Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Listen to this poetic, genius, masterfully delivered response!” Tommy fell over the back of the Sidekick Quarter’s couch, magazine stretched open in his hands. “ ‘So Mimic, what is it like finally getting to join Hero Tower after six years of training at Stronghold?’. ‘Imagine you’re in the coolest place you’ve ever been, then multiply that by a thousand. It’s awesome.’ ”

“Will you put that down?” Bill tried to swipe the magazine from Tommy’s hands. “This is the tenth time you’ve read that stupid thing out loud.”

“But it’s epic, man!” 

Freddie reached over Tommy’s head and snagged it away, much to his protest. “Yeah, I’m confiscating this.”

“You’re just jealous that your bits weren’t as good as mine.”

“I’m actually quite pleased with what I said,” Freddie defended. 

Tommy rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I have the whole thing memorized anyway.”

“Oh God..” Aimee muttered.

“Isn’t it Wednesday?” Tubbo conveniently reminded, and Tommy shot up and checked his comm. It was ten til one, Wilbur would be waiting in the training gym for him. 

Tommy sprinted for the elevator. “I’ll dissect my incredible interview skills later tonight.”

“Please don’t,” Ranboo begged flatly. 

Tommy excitedly made his way down to meet Wilbur for their weekly sessions. This would be the second time they met up since Wil had offered the extra training, but the novelty of it hadn’t worn off yet. 

In a response to Tommy’s uncontainable energy, Wilbur suggested boxing for their day’s session. At first Tommy was hesitant; anytime he and Dream were scheduled for combat based training, Dream used it as a time to air his grievances. But it was far different with Wil. Particularly in the fact that Wilbur made a real attempt to instruct Tommy on how to improve his fighting. And while Wilbur definitely took any chance he could to smack Tommy around, it felt far more endearing than with Dream.

An hour of practicing form and sparring with each other did little to quell the excitement of the Sidekick, who was eager to keep the good times rolling. Even after they’d cleaned up and wiped down, Tommy stuck to Wilbur’s side like glue.

“You know, I don’t have to be back with The Dream Team for another thirty minutes.” 

Wilbur eyed Tommy. “You want to see SBI’s office, don’t you?”

“More than literally anything in the entire world.”

Wilbur shook his head, barely hiding his amused smile. “Come on then.” 

Tommy was quick to follow after, already typing a message into his comm. “Can I bring a friend along?”

Tubbo met them on the elevator ride up – an agreement only reached after Tommy promised they’d behave – and they excitedly made their way into SBI’s office. In stark contrast to The Dream Team’s floor, SBI had a comfortable feel to it. Much of the harsh, metal furniture had been replaced by comfier designs of wood and plush, giving the space a warmer atmosphere. It looked well lived in, like a home. Personal affects littered the common area. The kitchen was stocked with mismatched mugs and various takeout menus were stacked on top of the microwave. The walls were adorned with various posters; many of them were merch items of the team, albeit altered to create humorous versions of their otherwise serious likenesses. Tommy’s favorite was one of Techno where his usual bonelike boar mask was painted over with a cartoon pig face. 

“Now this is an office,” Tommy muttered.

“Different from The Dream Team’s?” Wilbur asked.

“Much different,” Tubbo confirmed.

Wilbur discarded his gym bag on the kitchen counter and swiped a water from the fridge, tossing some to the other two as well. From within one of the offices a grunt could be heard. Wilbur seemed to understand what it meant. 

“I told you to wait on the casework from Phil,” he shouted to the back. “I’ll help you with it later.”

“Will you though?” Came Techno’s skepticism. Wilbur scrunched his nose and waggled his head. Tommy laughed. 

“I brought guests, by the way,” Wilbur alerted as he walked to the meeting table and rifled through a fresh stack of papers. 

“You know how much I love company.”

The last bit of conversation had been lost on Tommy, who was wandering the room and taking in every detail he could. From the faded newspaper clippings to the masks from their previous suit designs, there was a plethora of memorabilia decorating the walls. If he’d seen this place a few years ago he would have lost his shit. Now, his acclimation to becoming part of the Super world had curbed his ardor. 

As Tommy skimmed the various SBI keepsakes he stopped on a picture frame hung between Wilbur and Techno’s office door. The Crow, Phantom, and The Blade were posed haphazardly in a bunch as Phil held up the phone for the selfie. Each wore genuine, warm smiles beneath their masks. The photo was old, taken eight or nine years ago. Tommy knew because he recognized Wilbur’s original Sidekick suit. Many of the same elements stuck through to the current iterations, including the hood and the purple, navy, and gold color scheme. Phantom’s first design lacked the wispy cloak that draped over his torso and stitched into the arms of his current suit, and overall had a more juvenile feel. 

Looking at the old picture made Tommy sad to see the original team cut down to two members. It had been his dream to work with all of SBI one day. But Phil had left his position on the team only a year after Red attacked the city. The idea of becoming the fourth member of SBI had died a long time ago, something he’d never gotten over the disappointment of. 

His reminiscence was cut short by Ranboo and Aimee making their way into the space. They were confused to find that they weren’t the only Sidekicks there.

“Is it already time to go back?” Tubbo checked his comm for the time.

“We’re a bit early,” Ranboo assured. 

Tommy backpedaled away from the picture, eyeing it as long as he could. “Must be nice when you actually like hanging out at your office.”

Aimee’s face fell, despite her attempts to maintain a steady expression. “Yeah.”

Tommy cringed inwardly. He’d never actually talked with her about the fact that she was Wilbur’s mentee. He didn’t blame her for feeling targeted at the passive aggressive comment he made. 

“I’ve heard how great you guys work together,” he tried to amend, gesturing to Wil. Aimee shrugged, but the tension ebbed enough to let her relax again. Tommy joined the other three Sidekicks on the couch, and their conversation shifted to the photo spreads that had been published from their shoot. This time, he made a concerted effort to make it seem like he was pleased with his pictures with Dream. It wasn’t far from the truth. They looked epic together. Their duo photo had been blown up and used as the front page of the magazine, and Tommy couldn’t deny that they made a great pair. 

More grunting and shuffling came from Techno’s office, and he dragged himself into the common space. He wore thick joggers, had a blanket draped around him, and held a cup of coffee in a mug with his picture on it. Tommy choked down a laugh, and Tubbo saluted with earnest respect. 

“Why are there so many children in here?” Techno asked, scanning the room. Wilbur clapped him on the back and downed the last of his water.

“I have a feeling you’ll need to get used to the added company,” he whispered, nudging his head towards Tommy.

“Bruh.”

Wilbur laughed. Tommy was about to launch into a rousing conversation with the stoic hero, but was cut short. The office door flew open, and a furious Noxite unknowingly stormed right past the Sidekicks lounging on the couches. 

“Do either of you want to tell me why you’re the only team in the tower that hasn’t submitted your patrol outcome report?” Noxite fumed, holding up what was presumably an empty packet of papers. Techno and Wilbur stiffened, and Wilbur glanced warningly at the teens that Nox had failed to see. 

“We’ll finish that tonight,” Wil promised, careful in his response. 

“I shouldn’t have to come down here and remind you to do basic parts of your job,” Nox snapped. Techno tilted his head toward the Sidekicks, eyebrows raised. Noxite didn’t pick up on the cue. “Just because your old pal Phil is in the Assistant Director’s chair doesn’t mean you get special treatment.”

Tubbo shifted uncomfortably on the couch, and the sound finally caught Noxite’s attention. He looked behind him, doing a double take as he realized he had an audience. His rigid demeanor melted away, and that corporate smile returned. Nox turned back to Wilbur and Techno, tone blatantly sweeter than before. “I appreciate your hard work. I know you have a lot of tasks on your plate. Please get this to me as soon as possible.” 

Saving as much face as possible, Noxite gave a friendly nod to the Sidekicks and escaped the office. Strained silence hung in the room as everyone waited for their boss to leave. At the sound of the elevator doors closing, Techno let out a breath of long held air. 

“Welcome to the Tower,” he hummed, lumbering back into his office. 

Tommy nudged Tubbo. “We should probably get going anyway. George was going to show us some tips on using spreadsheets.”

Tubbo nodded. “Riveting stuff.”

They gathered their things, and as they were leaving, Wilbur walked up and leaned into Tommy. “If you want to stop by again, just drop me a message. Maybe you’ll catch us when we’re not in hot water with the boss.”

“Really?” It was impossible for Tommy to hide his surprise at Wilbur offering more time to hang out.

“Sure.” Wil glanced to Techno. “I think we could use more dynamic energy in here.” 

“You know that ‘dynamic’ is my middle name.”

“Is it?” Wilbur played along.

“That’s one of them,” Tommy said.

“What are the others then?” 

“Depends on the situation. Danger, careful, serious – ”

“Bit contradicting, aren’t they?”

Tommy’s nose scrunched in confusion. “What does contradicting mean?”

“Tommy.” Tubbo held up his comm. “Sapnap’s asking where we are.”

“I’ll tell you next time I see you,” Wilbur promised, nudging him forward. “Wouldn’t want to upset the green man, would we?”

Reality slapped Tommy hard across the face as he and Tubbo left for The Dream Team office. The banter, the laughs, the companionship, that could have been his every day. But he’d been stuck with the biggest prick in the Tower. 

That afternoon’s work seemed particularly dreary after hanging out with SBI, but at least Dream hadn’t done anything to make it any worse than normal. If anything, he was largely absent, leaving Tommy and Tubbo to finish their work in their shared office.

But even after finishing up paperwork in the office, Tommy’s day wasn’t over yet. In fact, there was one more, very important thing left on the docket. Something he, Ranboo, and Tubbo had been putting off for a few weeks now. 

They needed to figure out what was on the opposite end of those coordinates in Fundy’s notebook.

Each of them had done their part, and with all the pieces finally in place, it was time to enact their vigilantism. 

As was delegated, Tommy had made disguises for each of them to wear during their vigilante mission. He’d gotten a hold of some sewing supplies and fashioned masks out of an old t-shirt. They couldn’t wear anything from the Tower, so he’d scrounged up some of their black clothes from their days at Stronghold and fixed them with extra pockets and utility straps. It wasn’t anything close to the versatility of their supersuits, but it would work. 

They’d arranged to meet in Ranboo’s room at ten. Tommy fished into the back of his drawers to pull out the crudely constructed disguises, and slipped his on underneath his sweatpants and a hoodie. 

Tubbo had amassed an impressive collection of supplies for them to use, ranging from a drone camera to night vision goggles to extendable batons.

“Where did you get all this stuff?” Tommy asked as he handed the others their disguises. 

“Some of it I already had, some of it I got from around the tower.” He held up a set of throwing knives. “I took a few weapons from the training gym, and asked Sam if I could borrow some of his old tech prototypes to study. None of it should be missed, or raise any suspicions if we’re caught using it.”

“Don’t underestimate the little guy,” Tommy muttered, impressed.

“Well I got the low down on the location,” Ranboo said. “At least, as much as I could find. It used to be a packing warehouse for canned food, but it’s been ‘unused’ for the past two years. It’s isolated, and according to satellite maps, no large trucks are seen going in or out.”

“So maybe an underground entrance?” Tubbo raised.

“Or they only sneak in when it’s dark,” Tommy offered.

“Either way, it seems quiet. I doubt it’s a distribution hub. If anything, I’d guess it’s a meeting location to discuss illegal stuff in private.”

“So there’s a chance it’s empty, or there’s a chance we walk in on a drug deal or some shit,” Tommy said. 

“Pretty much.”

“Great. How close can you get us?”

Ranboo wiggled his head back and forth. “The closest I could get us is here.” He pointed to a spot on the map that was a few blocks away. “I’ve been to this store before, so I think I can visualize it enough to teleport us there.”

“Okay. Tubs, you got the GPS in our comms speefed?” 

“It’s ‘spoofed’, Tommy.”

“Same difference.”

“It’s really not. But yes, I have the locations spoofed.”

“Alright. Let’s do it then.”

With their gear distributed and their makeshift masks on, they all took hold and braced themselves as Ranboo’s powers zipped them off their feet in a haze of purple particles.

When they touched down again, they were in a parking lot outside a small grocery store. The lights were all out and there was no one around, leaving them alone in the eerie glow of a flickering street lamp. Ranboo stumbled backwards and nearly collided with the wall, but Tubbo managed to ease his fall.

“You good, man?” 

Ranboo nodded, wiping a dot of blood that had begun to drip from his nose. “Just give me a second to regen.”

He tipped his head down and took in a few deep breaths while Tommy and Tubbo scouted the area. They mapped the route they’d need to take to get the coordinates, and picked out a few buildings they could hop between to avoid walking the main streets. 

After a few minutes Ranboo gave the all clear, but he’d be out of juice for another long-distance teleportation for a few hours. And even though Tommy could mimic his powers, he‘d only been able to teleport himself. It had taken Ranboo years of training to safely teleport other people, and Tommy wasn’t near skilled enough in that power set to do the same. That meant they’d need to take the rest of the journey on foot.

“I was thinking, we need to have nicknames, like our aliases,” Tommy pointed out as they scaled a fire-escape to reach the top of a shabby apartment complex. 

“True. We shouldn’t call each other by our real names,” Tubbo agreed.

“Any ideas?”

Tommy shrugged. “Nope.”

“So helpful,” Tubbo quipped.

“What’s something cool?” Ranboo asked.

“Women,” Tommy blurted

Ranboo narrowed his eyes in confusion. “How are we supposed to work with that?”

“Fine. We can each pick a name from someone on Knuckle Sandwich. I’ll be Schlatt.”

“Absolutely not.”

“What about Greek Mythology?” Ranboo suggested. “They made us read all those Epics in professor Wels' class. We could pick names of heroes from those stories, that way we’re still on brand.”

“Dibs on Hercules!” Tubbo shouted, momentarily forgetting the stealth part of their mission.

“Actually, his original Greek name is Heracles,” Ranboo corrected.

“Nerd,” Tommy blurted.

Tubbo shook his head. “Whatever. Heracles, Hercules, that’s my code name.”

“Who should I be then?” Tommy pushed. “Who’s the coolest hero?”

“Hercules, but I already called dibs.”

“Shut up Tubbo. Ranboo, who should I be?”

“You could be Theseus,” he suggested.

Tommy thought on that. “What did Theseus do?”

“He killed the minotaur.”

“Alright. Cool.” Tommy let the name settle on his tongue. “Theseus – vigilante extraordinaire. Villains fear him, civilians cheer at the sound of his name..”

Tubbo cut off Tommy’s monologue. “Ranboo, you can be Achilles.” 

“Why?” 

“That’s the only other one I remember.”

Before they could discuss the names any further they came to a halt atop the last building butting against the lines of decrepit warehouses. Ranboo gestured to one in the middle of a cluster. A soft, yellow light could barely be seen shining between the cracks of a boarded up window. “That one there.”

Tubbo pulled the miniature drone from a pocket sewn into his jacket and powered it on. The propellers whirred to life, and he carefully flew it ahead to get a better look. The screen on the controller displayed the grainy image of the drone’s camera. In the dim light of the night sky it was hard to make anything out, but a sweep around the exterior showed no obvious signs of guards posted.

“There’s an entrance, but I’m willing to bet that it’s locked.” Tubbo said.

“One of us will need to open it from the inside then.” Tommy suggested. “I could use Ranboo’s powers to pop in real quick, since he still needs to recover.”

“You just want to teleport,” Ranboo called out.

“Yeah, I totally do.”

“There’s no windows to see inside, but I bet you can look through the crack of the door to get a visual.” Tubbo pointed out.

“Got it.”

“If you’re not back in thirty seconds I’m coming in to find you,” Ranboo asserted.

Tommy placed a hand on Ranboo’s shoulders and absorbed their power. Teleportation was one of his favorites to mimic, but it took a lot of concentration. He closed his eyes, pictured the location outside the warehouse, and sent himself there.

Teleporting was nauseating as a passenger, but doing it himself was much more tolerable. Tommy swallowed back a bit of bile as he materialized on the concrete, but was able to steady himself and check around the area. Like Tubbo had said, he managed to get a peek through the door. No one was around, at least that he could see. He braced himself as he teleported inside, but no alert was made. Satisfied, he unlocked the door and popped back to the rooftop.

“It’s a go.”

“Do we have a plan?” Ranboo asked as the other two started off.

“Fuck shit up,” Tubbo whispered in a gravely voice.

Ranboo took a few long strides to keep up with them. “That is not a plan.”

Neither gave any sort of consolation, let alone a series of logical steps. Their gung-ho means of approaching the task was a far removal from the strategery employed during a Super mission. They were walking in blind, not knowing who or what they’d find. 

It was easy enough to get into the warehouse. Tubbo disrupted the visuals of the security cameras by shifting the light waves, allowing them to sneak in undetected. They found themselves in a dimly lit garage, though it was empty of any vehicles. It looked like it had once been a depot to store broken trucks, but currently it was only filled with miscellaneous crates. 

Tommy gestured to the boxes and they spread out, silently sifting through the contents. Given the nature of the mission, the massive amounts of firearms and ammunition shouldn’t have been a surprise, but they still caught him off guard. There were enough rounds in a single crate to supply a small army.

“Holy shit, you guys!” Tommy whisper-yelled across the room. Judging from their concerned looks, they’d found the same thing. “We can’t just leave this here.”

Ranboo teleported to Tommy’s side, gesturing to the childish garb they wore. “It’s not like we can arrest anyone looking like this.” 

He had a point. There wasn’t anything they could do now, but he was certain that this was a supplier. They must have a secret means of moving freight, considering no suspicious activity had been tracked. 

“We’ll make an anonymous tip, then the authorities can handle it,” Ranboo suggested. 

“We are the authorities,” Tubbo pointed out as he joined their huddle. 

“Then we’ll deal with it later. Wearing our actual supersuits. Not old pajama pants sewn into masks.”

“Hey!” Tommy crossed his arms with a frown. “I worked hard on these.”

Tubbo started to wander towards the only interior door of the warehouse. Ranboo and Tommy quickly caught up, and they carefully peeked through it. A single hallway with doors lining both sides stood on the opposite end, appearing to be offices. Tommy scanned the area. “Split up?”

“What are we, the Scooby Doo gang?” Ranboo objected. 

With those words of wisdom they decided to stick together. The doors were locked, but Tommy and Ranboo teleported inside and opened them each up. No one was behind any of them. The place was deserted. 

“Does anyone else find it weird that there were no guards and no alarms set up to protect this place?” Tubbo asked. It was incredibly strange, even more so with the thousands of dollars worth of cargo sitting around. Anyone could have picked the lock and snuck in. 

“Let’s just search quickly and get out of here.”

Agreeing that they shouldn’t in fact ‘Scooby Doo’ it, they continued to stay as a group. They started with the largest room, one that looked the most used. Besides the dingy layer of filth and cigar scent that clung to the walls, it looked like it was being used as a makeshift office. There wasn’t much to find other than a very outdated computer and some old fast food wrappers. 

While Tommy and Ranboo searched for anything else of note, Tubbo inspected the PC. “If I can remove the hard drive, I can search it at the Tower.” 

“Can you get it out?”

“Maybe.” Tubbo pulled a screwdriver from one of his pockets. “I came prepared.”

He went to work dismantling the machine while Tommy and Ranboo searched the rest of the space. Tommy flung open the drawers of the old rusted desk and sifted through them without much care. The haphazard manner of digging heightened Ranboo’s anxiety. “They're going to know that someone's been in here.”

“We’re taking their entire hard drive. I think they’ll figure it out anyway.”

“True, true.”

As Tommy was pulling compartments open he got to one that was locked. That seemed like it was important. “Hey Tubs, you got anything we can use to break open a lock?”

Tubbo perked up, fished through his pockets, and tipped a handful of small, rock looking pellets into his hands. “Try these.”

“What are they?”

“Mini explosives.”

Tommy recoiled, nearly dropping them. “What the fuck, Tubbo!” 

He looked up with a completely flaccid expression. “What?”

“Let’s not resort to using bombs,” Ranboo pushed Tommy’s open palm away, and pulled out one of the training knives instead. He wedged it into the crack and pushed it forward until it hit the latch. After a bit of wiggling it was pushed down and the drawer popped open.

“How did you know how to do that?” Tommy gaped.

“Techno has a lot of unique skills. I’m a good listener.”

Inside the locked compartment there was a single manila envelope. Tommy gently pocketed the mini-explosives and picked it up. Something heavy slid around inside. He dumped the contents onto the desk, revealing a folded piece of paper and a single gold coin. It wasn’t a currency that either of them recognized – it was more akin to a toy than anything real. 

“What the hell..”

Ranboo picked up the paper that came with it, reading the contents aloud. “If anyone asks, it didn’t come from me. Spend it wisely. – R.”

A loud, echoing thud of a metal door sounded from the main room of the warehouse. The three vigilantes stilled. Movement and voices floated towards them, and they were clearly angry. Someone knew they were there. 

“We gotta go.” Tommy shoved the coin into his pocket and Ranboo folded up the paper. “Toby, come on.”

“I don’t have it yet,” Tubbo protested as he fiddled with the hard drive. The footsteps got closer. 

“Time’s up, we gotta cut our losses.” Tommy pulled Tubbo away from the computer, reaching out to Ranboo. “Do you have enough juice to get us out of here?”

But Ranboo didn’t respond. He stood loosely with his mouth slightly agape, eyes void of any sign of life. Tommy shook his shoulder, still no response. “Ran? Achilles?” 

Ranboo finally sprung up, but something was wrong. Their body moved like they were animatronic, and his face was still devoid of any expression. Tubbo stepped forward, and Ranboo swung. His fist was inches from colliding with Tubbo’s nose as he and Tommy sprawled back in shock. Ranboo lurched forward, held his hands out to examine them, then teleported to the other side of the room. A stilted, unnatural grin spread over his face, and he appeared behind his friends. 

“Move!” Tommy didn’t even have to say it, they were both already scrambling to avoid getting hit again. Ranboo teleported closer, this time managing to land a stinging punch to Tommy’s eye. 

“What’s wrong with him!” Tubbo shouted. That was when two men burst into the office holding bags of takeout.

“Fucking Super wannabes. Can’t even go on a lunch break,” The taller man grumbled, shaking his head as though the teenagers were a mere inconvenience. His partner gave little response, eyes narrowed in concentration, but stepped towards Tommy while cracking his knuckles.

Tommy lunged to the side to avoid Ranboo, while also deflecting the attack from the short, beefy man that advanced on him. He tried to punch the man but his swing met open air, and the man grabbed the fabric of his shirt and tossed him aside. Tommy fell into a roll and was back on his feet, but Ranboo was right in front of him. His friend tried to punch him, he ducked, and barreled into Ranboo’s knees. Before being taken down Ranboo teleported across the room and turned their attention on Tubbo, who was too distracted fighting to notice.

“Hercules!” Tubbo whipped his attention to Tommy. 

“I thought we decided on Heracles.”

“Now really isn’t the time to be debating the specifics of our names!”

With perfect timing, Ranboo tackled Tubbo to the ground. But before Tommy could help, an arm hooked around his neck, crushing his throat. Besides the sudden inability to breath, Tommy felt a somersaulting sensation roll over his brain. It wasn’t the lack of oxygen though. 

His opponent had a superpower. 

Tommy squeezed his eyes shut and neurons fired as he tried to decipher what the ability was. He kicked his legs as his lungs desperately fought for air. Then, he found it. 

Like his soul left his body, Tommy’s consciousness sprung out of himself. It was as if his mind was torn in half – one piece still left in his own body, the other floating like an omniscient observer in the room. He focused the second part of him on his attacker, and suddenly Tommy was inhabiting the opponent’s mind. 

“What the fuck?” He heard the man think to himself, and the arm choking him dropped. Tommy stumbled forward, still able to vaguely control his own limbs, while simultaneously controlling the man too. Tommy sifted through his attacker’s consciousness, forcing the man to lift his hands and slap himself across the face. 

“Holy shit!” Tommy laughed, but was ejected from the man’s brain. He toppled backwards as his full consciousness came back. Across the room Ranboo jolted and blinked in confusion as he was given back control of his brain. Blood was running in a thick stream from his nose, he wiped it on the back of his shirt sleeve.

The thug stared at Tommy, agape. “How the hell – ”

“Boss!” 

The short man looked over to see the empty envelope his partner held up. The three vigilantes froze, and anger consumed the leader’s face. His stare narrowed in on Tommy. “You have something that doesn’t belong to you.”

The boss didn’t lunge for Tommy again. This time he attacked his mind. Tommy lost complete control of himself, his hands forced to reach into the pockets of his makeshift suit in search of the coin. His mind lit on fire as he tried to overpower the possession, and for a split second he regained control of his fingers. He pushed them past the metal coin, and fished out the small pebble like devices instead. Limbs flailing, he threw them towards the man’s feet. 

The small explosion wasn’t enough to disable his attacker, but it was a good enough distraction to stop everyone in their tracks. His mind was vacated again, and he threw one of the knives into the calf of the attacker.

“We gotta go!” Tommy yelled. Ranboo grabbed a hold of Tubbo and teleported him across the room to Tommy, but the possessor had turned his attention back on Ranboo. Tommy flung himself into Ranboo’s head at the exact same time, battling each other for control. Ranboo stumbled around with a dazed expression as Tommy and the man yanked his consciousness around like it was tug of war. Tubbo watched helplessly at the strange interaction going on, finally throwing all caution to the wind and sending a high-pitched sound wave through the room. 

Everyone recoiled and Ranboo’s head was vacated. While the two men were disoriented, Tubbo grabbed his friends and hauled them out of the room and into the large garage area. “We need to go – “

Three more thugs poured into the warehouse, guns raised. Ranboo reached out and teleported with barely enough time to visualize a destination, causing them to appear two feet from where several rounds of bullets struck concrete. Tommy cast himself into one of the men. When he had control of his mind he forced the man to drop his gun and smack the weapons from the hands of the other two. 

“They’re blocking the exit,” Tubbo stated. The men scrambled in confusion to pick up their weapons. Tommy returned fully to himself. Beside him Ranboo was unsteady, blood had begun to drip from his ears and he winced from the splitting headache between his eyes. Just as the thugs were pointing the guns towards them again, Ranboo grabbed Tommy and Tubbo, wavering on his feet, and warped them outside the warehouse. As soon as they were out he fell into Tommy.

“Shit,” Tommy cursed, dragging Ranboo in their half-conscious state as the three ran from the scene. “Come on man, don’t pass out on us now.”

“I‘m fine..” Ranboo lied. They wound through several rows of buildings and ducked down in the relative safety of a row of parked semi trucks. The cover was enough to allow Ranboo to sit and recover from the over expenditure of energy. 

“What the hell happened back there?” Tubbo asked. 

“Big man had superpowers. Possession. He got into Ranboo’s head and made him pop around until I stopped him.”

Ranboo leaned his head against the metal of the truck’s shipping unit. “It felt like you two were having a boxing match in my brain.”

“You’re welcome,” Tommy replied.

Tubbo shook his head and peeled his mask off his face. “So much for keeping a low profile on our powers.”

“Something tells me these guys aren’t going to tattle on us,” Tommy reasoned.

They fell into silence, and frustrated shouting echoed down the alleys. Tubbo nudged Ranboo. “Are you good to go?”

“Yeah. But we’re going to need to make it on foot for a while.”

They were able to easily avoid another confrontation, but the journey back would be a slow one. They were at last thirty blocks from the Tower, but that would give Ranboo enough time to regenerate the energy to get them back into Tubbo’s room. Other than Ranboo’s overuse of powers, everyone was practically unscathed. It was a miracle they’d all gotten out with no more than a few scrapes and bruises. Little injuries could be attributed to training mishaps, but it would have been challenging to come up with a cover story for a stab wound.

As they moved between the compact buildings, Tommy fished the coin from his pocket. He studied it in the low light. It had been indented with lines around the border, something similar to a poker chip. In the center circle was a simple, pixelated smiley face. It was heavy, giving credence to the possibility that it was real gold. However, there was nothing else that gave away where it was from or why it was so important.

“Why do you think that guy was so worried about us getting our hands on this?” Tommy asked as he brought it close to his eye. “Seems like a token you’d win at an arcade or some shit.”

“Let me get a look.” Tubbo swiped the coin from Tommy’s hand.

“Careful man!” 

Tubbo held it up to the light, studied the simple design, then bit the edge of it. Ranboo recoiled. “What the hell?”

“Just testing to see if it’s real.”

“And?”

Tubbo looked on in momentary silence. “I don’t know. Do I look like a metal expert to you?”

Tommy shook his head. “Give it here.” He had to grab it back, and placed it in one of his sewed-on pockets. “I’ll keep it safe.”

“Who gave you the authority here?” Tubbo questioned.

“Well, I’m obviously the leader.”

“Obviously?”

“Yeah!” 

“I was the one who got the message from 5 Up!” Tubbo retorted.

“But I’m the biggest man of the three of us!”

“Technically, I am,” Ranboo stated.

Tommy shook his head. “Maybe in height, but not in power .”

“You’re the worst,” Tubbo continued. 

“I am the leader though,” Tommy muttered.

“Like hell you are.”

A sound from the street below caught Tommy’s attention. “Wait. Quiet.”

“Don’t tell me to – ”

“Seriously man, listen.”

They finally stopped, and when they did, pieces of intense conversation drifted up to them. The echo from the alley underneath them projected the words.

“I’m not asking again. Your wallet. Now.”

“We don’t want any trouble..”

The trio dropped and peered over the edge. Below them a man was holding a couple at gunpoint, waving the weapon as the man tried to quell the situation. Tommy’s breath hitched. “We have to do something.”

“We’re in our vigilante suits,” Ranboo warned.

“But they need help.” Tommy looked between the two, quickly formulating a plan. “We’ll do it without making our powers obvious. Follow my lead.”

Ranboo used a bit of his energy to teleport them behind a dumpster close to the conflict. Tommy crept out to where the couple could see them, behind the mugger’s sight. He motioned for the victims to stay quiet, while Tubbo subtly gathered the energy from a sound wave. A burst of high-pitched ringing hit the mugger’s ears; he brought his hands up in surprise, grunting in pain as he cringed.

In the moment of distraction Tommy ran forward and kicked the back of the mugger’s knee. He crumpled forward. Ranboo pinned the man’s wrist and shoved the gun far down the alley while Tubbo ushered the couple out of the way from the fight. 

Despite being outnumbered, the mugger managed to flip over and kick Tommy away. He tried to stand up, but Ranboo still had a hold of his arm, which he twisted backwards. The mugger yelled out in pain, and Tommy punched him in the stomach. The combined attack was enough to immobilize the man and get him to his knees. Tommy stepped behind and pulled the attacker’s arms back to keep him from breaking free once more.

“We can’t stay here,” Ranboo whispered. Tommy nodded, looking back to Tubbo, who’d been watching the fight. 

“Heracles. Is everyone okay.” Tubbo nodded, and Tommy motioned for him to come back and help. Tubbo turned to the couple one final time.

“Call 911 – ” as he gave the command he realized that the woman had her phone held up, camera light shining on them. He stuttered, jaw locking in place, when the distant sound of sirens approaching alerted him.

“Theseus, Achilles, we gotta go!” Tubbo called, and the other two whipped around to see red and blue flashes coming their way. Tommy looked down at the mugger, made sure the gun wasn’t nearby, and gave him one final blow to the temple. He slumped down as the sound of car doors opened nearby. The three took off for the nearest fire escape, not looking back as they scrambled away from the scene. Only once they were several blocks away did they slow to catch their breath.

Tubbo stepped up to the edge of the building's roof and plopped down, rubbing his face in his hands. “Damn it..” he cursed between heavy breaths. “I should have told them to delete it.”

“What do you mean?” Tommy crouched next to him. “What happened?”

Tubbo’s head dropped, and he let out a pained laugh. “We may or may not be totally fucked.”