyone knowing.
"Sorry, I didn't catch what you said. Could you please repeat that?"
-
Tommy doesn't know if it is just him or that the Blade wasn't paying attention at all. Look, the plan is awesome and the Blade not hearing that?!
"Team, gear up, we will be leaving now," Zephyrus announces, Tommy's head snaps up in suprise.
"But the heist would be in the evening, right?"
"Yeah, but we will be taking places and inspect the location before the actual heist will start," Orpheus tells him, Tommy nods, not completely understanding, but he can act like he does.
'Just grab your stuff, it won't be too hard to understand when you hear it a second time in the car,' the hero opposing reassures him. Only now, Tommy notices that he hasn't heard them talk this whole meeting. Could they talk? He looks at them, waiting for an answer, but they just shrug, giving a mysterious smile in return.
"Tommy?"
Tommy snaps back to reality, seeing Zephyrus standing at the door.
"Yes sor-"
"Phil, we forgot to intoduce ourselves to Tommy!" Orpheus suddenly exclaims.
Phil raises one brow at Orpheus, but quickly hiding his suprise.
"Yes, we totally forgot. So, we have Ranboo, Niki, Wilbur, Techno and me, Phil," Phil says, waiving in each hero's direction when the name was said.
"You can just call me Will, though," Wilbur tells.
Tommy nods, only after some seconds remembering to verbally respond. "Nice meeting you all, formally."
"Now, team, go grab your stuff, we are already late."
When they reached the sight where the heist is supposed to be, Tommy didn't know what to do. Look, Tommy was taught some things to do to be 'the perfect hero', but he isn't prepared for this.
-
Arriving at the sight, Wilbur didn't know what to think of the scene that is playing in front of him. He looks at Phil, who is also just staring at what is happening.
There are multiple people here, people that are clearly the ones they need to capture, but also some that are clearly victems and people caught in the heist itself.
Phil said that it would begin in the evening, right? Now, clearly, they were wrong. It already started, some hostages located in the bank and the guns already up to shoot them, and with 'them' Wilbur means the heros.
He looks at the newby in the team, Tommy is just standing there, also staring at the scene in front of them. Wilbur knows that the training program doesn't do shit preparing heros for the real job, only training how to control their powers, not how to fight or don't panic in hectic situations, Wilbur needed to learn that from experience.
'Team.' He flinches as Ranboo's voice echos through his brain, this always happens, Ranboo giving them directions and orders to stay silent, but Wilbur can't keep but flinching every time the kid's voice suddenly bangs through his head.
-
'Like we're all used to, except Theseus maybe, I'll be giving you the orders. We all see the hostages inside, there are seven, maybe more than that, the heist isn't top priority anymore, first save the people inside and then focus on the heist itself. You all know how to act while this is going on, so please follow protole.'
Tommy definitely doesn't know what the protocol is, they never trained him for this! Like, how is he supposed to know?!
"Ohh, the heros have arrived, what a coincidence!" Tommy suddenly hears someone behind him saying, they try to sound suprised, like they didn't know about this, but the sarcasme is clearly noticable in their voice.
Tommy turns around fast, he doesn't dare have someone that bad at lying behind him.
"Ohh, Theseus, I didn't know you would come, could you next time please announce your presence?" They ask, but the question is spat at him like he is just a dog needing to listen to the normal 'Roll over please, paw please.' nonsence.
-
Ranboo already knew this would be bad when Tommy turned around to face the burgular. He had no way to tell the boy that he shouldn't be turning around, yes, he could have sent the message to the boy's mind, but Ranboo would already be too late for that.
-
The boy turned around, looking at the burgular. Phil wanted to yell, wanted to scream at the boy to look behind him once. Because, now he didn't and Phil couldn't save the boy from the other man creeping up behind him.
One moment, Tommy looked at the man and the other moment he layed on the ground, unconscious.
Phil wanted to cry, wanted to fight the other two man. He should have kept an eye out for the boy, should have remembered how bad the training was and how the boy didn't know what to do.
"Zeph," someone, Wilbur, behind him wispers. "We need to fight them."
"No."
"What, he is our responsibility now-"
"We can't save him without killing him-"
"What.. what are you talking about?"
"If we try anything, they'll kill him without even looking. They'll shoot him when we come closer and try to fight them." It is the bitter truth, and Wilbur needs to understand that, because this happend so many times to Phil, he can't even keep track of it. Look, Phil wasn't in charge of the missions then, but he still can't keep out the so many times his team tried to free a hero and that mission lead up to a hero's coffin burried deep into the ground.
-
When Tommy wakes up, he can't remember what happend prior, the only thing he remembers is speaking to Zephyrus- Phil was his name, right?
Only, he isn't talking to the hero now, he is talking to the opposite team, the burgulars they were going to arrest. Only, the willingly from his side isn't really there yet. The villain grabs his chin, forcing him to look at him.
"So, little Theseus," the burgular says. Tommy can't see much of their face, only the fact that they have golden eyes and brown hair. They look young, maybe around the same age as Tommy himself is, but Tommy doesn't think that a sixteen year old would go rob a bank.
"I have heard a lot of you,"
"Have you?" Tommy asks, a fake sence of pride in his voice. In responds, he only gets an fist to his face. "Could you please not punch me?" Tommy certainly knows that this isn't the best responces he could give in his situation, but saying nothing and just listening to the man is boring, he wants a bit of fun before he dies.
"So, you think you are a comedian now? I hate to break it to you, but you are not."
"Ohh, I know, most people find me even annoying at first," he tells the man, a smirk forming on his lips as the man turns around grunting.
"I wonder why," they mumble, just loud enough for Tommy to hear.
"Yea, I don't know why either."
"Can you just please-"
"Tubbo, please, don't give the kid what he wants," a voice from the backrooms says. Only now, Tommy notices in what situation he really is. He is sitting in the front lobby of the bank, his hands tied behind his back, just like the perfect hostage in this situation.
"Please, Connor, just shut you mouth and don't give more identities to the heros," apparently Tubbo yells back to the man. "Don't you dare give the heros my name, understood," Tubbo says, lazily holding the gun he is holding in Tommy's way.
"Sure.. king, I won't."
"Why, for prime's sake, are you so energetic in a scenario where you will likely die in not even days, maybe less?!" Tubbo groans, turning around again to look at the hero's positioning outside.
After what feels like half an hour of pure unorganised gaos, the two burgulars finally seem to notice that there won't be more heros to their pity party.
"I have never done this," Tubbo admids to Connor.
"We can see that," Tommy mumbels, Tubbo spins around, pointing the gun at Tommy.
"Shut up, otherwise you will not come out of this alive."
"And when I die, what give you the opportunity to come out of this alive? Nothing, absolutely nothing."
"You are wrong with that, we have more people in the back, they're just waiting to be released, nothing unusual," Connor answers, too casual for what he just admitted.
"What is your plan now?" Tommy asks, boredom catching up to him.
"Them letting us leave with less deaths as possible."
"And how do you think that will succeed?"
"Show them that we can force you to kill the other people in this building, showing them that you don't want to kill your twentieth person today and them then out of pity saying 'Owh ywes, we will let ywou gwo if you lwet him leave.' and then we can go and you can sit here waiting for the pity you will never get because the heros are shitty at helping traumatized teenagers," Tubbo tells him, not trying to make the whole thing sound any better than it actually is.
"You will what..?"
"We will force you to kill people and they will then out of pity for you let us go without punishment."
"And you think that will work?!"
"We can try," Tubbo says shrugging.
'So, boys, will this show begin or are we forced to wait longer?' Ranboo asks. Tommy can see Tubbo and Conner flinching as Ranboo's voice echos through their heads.
"What was that?!!?"
"Void, he can do weird shit with his voice, don't worry about it too much."
"He can be in our heads?!"
"Yup."
'Are you done panicking, I am cold and want to go home, please."
Tommy laughs as the two man stand stunned in the too white room.
"Do you need help with this whole hostage situation?" Someone, presumably, Siren yells from outside.
"Connor, give the demands, I'll keep my gun onto him so they won't harm you."
"I.. Sure?" Connor says while walking through the doors.
Tommy can hear some of the things that is said, it is mostly about him being a 'hostage', look, he could escape much earlier if he wanted to, no one would have had a choice in that, only now with the gun pointed at him is it a bit harder.
Tommy doesn't know what is happening when suddenly Tubbo runs to the back doors, opening it and dragging a woman out of it.
Tommy doesn't like where this is going as he, too, is dragged to the entrance. When he is placed just in front of the door, he can see the heros standing there, looking from Connor to Tommy and back to eachother.
-
"What are they doing?" Wilbur asks as he too notices Tommy being moved from the back of the room to the front where he is visable for every hero there.
"I don't know," Techno wispers back.
"Look," the burgular starts, Techno also doesn't know what is happening in this whole 'hostage situation'. They want money, but they also want to leave unharmed and they also want blood (maybe the blood part not, could be the voices screaming for blood). Techno doesn't know how they want to do all of this, and with them he means the opposite team. "We have Theseus, we know what he is able to do, and we know we can force him to use his power."
"You know what Theseus' power is?" Techno asks Wilbur.
"Nope, never came to that point in the introductions."
'This is a really organised mission,' Ranboo adds to their confersation.
Both of the brothers laugh, they laugh maybe a bit to hard, because the burgular hears them.
"You think we aren't serious?" They asks, only now showing a bit of confidence. "Bee, start."
-
Suddenly, Tubbo is on top of him. He doesn't know what happened outside, but it can't be good.
"You know what I recently said about you killing people? Yes, that is happening now." Tommy doesn't know what to do, he tries to look Tubbo in the eyes, tries to make him a bit more weaker for Tommy to escape, but the gun is already resting under his chin, the safety already clicked off.
"Just, let me look into your eyes before my doom, okay?"
"Sure," Tubbo says. Tommy laughs at the clear dumbness of the boy. The boy makes eye contact and.. nothing happens. Tommy frowns, he-
He is snapped out of his thoughts when he is thrown on the ground, hitting the ground hard. He groans as he tries to get up again.
"Look at her eyes, Theseus."
-
Wilbur wants to help the boy, he is clearly struggeling as he gets thrown around like just some doll. Then suddenly, he is pinned to the ground, no one moves. Tommy is talking to the intruder, a small smile on his lips that no one is supposed to see. The man on top of Tommy then suddenly looks down, right into Tommy's eyes. Neither of the man move as Tommy gasps at the other man, clearly something happened.. Wilbur wants sprint forward as the boy is thrown on the ground again, the intruder now grabbing his head from behind and forcing him to look at the other woman in the building.
Suddenly, everyone stills as the woman goes up in flakes.
Wilbur looks at Techno. His twin is staring at the scene undvolding right before their eyes.
"What just happened?"
"She is gone.."
"Who, who could have done that? No one except for Theseus and the other burgular is in that room.."
'It was Tommy.'
Both of their head turn to Ranboo, the boy just stands there like he has all the knowledge about this situation.
"What do you mean?"
'She is killed upon eye contact with Tommy, what isn't clear here?'
"Tommy killed here, with just looking in her eyes?"
"Phil, what is Tommy's power?" Wilbur asks hesitantly.
"There isn't really a name for, Tommy calls it Wither upon eyecontact," Phil says, not taking his eyes off of the place where the woman was standing.
"So, an Withering eye?" Techno asks.
"You have heard of that?!"
"It is an very uncommen power, maybe around 0.005 percent of the powered population has it. Though, I have met some people in the pit with it, it will only kill in direct eye contact, so through contact lenses, fake lenses and glasses it just won't work."
"Wait!" Phil suddenly yells. Both Techno and Wilbur look at Tommy again, now there is a new person again, waiting for the same destiny as the previous woman.
"What are you doing?" Techno asks.
"We can't let someone else die, they do not have anything, we need to make a deal with them."
"With what?"
"Death or life in prison."
-
Tommy doesn't like his 'power' at all. This is the hunderth time that he killed something living, but this is the first time he killed a person, and Tubbo is forcing him to kill more..
"Have you ever had the pleasure to kill a living being, I did, and it was awesome!" Tubbo says while bringing the second victim in the room.
"You don-"
"Shut up, this happends because of you teammates."
-
"So, if understand correctly, you are telling me that you four can kill us?"
"Or we will just imprison you."
"Those are not great deals.."
Clearly the boy they are speaking to isn't an adult yet, that means that they can't be legally imprisoned.
Wilbur nudges Techno in the shoulder, he looks at what Wilbur is pointing at and sees that the boy inside is bringing again another person, meaning Tommy already killed.. killed two people. And if Techno's vision is clear enough, he can almost see the boy crying as his eyes meet the new person again and look them in the eyes.
"Third murder," Wilbur wispers.
Suddenly, there is a yell. Techno can see Phil fighting with the messager.
"Looks like there will be bloodshed."
-
Tommy can only look as his team walks into the room, or he can't, not daring to open his eyes because they are cursed. They are cursed and Tommy can't trusts them to look at someone and not kill them.
"Hey, Tommy," Someone in front of him says, he looks up, not opening his eyes though. "Open your eyes, buddy."
"They'll kill you.."
"No, they won't."
"Yes they will, they'll kill you like they killed the other three people that looked into them."
"You think my red eyes are real? No, ofcourse not, they are fake, coloured lenses." Only now he can hear who it is, it's Techno. He opens his eyes, trusting Techno on his word. "Hi.." Techno gives a little smile, trying to make Tommy feel better.
Tommy only needs to look at the reassuring smile and breaks down in sobs, "I killed them.. I killed thim..!"
"You didn't want to kill them."
"But I did, it was me that killed them."
"And you were forced to do that, it wasn't you that forced you two to meet gazes. It was him," Techno says, pointing at Tubbo.
"But I.."
"No, no you, him.."
"But.."
"Nope, no chance you are going to blame yourself for him forcing you, nope, not a chance."