Chapter Text
Tommy couldn’t say he was incredibly pleased as he walked home from school on the first day of summer. It was unreasonably hot for the end of May, and news stations called it the hot flash of the century. By mid-afternoon, the temperatures had reached a boiling point that would’ve been unbearable to anyone else.
Tommy wasn’t special, but he liked to pretend he was in his bright red hoodie. His roommate had chastised him, saying, “You’ll burn to death,” but he didn’t consider that a terribly important warning.
Occasionally, he considered regretting his clothing choice, but the weird stares he kept getting made it all worth it. He enjoyed feeling their eyes judging him from afar. He took pleasure in knowing he’d occupy their minds, if only for a second. For a moment, he’d be important to those randoms. They would never see him again, but they would wish to understand him right then.
Tommy had a flair for the dramatic in the most cynical way possible. His teachers referred to him as a troublemaker, though he’d never officially broken any rules. He loved theater, but he stayed in the tech booth. He ate his gummy bears head-first. All these factors and more made him a dry-humor enthusiast’s dream.
Truthfully, he was just bored. Keeping his life entertaining was hard, but the minor details kept him going when nothing else would. His parents had passed away when he was young, and for a while he was put in the foster care system. After about a year of jumping awkwardly between homes, they found a distant uncle to take him.
It wasn’t bad there, but his uncle was hardly around. He was a heart surgeon who traveled frequently and he was the first normal person Tommy had met with a power. He was gifted with steady hands. In any other profession, it was terrible, but his uncle saved a lot of lives. Naturally, that also meant he made a lot of money.
Unfortunately for Tommy, his own power was far from life-changing. The doctors believed it was a disorder at first and it took several full-body scans for them to admit it was his power: Heightened Pain Tolerance.
Don’t worry, he was aware it sucked.
To add to it, he got a bit of resistance as well. It wasn’t anything stellar, but it meant that no matter how much he fell out of the tree in the schoolyard, he never got any broken bones. Maybe a bruise here or there.
His skin was not as stubborn though, and minor things like paper cuts turned out to be quite a problem. Since he couldn’t feel slight pains, he rarely even noticed if he got any. This resulted in a nasty infection when he was ten.
Believe it or not, Tommy wasn’t terribly fond of his so-called gift. His uncle promised that even the most insignificant powers could make a difference, but it meant very little when they were drinking out of crystal glasses in his penthouse apartment that he’d bought thanks to his gift.
He was fifteen when his uncle had to move away permanently. Tommy was intent on finishing high school in the city of Pogtopia, and no amount of fighting made him want to leave. His uncle allowed him to stay on the condition that he get a job and call once a month.
Using the infinite salary of a heart surgeon, he moved into a smaller two-bedroom apartment a few blocks south of the city’s central. It was, admittedly, a bit lonely. As a solution, he convinced his best friend to move in.
Tubbo had been his closest friend since his first year of high school. They clicked during their mandatory health class, both taking turns making assorted jokes about the male anatomy. Tubbo wasn’t in exactly in his family’s good graces after he set off a homemade smoke bomb in their living room, but Tommy was beyond welcome to let that energy into his home.
Luckily for him, Tubbo was much more respectful in their apartment; he had a day job at the local car garage where he could do most of his experiments. From what Tommy had heard, his roommate was allowed to take any metal he wanted from the scrap pile, and that usually resulted in a variety of bombs being built during his lunch break.
To outside eyes, Tubbo looked like a dangerous psychopath in the making, but Tommy could swear he probably wasn’t. Simply put, it was just his roommate’s gift at work. You see, Tubbo had the special tendency to be able to see designs that no one else could. His powers were called Metallic Eyes.
Tubbo’s stare could pick out specific parts of metal junk that could be crafted into something else. Combined with his natural ability to invent, he was very talented. Most of the time, his efforts resulted in some form of harmless bomb, but occasionally they were useful.
In his freetime, Tubbo once designed a working lamp fashioned only from scrap metal. At a local art show, it sold for five hundred bucks. Tommy was very proud, obviously. His job wasn’t nearly as entertaining, though he wasn’t sure if he would’ve liked anything else.
He worked at a frozen yogurt shop called Ender-Ice. It was quite possibly the best job you could get during the winter. There were rarely any customers, and they were usually nicer thanks to the holiday discounts. But it wasn’t winter anymore, and there was no more holiday cheer.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry. We don’t offer the limited-time Easter flavors anymore,” Tommy had explained monotonously during his latest shift. The woman glaring at him was far too egotistical to notice the growing line behind her. “We stopped offering those four weeks ago, after Easter ended.”
He proceeded to get an earful about the disrespectful youth and how much her kids had been looking forward to this specific flavor. Tommy remained politely deadpanned. Eventually, the manager had been requested. Stepping away from the register, he took a guilty pleasure in knowing that her kids would likely grow to resent her in a few years.
Their shop was criminally understaffed, but the owners were more than happy to volunteer their son, Ranboo, to fill the gaps. He was a nice kid, only slightly older than Tommy but unnaturally tall. He took over the position of shift manager if his parents weren’t around, which was typically the case for Tommy’s hours.
Ranboo was happy to deal with the Karen at the front, and Tommy basked in his momentary rest. From the back, he could practically hear his manager’s kind smile and sharp words. Likely, this woman would leave before he even had to pull the owner card.
Ranboo was the most passive-aggressive fucker he’d ever met, so it wasn’t uncommon to see a smug look on his face while he dealt with rude customers. Deep down, Ranboo was still a kid who enjoyed feeling powerful from time-to-time.
“I’m calling Corporate,” the Karen shouted as he heard bells signaling her retreat. “I’m going to report you!”
“We’re a family business,” Ranboo chuckled, sending a shiver up Tommy’s spine. “We don’t have a corporate. Have a cool day!”
The blonde relaxed into a chair, happy he was left with someone competent at the very least. Ender-Ice was the first place that had even considered him for a job. Most stores didn’t like that he was a seventeen-year-old living without a guardian, and they treated him like shit. The Ender family was a godsend.
Ranboo’s parents weren’t too strict, and he passed the interview with flying colors. It took him a while to get a hang of the froyo machines, but eventually it clicked into place. He wasn’t stoked to be stuck with the opening shifts at first, until he realized they only opened at noon. If you asked him, that was significantly better than the stark six-in-the-morning demanded by other shops.
Although, sometimes Tommy noticed a few weird things happening when Ranboo was around. It wasn’t uncommon to zone out during slow points in the day, but the owner’s son seemed to appear behind him whenever he started to. He would startle Tommy awake, and then disappear in a blink.
The occasional scares weren’t enough for him to quit, but he sincerely hated the way Ranboo could sneak up on him no matter how aware he was. It had been a while since his last shift, so he’d gone heart attack free for a little over a week. Summer signaled the beginning of his nearly daily shifts, so his streak would be broken soon.
For now, though, he was freely walking home. He had been in a bad mood for a little over an hour, but it didn’t have anything to do with work or home. Instead, it had to do with the book he held: his yearbook.
Tommy was pretty great, and Tubbo knew it. Only problem was that nobody else had the same opinion. He came across as rather loud and annoying to those who hadn’t met him, which didn’t fare well for his reputation. The other students loved to put him down in little ways, but their most recent plot was cruel. He’d been voted “Least Likely to Become a Hero” by his entire class.
The adults overlooked the obvious jab towards Tommy, excusing it as some organized fun. It probably wouldn’t have been as effective if it weren’t for them feigning ignorance. He knew they hated his extroverted outbursts in class, but this reached a new low. It was too late to fix anything now; The yearbooks had been finalized, printed, and distributed.
Tubbo had tried his best to soothe Tommy’s understandable rage, but his friend would never quite understand what he was going through. Tubbo had a reliable power that could bring in profit or usefulness if applied the right way, but Tommy didn’t.
Unluckily for him, most of the students at his high school had grown up with him. They watched him come into his powers, and they knew the underwhelming extent of his so-called gift. The more devious ones didn’t hesitate to use it against him, although it did make physical bullying a bit harder.
Frankly, he didn’t even want to be a hero. Those dickheads always slowed his morning bus commute. He wasn’t sure why they had to do interviews in the middle of the street at six in the morning, but it wasn’t fucking helping anyone.
Not to mention the never-ending stream of interviews and talk shows with the internet’s gems. Show Heroes had to be one of Tommy’s least favorite types of people. They were overhyped individuals with powers that only looked impressive on television. They thrived off media presence, and had likely never stepped foot on a battlefield.
On top of that, they were the only heroes that had actively revealed their secret identities. There were people like J. Schlatt, who was known as the Golden President, and S. Major, who was known as Iris. Tommy obviously didn’t know them personally, but seeing them online was enough for him to be fed up with it all.
The Golden President had the power to turn metal objects into gold. Using this, he was able to gain quick popularity from the money-hungry news executives. Every time he appeared on TV, he seemed slightly more hungover than the last time. Instead of ending poverty, he lived luxuriously in a penthouse on the north end of town. Basically, he was a personification of the phrase “the rich get richer.”
Iris was less of a bothersome person, but Tommy didn’t understand his hype. He had the power to switch the colors of any objects within his radius. During talk shows, his running gag would be changing the color of the host’s clothes until they noticed. He had never fought against the town’s plentiful villains, but interviewers ate up his pity stories about how hard it was to be a hero in modern society.
The only Show Hero who seemed half-decent went by the name Mr. Beast. His power was fortune, which he gladly shared with an array of different people. Those who touched his hands would find themselves being extra lucky in the days to come. Rich and poor alike would be allowed to meet him, and he never seemed to stop smiling.
Tommy could more-or-less understand why the media preferred to broadcast Show Heroes over the real deal, at the very least. When there was downtime between fighting villains, it wasn’t uncommon for interviewers to invite the actual heroes onto their shows. The difference between paid actors and camera-shy supers was kind of embarrassing to watch.
Half the time they gave mediocre answers to questions and the other half they spent looking visibly miserable. Tommy about threw his television out the window during an interview with Glitch. The hero was beyond impressive on the battlefield, with the power to heal almost any injury, but he froze up when asked about his love life.
Glitch was only one of the city’s top three heroes. They called themselves The Dream Team in true egotistical hero fashion. The other two members of the group were Speedrunner and the Devil. Tommy had obsessed over them for a while when they first debuted.
Speedrunner could move super quickly, and the Devil could sneak through the shadows undetected. If they had debuted individually, Tommy doubted they would be as popular as they were nowadays. Out of every power in the city, theirs seemed to be less of a threat to the villains.
However, during their first televised fight, they moved so effectively that it was difficult not to be impressed. Tommy remembered watching like his life depended on it. The Devil popped up behind the villains while Speedrunner acted as a distraction, dodging gunfire. If ever one of them got hit by the spray of bullets, the wound sealed almost instantly thanks to Glitch.
Any normal human being could tell you that powers as extraordinary as the Dream Team’s were not things you could be born with. It was typical for heroes to be the result of magic items. To be lucky enough to come into possession of a magical item was ten times better than winning the lottery. Some items gave you new powers entirely, others just enhanced the ability you were born with. No matter what, they were insane.
Naturally though, villains also got their hands on said items. People like Midnight, Fortress, and Icarus practically ran the city’s underground. There was less public knowledge about their powers than the top heroes, so Tommy wasn’t certain about what they could do. He just knew they were a threat.
Tommy had been praying that he’d stumble across some infinitely powerful magic item for years with no luck. Heightened Pain Tolerance wasn’t much by itself, but combined with something legendary, he could be unstoppable. Despite his personal vendetta against them, he thought he’d be an excellent hero. He would swoop in to save civilians, and do well on late-night talk shows, making up for everything the others lacked.
Back to his terrible present situation, he was about to pass out from how hot it was getting. The red hoodie had started to do more harm than good, and he wondered if he would be able to get out of work with a heat stroke. The Ender family was nice enough, so he didn’t rule it out.
Tommy was pretty certain he was only in for bad luck recently. His shit day would need one hell of a shock to get any better, though he would heavily regret thinking that later. Coming down the sidewalk were two men in their early twenties, but they were far too busy chatting to notice the blonde walking their way.
Tommy was engrossed in a fantasy world where his gift had been worthwhile, and he didn’t look up until it was too late. The three smacked into each other hard.
“Shit,” Tommy cursed. He had landed on his back with a force that made him exhale quickly. Whatever he’d bumped into had been more like a brick wall than a human, and he understood when he looked up. One of the two men had also fallen, but the other remained upright. “Watch where you’re fucking going, dickhead.”
The man on the ground groaned, and Tommy glanced over him quickly. He had shaggy brunette curls that fell into his face like an unkept mop. His clothes were baggy and old, like he’d worn them a million times. He looked lanky, like his body had been stretched in photoshop to fit his height. On the opposite end of the spectrum, his companion was the most clean-cut gentleman that the south side would ever see.
“Apologies,” the composed man said. His voice was deep, and there wasn’t a single wrinkle out of place on his white dress shirt. He had straight pink hair pulled into a ponytail that would’ve looked sloppy on anyone else. “My brother and I should have paid more attention. Are you alright?”
The man held out a hand to help him up, and the boy paled. Holy shit, Tommy realized. This guy was fucking massive. He could snap the teenager like a twig if he wanted, and that was not a fun thought to entertain. For the time being, he decided to stay silent and take his hand.
He nearly screamed as he was yanked up like he was no more than a kitten being lifted by its scruff. The man he’d knocked over muttered something under his breath and stood by himself. Now, Tommy realized the strangers were both intimidating in their own ways.
If you took a long look at Tommy, you’d say he was a good height. He was above average for most kids his age, and he didn’t know many who surpassed him in that regard. Besides Ranboo, because that guy was a freakshow of genetics.
The pink-haired man wasn’t short by any means, but next to the other guy, he might as well have been. Tommy felt dwarfed, even if it was only a few inches of difference. Standing next to a bodybuilder’s dream and Big Ben’s homeless cousin made him feel extremely inferior.
“I’m fine. Thanks,” Tommy responded after far too long of a silence. The brunette guy eyed him like he was considering murder, and only then did Tommy realize he hadn’t apologized himself. “Uh, sorry? I probably could have moved too. Is your butt hurt?”
“No,” Big Ben’s homeless cousin said. “You hit the ground much harder, though. I thought you might’ve hit your head. If you’re not careful, you could get a nasty concussion.”
Tommy scoffed, though it was less about the man’s comment and more about the irony of it all. He’d never gotten a concussion, and it was easy to assume he never would thanks to his gift. Something that could truly make him concussed would cause head trauma to a normal individual.
Unfortunately, the stranger couldn’t read his thoughts, and he could only assume that Tommy was being rude. The man straightened his jacket and shot him a glare. “Fine. Be like that,” he hissed, gesturing for his companion to start walking. “We’ll leave you alone.”
Tommy didn’t terribly care how the strange pair perceived him, but he couldn’t let them go just yet. Abandoned on the sidewalk, two keychains had been left behind. “You two dropped your keys,” he called, reaching to pick them up.
The pink-haired man whirled around with wide eyes, and Big Ben slapped his pockets as if to confirm that his were not there. Tommy picked up the first one, humming at the weight that a couple of house keys could present. The second set was a bit messier, with several more keychain decorations on it. He reached to pick it up.
“Wait! Don’t touch that,” the brunette man shouted, but it was too late. Tommy had snatched the two sets of keys off the ground, and he was holding them out for their owners. The strangers’ mouths fell open, gaping like he’d completed some impossible task.
Tommy wasn’t entirely sure what was wrong with him holding the keys, but he glanced at them anyway. On each individual chain, there was one key that was slightly different from the others. The one in his left hand had a bit of a gold inflection, with a singular ruby gem shining in the middle. In his right, the larger key was more silver and had a frowny face engraved into it.
The strangers had yet to take them from Tommy’s extended hands, and he was beginning to grow impatient. He had half a mind to throw the keys at their faces and leave. Tubbo was working a shift directly after school, and it was Tommy’s job to make dinner before he got back.
“Come on, dickheads. I don’t have all day,” he grumbled. Slowly, the brunette man took the chain from his right hand, and nudged his companion to go for the other. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I’m sorry,” the taller man spoke, though there was still a breathiness in his tone. “We didn’t catch your name earlier. I’m Wilbur and this is my brother Techno.”
Tommy scrunched his nose. They’d gone from random assholes on the street to asking his personal information without a second thought. He’d met drug addicts who had less mood swings. There wasn’t a bone in his body that wanted to cooperate with them.
“Hello? Are you gonna introduce yourself,” Wilbur stammered, wearing the most awkward smile Tommy had ever seen. He noticed now that this guy also had a pair of wire-framed glasses, and he realized that was probably why he disliked him. The unwashed hipster vibe was far from pleasant.
“Have you ever had nerve damage,” Techno cut in. Tommy blinked. “Don’t worry. I’ll answer your questions once I figure out how you’re alive.”
Tommy recoiled like he’d been slapped. The whiplash of a single conversation with these two strangers was going to be the most damaging thing he had ever experienced if they weren’t careful.
Wilbur punched his brother’s shoulders, though Techno didn’t even flinch. “I’m sorry about him,” the brunette said through clenched teeth. “He’s not great in social situations. We just wanted to know if you felt any immense physical pain after picking up our stuff?”
“Uh…No?” Tommy began to slowly back away. There was an alley to the side if he could just find a break to run. The two probably could outrun him with their size alone, but Tommy was well-versed in escaping from bullies on his route home. “Are you mental or something?”
“We’re fine. You’re saying you felt absolutely nothing weird,” Wilbur pushed. “Have you been put under anesthesia recently?”
Tommy took one final step back before he could see the hesitance in their eyes. Using that brief moment of confusion, he turned and ran. As he’d expected, they didn’t process his leaving until he was in the mouth of the alleyway. He sprinted past dumpsters, the echo of following footsteps fueling his adrenaline.
He knew this path from his last run-in with a thug, and there would be a fork coming up. If he went left, he would be let out onto a busy street. If he went right, he could jump a fence and be let out into a less-crowded area with more hiding spots.
Objectively, the dense sidewalks would make it hard to follow him, but it would also result in him being slowed down as well. He chose to go right.
Thankfully, Tommy had a bit of a head start since he knew to expect the fence. He kicked off a nearby trash can, causing it to topple over, and latched onto the top of the barrier. Wilbur and Techno weren’t terribly far behind anymore, but he caught a glimpse of how they slowed at the sight of the fence.
Tommy pulled himself over and landed with a resounding thud. He didn’t waste time taking off again. In the distance, he heard the cursing and shouting that meant he hadn’t lost them yet. The alleyway ended and he found himself on a street with fewer people roaming about. His eyes caught on a familiar sign, and he knew where he was hiding.
“Welcome to the Captain’s Laundromat,” a woman called from behind the counter as Tommy entered. She had dyed white hair that fell on her shoulders in pristine curls and the kindest eyes he had ever seen. “Ah, Tommy! It’s good to see you!”
“Hello, Puffy,” Tommy greeted, a bit out of breath and enjoying the air conditioning. “This is totally random, but if I were to tell you I needed to hide behind the counter right now, how would you react?”
Her smile fell and he felt a bit guilty for worrying her. “I’d tell you to get your ass over here,” she replied instantly. “And then I would ask what the hell is going on?”
“Thank you.” Tommy ran behind her desk and ducked down. On cue, a bell at the front signaled someone’s entry. Puffy cast him a quick glance before putting on her customer service smile.
“Welcome to the Captain’s Laundromat! How can I help you two today?” Tommy slapped a hand over his mouth. He could hear shuffling as the new entrees walked over. “You look a bit out of breath. Is everything okay?”
“Sorry for disturbing you,” Wilbur’s voice spoke. “We were looking for a kid who we think came this way. Have you seen anyone come by?”
Puffy didn’t hesitate as she said, “I haven’t seen anyone but you two since my last customer left about thirty minutes ago. If you give me your numbers, I could call you if anyone matching that description comes in.”
The two agreed and Wilbur left Puffy his number on a napkin. Tommy didn’t stand up until the door bells had sounded and Puffy gave him the all-clear. She waited for his explanation with the disappointed parent look.
“Look, I did nothing wrong,” he stated, standing his ground. “They wouldn’t stop asking me weird questions so I ran away. That’s all, I promise.”
Puffy raised an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes.
“The only other thing I did was pick up some keys they dropped,” Tommy admitted. “I don’t see why that would matter though.”
The laundromat’s owner deadpanned. She didn’t respond, instead reaching for her computer. Tommy frowned, watching her pull up a website that looked way too professional for anything he would ever visit. She picked up the napkin with the phone number and typed it into the search bar.
“What are you doing,” Tommy asked. Puffy sighed, clicking the search button and waiting for it to load. To the blonde’s surprise, a profile popped up. The name ‘Wilbur Soot’ was written, along with a variety of other personal details. “Hey, that’s one of the guys! How’d you do that?”
“This is a website that business owners use to run background checks on their employees,” Puffy explained. “I wanted to confirm something.”
She clicked the guy’s profile and scrolled to his page about work experience. There was only one place listed: the After Hours bar and grill. According to the listed information, he was a waiter. Puffy hummed and stared at the floor in thought.
“Just as I thought. I know the owner of this place,” she sighed. “I’ll talk to him later about this, but try to avoid those two if you ever see them again. You know you can always call me.”
“Thanks, Puffy,” Tommy said, finally leaving. The weird men were nowhere to be seen, and nothing else happened for the rest of his trip home. The lobby of his apartment building was empty, thankfully. He checked their mailbox now to avoid awkward run-ins with his neighbors later.
Once he was safely in the elevator, he felt like he could breathe again. His apartment was quiet. It seemed like Tubbo was staying out later and later nowadays, but he didn’t question it, since his roommate was probably just caught up in the garage’s scrap pile. They had an entire kitchen cabinet dedicated to his inventions.
Tommy was about to relax when his phone began to ring. Half of him wanted to chuck it across the room and force the caller to go to voicemail, but when he saw whose name it was, he knew he couldn’t. He groaned and clicked the answer button.
“Hey, Tommy,” Ranboo’s happy-go-lucky voice chimed through. Over the phone, it was hard to tell if his shift manager was actually happy or just the kind of happy that came right before he shouted at you. Luckily, the latter tone had only been used on him once.
In his defense, how was he supposed to know you weren’t supposed to nap in the freezer?
“Hey, Boo. What’s up with you,” Tommy yawned, stretching out on the couch. He switched the TV on and muted the volume. He left it on a news channel that was currently broadcasting a fight between some vigilante and a couple of bank robbers. The criminals were losing horribly.
The vigilante, Mecha, had debuted a few months prior. He’d stopped an elaborate robbery using a giant robot and a collection of smoke bombs. His identity was obscured by a pair of giant, tinted goggles and a fluffy winter coat. Tommy imagined he was sweating bullets under there.
For this fight, Mecha was using three human-sized robots to chase the robbers into a corner. Tubbo was a huge fan of this vigilante, even though the guy barely appeared in the media. Tommy didn’t question it too much, since it was probably just his roommate gushing over the technology. Out of courtesy, he made sure to record the fight.
“Nothing much. The usual, really,” Ranboo said. “I just wanted to confirm that you’re good to be there for your shift tomorrow, right? The opening one.”
“Yeah,” Tommy replied. “Have your online classes ended yet?”
“Not yet,” the other confirmed, a bit of a disgruntled inflection creeping into his voice. “I’ve got a few more and then I’ll be officially out of high school.”
Ranboo had an interesting education schedule in comparison to Tommy’s regular one. According to Mrs. Ender, her son had trouble sitting still in classrooms and much preferred to attend online seminars. On top of that, though, Ranboo was really smart and got to graduate high school a year early.
“If you have one tomorrow, you know I can handle the start of the shift without you,” Tommy reminded him. On the other end of the line, he suddenly heard a distant crash. “What was that? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, my mom just dropped a pan in the kitchen. I’m gonna go help her clean up,” Ranboo spoke hurriedly. “See you later, Tommy. Don’t be late.”
The call went dead and Tommy tossed his phone onto a nearby pillow. He switched the volume on for the TV and settled in to watch. One of Mecha’s robots had been rendered useless after taking a couple of gunshots and the other two were struggling to keep the robbers cornered until the police could arrive.
All of a sudden, a robber broke through the makeshift barrier and aimed his gun at Mecha’s head. Before he could fire, the camera blurred a bit and another vigilante appeared, knocking the man’s gun away. Tommy rubbed his eyes and realized that the TV hadn’t glitched at all. The new arrival was a never-before-seen vigilante.
Tommy hadn’t expected to witness a debut right at that second, but here he was. The new guy was awkwardly tall, especially compared to Mecha’s shorter stature. The news anchor was frantically trying to explain the scene unfolding outside the bank, but ultimately she had no idea what was happening either.
The new guy was dressed in a rather dressy white suit, which complimented his black hair and mask nicely. His face was hidden by a half-black-half-white mask and a pair of sunglasses. Compared to his companion's more neutral costume, he looked elegant.
The camera zoomed in on the scene and Tommy could clearly make out the smug smile on Mecha’s face. A police car had finally pulled up, so the two should’ve left long before. Vigilante’s were usually no threat, but they counted as unlicensed heroes and could be arrested if caught.
For some reason, they were making no moves to escape. Mecha called off his robots, and they fell over lifelessly. The police were quick to handcuff the robbers, but they hesitated to turn their weapons on the other two. Slowly, a cop said, “Put your hands up Mecha and…”
“Blink,” the new vigilante chirped. “It’s been nice, but we have to get going now.”
Tommy’s eyes widened as the two disappeared in a blur. The cops looked around in confusion and the cameras cut back to the studio. The news anchor immediately started rambling about the dramatic debut of Blink, but Tommy wasn’t listening anymore.
Vigilantes didn’t typically possess any magic items, which meant that this new guy had been born with a genuinely amazing power. Teleportation wasn’t even seen among the top heroes. If Blink managed to catch the eye of any hero organizations, he could be in for a huge career.
Tommy was very glad he’d recorded the fight now, because he was rewatching it again and again. Tubbo didn’t get home for another twenty minutes, but he was smiling like a lunatic from the second he walked in the door.
“I’m guessing you saw the debut today,” Tubbo said, gesturing to the television. “I had to watch on my phone while I repaired some old man’s car. Dude blew his exhaust pipe right as I was closing and I’m way too nice.”
He stepped into the apartment and frowned. Tommy was too engrossed in his fifth rewatch of the fight to notice. Tubbo set his stuff down and walked wordlessly into the kitchen. It wasn’t until Tommy heard the sizzling of the stove that he remembered he was supposed to make dinner.
“Sorry Big Man. I totally spaced that it was my night to cook,” he groaned, walking into the kitchen. “I had to take a long detour to Puffy’s after school because of these weirdos and by the time I was home, the fight was on.”
Tubbo shrugged, unbothered. “It happens. I’ll make us some bacon or something. I hope it wasn’t more bullies, though. I can build you a stink bomb if you want.”
Tommy shook his head and sat at the table. It wasn’t the first time his roommate had offered to build him something. In Tubbo’s own words, bullies make good practice dummies. Once, when they were walking and some thugs tried to bother them, he pulled out an untested smoke bomb and told Tommy to run like his life depended on it.
Turns out the bomb worked just fine, but Tubbo liked to remind Tommy that it had a serious chance of exploding and sending shards of metal flying everywhere. Somehow that did not reassure him about the hundreds of tiny projects sitting around their apartment.
“It wasn’t bullies, and I really don’t feel like being your guinea pig with those things,” Tommy huffed. “I was polite to two dudes on the street and they started following me around. Puffy let me hide in the laundromat and now she’s gonna call their boss or something.”
“I’m glad she has it handled,” Tubbo hummed happily. The smell of bacon was starting to slowly make its way around the room. “Puffy is so awesome.”
Tommy agreed, and after a little bit of waiting, they ate their breakfast for dinner. Groceries were running a bit low, so Tubbo promised he’d make a run to the store at some point. Afterwards, they piled onto the couch to binge whatever show they could find on Netflix.
Tommy was the first to turn in because of his opening shift, but Tubbo wasn’t far behind. It was strange to see his roommate going to bed early, but he claimed to just be exhausted.
That night, as he was about to fall asleep, Tommy couldn’t stop thinking about his strange encounter. Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to walk that route again for a while, so he didn’t plan on running into those guys. He would have to be pretty damn unlucky to meet them again.