Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy looked up at the stars' sparkle.  

“It's such a beautiful night to just— what the fuck!??” Tommy yelped; he grabbed the paper from his face. 

Who the hell- 

He looked around to find no one in sight. He turned back to the paper to see what it said. Using the orangish street light, it read ‘Hero Lucid arrested vigilante Slimecicle in Newbrooch.’  

Newbrooch? Lucid never patrolled in Newbrooch.  

Tommy frowned but kept reading anyway. ‘It was said that once the vigilante got arrested, Slimecicle melted and escaped Lucid.’ 

“Pffft- What a loser.” He laughed and kneeled to put the newspaper in his bag. “I need to tell Dream about this!” Tommy said in excitement.  

Whenever he talks about Lucid in front of Dream, he always gets some sort of absurd reaction. One time he kept saying Lucid and 404 would be a good couple but Dream rejected that and said, “Stop saying that, Lucid deserves way better. Like, uhh– Inferno!” Like, why the hell does Dream care? He must be a Lucid stan. Smh. Also, why Inferno, like, hello!?  

Once Tommy got situated, he got up and started walking back home.  

“Ahem, excuse me.” A hand got placed on Tommy's shoulder. 

Tommy turned around to see the Number One Hero, Lucid. 

Holy fucking shit. It's fucking Lucid.  

Tommy stared in awe. The green hoodie–fucking classic green hoodie–black cargo pants and the smiley mask. You would think a Hero could dress better. “I'm gonna be honest, you look like shit.”  

“Excuse me?” Lucid said in a threatening but more defensive tone. He tightens his grip on Tommy's shoulder. 

I fucking said that out loud. Am I gonna get arrested?  

“What's in the bag?” Lucid commands. Voice sturdy and powerful. Letting go of Tommy's shoulder. 

Shitfuckshitfuckshitshit–  

“Canned soup,” Tommy says with a shit-eating grin while his insides spike up with anxiety. 

“Wha-” 

Then Tommy makes a break for it. You can hear the clink noises from the ‘canned soup’ in his bag. Tommy turns left–with Lucid not far behind him–in an alleyway, he puts his bag in a dumpster and flips Lucid off. “You can never catch me alive bitch!” Tommy yells. He takes in a breath and continues his way into the maze. 

“Let's see what's in the bag.” Lucid murmurs. He goes still when he sees what's inside it. “Wha- uh, huh!?” Lucid managed to stutter out, He digs in the bag to find if anything else is in it. “It's just canned soup, why the FUCK do you have canned soup!” Lucid yells out.  

In the distance, Tommy can hear Lucid complaining about fucking canned soup. “It's a good thing I had the spray paint on me.” Tommy laughs out with a grin. 

(Earlier)

I cant fit this fucking paper in my bag. Deep breaths, I'll just take out the green and blue spray paint and hope to not get caught.   

Chapter Text

“Tommy! Come get your shoes out of the living room!” 

Tommy groans, tossing his phone on the bed. He gets up feeling his joints make a satisfying ‘pop’ sound. He must have been lying there for hours–seeing a slight dent from where he was on the bed. Tommy puts on a dark green sweater and walks out of his room. 

“What do you want, Dream ?” Tommy's annoying voice was heard from all the way upstairs. He walks downstairs to find Dream in the kitchen cooking what smells to be of mashed potatoes, steak, and green beans.  

“I want you to clear up the living room; we are having a guest coming over shortly.” Dream says, concentrating on not burning the mashed potatoes.  

Tommy rolls his eyes, “yeah, I bet it's your ‘boyfriend’ TEcHNo.” Tommy sticks his tongue out in a playful manner and turns around to the Living room. 

Dream chuckles at that and red quickly overtakes his face. He’s glad Tommy can't see him; he’d make fun of him for the rest of his damned years. 

Tommy grabs his shoes and anything else that is his and feeds his goldfish that happily swims in its tank from receiving food. Tommy walks back up the stairs, not hearing a word Dream says next. 

“Come back down in a few, he should be here in a bit!” Dream finished with the mashed potatoes making sure it was perfect or he would get severely judged on his cooking skills. “Also, clean your room!” 

Tommy walks into his room and throws his stuff on the ground. He glances at his snake in its tank and decides whether or not to take it out. 

Fuck it. What could go wrong??  

In Tommy's case, she stays in his room. He picks it up and it starts to slither up his arm. He plops it on his desk above his math homework. He starts to hear Mr. Scribbles (his hamster) run on his exercise wheel, in his cage, on the left corner of his desk. 

Tommy jumps on his bed and grabs his phone to open up dms with Purpled until he thinks about what the fuck he has just done.  

On his desk. 

Where his snake is.  

Tommy's breath hitches as he stares at what no pet owner wants to see. Animal murder. “Mr. Scribbles, NO!” Tommy screams out as he leaps across the room–he tries not to trip on his shoes–to save his least favorite pet. 

He starts to panic as his least favorite pet gets devoured by another ruthless animal. He turns on his I-phone 13 pro max and stumbles to type in ‘how to save your hamster from getting devoured by a ruthless and unforgivable snake’ The only answer he finds is ‘how do you end a hamster's suffering?’ and ‘What can kill a hamster’ Like, the fuck?! 

Before he even tries to help Mr. Scribbles, it's eaten alive by Pastel the ruthless and unforgivable snake.  

Tommy dramatically wipes a non-existent tear. Then he sits and leans down on his chair to be face to face with Pastel the ruthless and unforgivable snake.  

“How FUCKING DARE YOU eat Mr. Scribbles?!” Tommy keeps eye contact with the snake. Pastel the ruthless and unforgivable snake slithers on over and licks his nose.  

Taken back by shock, Tommy gasps, “I DID CARE!! I LOVED MR.SCRIBBLES WITH MY WHOLE LIFE!” Tommy slams his fist on the desk. Mr. Scribbles' empty food bowl shakes from the contact.  

Pastel the ruthless and unforgivable snake slithers up his arm and around his neck and does the unimaginable, Hisses at him.  

“Holy fuckin-” Tommy unlocks his phone to take a selfie, “say cheese Pastel the ruthless and unforgivable!!” Tommy rolls out the ‘L’ and smiles. He types in the captions ‘RIP Mr.Scribbles!!!’ and sends it to Purpled.  

7:45 pm–  

purple bish: tf happened?  

BIG MAN: i watched animal murder  

BIG MAN: btw have u seen what happened Newbrooch?   

purple bish: yeah  

purple bish: the cotton candy factory explosion that was caused by the one and only?  

BIG MAN change purple bish to alien shit  

alien shit: tf  

7:46 pm–  

alien shit changed BIG MAN to gremlin child  

gremlin child: no i was talking about Lucid in Newbrooch he usually patrols here in Loveast yk where all the rich people live  

“Tommy! Dinners ready! And come say hi to Techno!”  

.. 

alien shit: oh yeah  

gremlin child: gtg need to eat  

gremlin child: let me make up a lie real quick  

“I'M GRIEVING, GIVE ME A MOMENT TO GET TO ACCEPTANCE!”  

Chapter Text

If you didn't know, Tommy is a BIG L’found shipper. Now, don't get me wrong, he can basically ship anyone that has enough evidence--read: small amounts of evidence––to be a good ship. 

Tommy WISHES his ability was based on being cupid so he can just say, “Yep you're together now,” and not get weird looks when he fangirls over 404 touching Lucid’s shoulder. 

-==================================================================================-

“So,” Dream puts food on Techno’s, his, and Tommy’s plates. “How have you been?” He turns to see Techno leaning on the doorway. Techno gives him a small smile. Dream returns it.

“Busy with, you know, work .” Techno walks up and gives him a helping hand.

Dream frowns. He didn’t want Techno–his best friend–to overwork. To be frank, Techno should be working now but he insisted to come over. Dream wanted to know where he worked now. “Hey Techno?” Dream smiles gently, “Where do you work?” he asked.

Techno visibly tenses at the question. His smile falls, did I do something wrong? “Are you o-,”

“WHAT'S UP, BITCHES!” Tommy runs down the stairs and nearly trips on the last step. He walks up to hug Techno, he seems to relax a bit. 

“Here Tommy.” Techno gives him his plate.

They all walk to the dining table. Dream and Techno start to chat while Tommy is trying not to fangirl over this Twitter post.

(picture this: Lucid and 404 standing face to face on the rooftop.)

Oh my god–they're kissing.

Dream turns to Tommy to ask a question to the conversation ‘cats or dogs’ but he sees Tommy on his phone. “Now Tommy,” Dream says in a stern voice. He snatches the phone out of Tommy's hand.

“HEY!” He tries to grab the phone but Dream yanks it back. 

“What's even on her-,” And before Tommy can even say anything, hell breaks loose.

Dream lets out a sharp gasp as he stands up and slams Tommy's phone on the table. His chair falls back and Tommy gets up as well. But Techno reaches in his pocket for his phone and starts to record.

“Tommy, what the HELL IS THIS!” He motions to the phone. Tommy opened his mouth to say something but Dream doesn't give him a chance. “I told you not to look this stuff up!” Dream throws the phone to the living room. 

Techno made sure he got that on camera. He can't wait to show Phil.

Tommy watched his phone hit the floor and then turned back to Dream. Tommy slams his fists on the table, “WHAT–THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU BASTARD!” Tommy screamed. 

Now, at this point, Techno decided the mature thing to do was stop recording and stop the argument before something bad happens. And he's mature. Right?

“IT’S JUST L’FOUND. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU, DREAM!” Tommy provoked.

Dream turned pale as he let his mind slip back to that god-awful relationship with George. With George, it was like a flame going out each time the smallest amount of movement was made. And each time George tries to light it again but the candle wax melted. There’s nothing left.

Dream shook it off, “what's wrong with me!?!?” he said with venom in his voice. He chuckled and took a step towards his brother while he took a step back due to fear. Out of nowhere, Dream flipped the table and all the food fell, plats shattered, utensils clinked, and two puppy huskies barked from Dream's room.

Heavy breathing was heard from the brothers, one was shaking from anger and the other, from fear.

For Tommy, this was the only place– home– was the only place Tommy couldn't act.

For Dream, he never liked yelling. And what he did was the solution to stop it.

“Now boys,” Techno stood between Dream and Tommy. “Dream to your room, I'll be up there in a minute.” He turned to Tommy, “Tommy,” He motions to the mess, “Clean this up.”

Once that settled, both screamed “WHAT” in unison. “I didn't even do the mess–Dream DID!” Tommy extends his arm towards Dream. 

“You can't do that. You're not my parent.” Dream waved it off as a joke. Techno gave a deadpan look. “You can't do that..” Dream said more nervously.

Techno points upstairs, “Dream, now.” Dream grumbled and stomped on the stairs and quickly yelled out a “FUCK YOU!” before he opened the door. Two puppies came out barking and running down the stairs. Then Techno pointed to the mess.

“I didn’t even do it though,” Tommy said in a hopeless tone. He knows he has to do it anyway.

Techno places both hands on Tommy's shoulder, and he tries to give an understanding look but fails. It just looks like he's being sarcastic. “You provoked him though.” And with that, Techno goes upstairs. Buttercup and Rosie follow him to Dream's room.

A few moments pass, “what the fuck..” Tommy says under his breath. “It's just L’found!” He says a bit louder. Tommy groans. He starts cleaning up the mess, he brings out the mop and everything! 

Once done, he grabs his phone from where it was thrown. No scratches, it must be that iPhone 13 pro max case and screen protector, Tommy thought.

He goes up the stairs, he can hear voices and puppies barking down the hall.

Sorry Dream, Tommy scoffed, L’found just makes sense...

Chapter Text

Tommy typed, and typed, and typed, and–, who needs this? Who needs a teenager to type an essay on the map of the country? I mean–yeah, this is a Geography class that HE decided to take, but still!?

This is what he had so far,

‘Loveast: Loveast is the nicer part of Curisle. Modern and nice-looking neighborhoods and the famous Villain Calliope does crime in daylight. It's basically a really nice Suburban area. Better than stinky Westinglog.

Newbrooch: Newbrooch is downtown. Newbrooch has casinos and clubs but a LOT of crime at night. Really only at night. There are also hotels and stuff.

Westinglog: Westinglog is a stinky and dirty suburban area. All the houses there are townhouses. Westinglog was built for rich people but no one wanted to live there. So now the place is really poor and unkempt. It's like a trash dump but less trash and more dump. Sad people live there.’

And that's it.

That's all he had.

He thinks it's pretty good.

His teacher thinks it’s shi-

Two masked grown-ass men broke the classroom window. Tommy sits by said classroom window. Oh shit-, he scrambles out of his seat, gently places the Chromebook on the floor–cus he ain't gonna pay for the damage–and sits on his desk.

The students are in shock and all they can do is get on the desks 'cuz the ground isn't safe with two men in a school of CHILDREN wrestling on the ground–also there's glass. The teacher passes out on the desk.

“Don't worry kids,” Lucid calls as Calliope flips him over. “I got you.” He knees Calliope in the stomach. “You motherfucker,” Calliope gets off of Lucid and clenches his stomach. He grabs the windowsill for support.

Lucid gets up and leans on Tommy's desk. His breath is heavy and he's covered in sweat.

“Right,” Tommy starts slowly, “Says the guy that is FUCKING SWEATY and has ZERO fashion sense.” Tommy woke up on the wrong side of the bed for this. Some classmates let out a few nervous giggles; just to hope Calliope thought it was funny.

“Well–” Lucid says between each breath. Calliope lunges at Lucid. He yelps as he gets pushed to the ground. 

Tommy shakes his head. “At least CALLIOPE has a good FUCKIN’ fashion sense!!” Tommy says a lot louder and slams his fist on the desk. At this point, the whole class starts laughing! They hoped the Villain thought bullying a Hero was funny.

Calliope wore a black tailcoat, black dress shirt, dark blue paisley tuxedo vest, black combat boots, and black gloves. But Calliope only takes pride in his mask, a musical opera mask–his prime color is blue. 

In all honesty, though, Tommy didn’t even look at what he was wearing; he just wanted to get on Lucid's nerves without dying.

“AWWW,” Calliope says in a high-pitched voice. “I try to look nice.” His back is against the floor with a Lucid on top of him. He tries to wiggle out of his grasp but fails miserably. 

Students go, ‘Bro WTF,’ and ‘AYO SUSSY’ and others freaking out about their favorite ship sailing. “OH!” Tommy yells. He grabs his phone and starts recording. Students also start recording. “NOW YOU'RE RIDING HIM!?” Tommy yells out and zooms in on what's happening.

Students start to get up and move closer.

Lucid starts blushing, you can tell by the redness of his ears. “N-nO!” Lucid shoots up and backs away.

Calliope on the other hand leans on Tommy's desk. Tommy stops recording to look at him. “Can I use you as a hostage?” Calliope asks already grabbing the child.

Tommy shrugs, “Yeah, I got nothing to do anyway.” Calliope pulls him off the desk and traps him in his grip. Then pulls out a gun and points it at his head.

The child tenses but Calliope whispers in his ear, “There are no bullets.” With that, he yells, “Let me go, and I won't shoot him.” The class goes silent.

Lucid takes a moment to think.., “I need backup.” His voice is stern. The class lets out a few quiet gasps.

After a few moments, Inferno breaks the other window and jumps in. “Lucid, he's mine.” Inferno hands go ablaze. “Wait,” Lucid puts his hand on Inferno's shoulder. He motions to the hostage and the class. 

Everyone is silent for a moment. The fire from Inferno's hands dies down but is still red.

Calliope speaks up, “You leave me no choice.” Both heroes get into a fighting position. Calliope opens his mouth and– music!? Why the fuck is he singing?? Tommy can't quite catch what he's saying–hence it's in a different language–but it's charming. (?) ‘ But still, singing? I thought he was gonna call the famous villain Zephreus or–or even Protesilaus!!! BUT NOOOOOOOOO HE'S GONNA SING!!’ Tommy screamed about how idiotic this villain was but outside of that, it was silent. Everyone is waiting for something to happen, even the heroes. But nothing.

“What??” Calliope's voice wavered and his grip on Tommy softens. He looks puzzled, Calliope tries again but it doesn't work. WHY DOESN'T IT WORK? He starts to think, he really didn't want to shoot this child but a threat is a threat.

The fire forms on Inferno's hands again as he lets out a laugh of mockery. “Cats caught your tongue?” The fire gets even bigger and brighter! The orangish-yellow hue glows so bright it's blinding, but it's too beautiful to look away. The class stares in awe. Fire is hot and hurtful, but warm and beautiful. How can something so beautiful hurt so much?

Tommy shivers from how cold the classroom is. Students huddle up in a corner trying their best to keep warm but it's like the warmth got sucked out of the air.

“Control yourself,” Lucid warns Inferno when he notices he can see his hot breath contrasting with the cold air.

Calliope smiles wickedly and his laugh echos in the child’s ears. Calliope’s grip tightens on Tommy and pushes the gun to his head a bit harder. Not to make it hurt though.

To be honest, again; Tommy is scared. As many times he tells himself he's not, he really really is. But he doesn’t show it. Not a tiny bit of it. What can I say? He's a bit of an actor.

“What's so funny?” Inferno laughs nervously. Lucid reaches for his dagger but it's too late.

From across the school, a gunshot was heard. It was an echo of a villain pulling the trigger on an innocent child.

Lucid’s stance got weak, Inferno's fire dims, Tommy's body tenses, and Calliope's grin widens like never before.

Maybe dying wasn't how Tommy thought his final bow was going to be

One scream leads to two to a whole class crying. Desks and chairs fall while students run out of the classroom. 

Within that period of panic, Calliope picks Tommy up, jumps out the window, and starts RUNNING. 

“TOMMY!” Lucid yells out and runs to the window but they're too far. 

..

It's hot... Lucid takes a moment to warm up. 

It feels so nice. Lucid’s breath gets a bit heavier with each second.

That's not normal.

Lucid quickly turns around to find Inferno having a tantrum–knocking desks and chairs over, burning papers and other school supplies, and screaming about how he had him if Lucid didn't get in the way. 

In a blink of an eye, more things are set on fire, the ceiling, walls, and floor. He looks around for anyone that's still in the classroom. A teacher pushes Lucid out of the way and jumps out the window. I guess that's everyone.  

He calls out to Inferno.

Tick tock

He steps forward but can barely see anything. All he can see is smoke and fire.

Tick tock

He tries to calm Inferno down but with a tantrum as big as this? No chance.

Tic tic

“Sa- Inferno! Calm down!” He puts his hand on Inferno's shoulder. 

Ding-dong

Shit

“THIS IS ALL,” Inferno's hair burns fiercely. “YOUR” Inferno's eyes burn with hatred. “FAULT” A wave of spirling purple–bluish fire sets everything in its way on fire. That includes Lucid, hitting him right in the chest.

Pain shocks his whole body. Lucid cries out a scream that can be heard in the deepest pits in hell. He falls to the floor. That seemed to end Inferno's tantrum.

Inferno tries to talk to him but all Lucid can hear is ringing, all Lucid can smell is smoke, and all Lucid can taste is debris and blood. His blood. All Lucid can feel is the fire burning into his skin. All Lucid can see is a monster.  

How can something so beautiful hurt so bad?

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-..._._._._.

Sweet Singers: Everyone loves a beautiful singer. Sweet Singers can cloud a mind and can control it by singing, just like a siren can!

Weakness: Mind-based abilities. When unable to use the mouth.

Energy type: Lunar.

Chapter Text

In a diner, Tommy sits. Staring Calliope’s eyes. (Or the mask if we’re gonna be technical)

“So, um,” Calliope clears his voice. 

A waitress puts a cup of water in front of Calliope and a coke can with a straw in front of Tommy. He takes a sip, the fizzy bubbles go down his throat, almost making him choke. The taste of vanilla is left on his tongue.

Calliope says a small ‘thank you' and dismisses her.

“How's school?” Calliope asks, trying to pick up a conversation. He takes a sip of water to calm his nerves down. 

It doesn’t work.

That makes him more anxious. 

“Uhmm,” Tommy starts. Something in his mind is telling him to run or leave, but that would be rude, right? Sure he's literally two feet away from the villain but getting up and leaving would make them both feel awkward.

“It's..fine.” Tommy takes another sip of coke, the taste can never get old. “What language were you singing in?”

“Greek.” Calliope fixes his collar, “Right. Well-” 

..This is News Reporter Kelly Cantwinem live at Newbrooch highschool...

Suddenly, Tommy is interested in the news.

..iope broke into the school to hide from the heroes. Once he was found,  Calliope threatened a student...

Calliope sinks in his seat but Tommy doesn’t care, he wants to hear this.

..arted a fire, kidnapped the same student, and ran. 

The camera turns to the burnt-down school. 

Then back at Kelly.

..If you ever see this student,

A picture of Tommy's school photo from picture day popped up for a few seconds, then went to the corner of the screen.

..inform the authority.

It switched to the weather channel. Then people started to stare at him. Tommy shouldn’t be worried. Honestly, this isn't the scariest thing that happened to him. He’s not worried about people around him pointing and trying to speak to him. He's not scared that Calliope pulled out a gun and pointed it at people around them. He's not worried about Hero 404 barging in the diner doors with police officers behind him. He’s not scared that Calliope jumped out another window and ditched him. And, he's not worried about a police officer handcuffing him. He’s not worried or scared! 

-==========================================================================-

Tommy is fucking terrified.

They made him stay at the station for five FUCKING hours. They kept on saying they needed the ‘thumbs up’ from their boss to send him home. And once they did, he still couldn't leave! They called some doctors to give him a checkup, blood pressure, sight, reflex, etc. But they decided to test him for lung cancer and all that bullshit. And, they did this without his or Tommy's guardian's (Dreams) consent!

Now here he is, knocking on Dream's door. There is a policewoman in her car but Tommy thinks she doesn't need to be there. 

It takes Dream a while to open the door, but when he does, he does not look happy. The policewoman got out of her car with papers in her hand. She handed it to Dream to sign. At this point, Tommy was already inside and upstairs. He needed to text Purpled about what was going on. To think about it, he should know, both of them go to the same school. But at the same time, both are on different sides of the campus and only share classes one together (math). AND even then the teachers won't let them sit together.

“Where are you going?”

Tommy turns to Dream. He said it in a tone where it sounds like the parent caught their child sneaking out.

Tommy was already in a bad mood, he doesn't need this right now. So, Tommy kept on going up. 

“Tommy!” Dream tries but doesn't stop him yet.

Tommy plops on his bed and opens discord. The last conversation with Purpled was talking about both of Tommy's (more of Dreams) 5-week huskies. Rosie and Buttercup. Rosie is a red husky with green eyes. Buttercup is an all-black husky with dark green eyes.

10:35 am–

alien shit: y there a vill and hero in ur class

How the fuck does he know already? Tommy thought. It's like he has ears everywhere.

alien shit: smh.

Tommy was about to dm him–

9:28 pm–

alien shit: u should get some rest

wanna intro u to some of my friends tmrw

Oh.

gremlin child: k night

..

alien shit: night

He inhaled then exhaled, “Tomorrow is going to be a long day.” He turned off his phone and was about to go to bed but–

“Tommy?” Dream peaked in the child’s room. He received a glare from him. Dream walked in and shut the door.

“What do you want?” Tommy snapped, he turned his head to Dream, who was by the door. 

Dream opened his mouth, but nothing came out. 

“Well?” Demanded Tommy.

After a few seconds of waiting, Tommy huffed and grabbed something to throw at Dream.

“C-can,” Dream stuttered, he looked into Tommy’s eyes, for a second, they were green, a beautiful emerald green..like his own! But then it changed back to the dull blue he knows today and will forever, hopefully. 

There was something about Dream Tommy didn’t understand. When Dream was about Tommy’s age, he was sassy, hot, disobedient..but now? Looking in his brother’s emerald eyes, he sees hope. And that was the thing Tommy didn’t understand. Why does he see hope?

Dream smiled gently, he turned to Mr. Scribbles' empty cage and frowned. 

“Oh, yeah.” Tommy laughed nervously. “I forgot that happened." He got up and walked to the cage, Dream was already there. 

“What happened?”

A small hiss was heard and both boys turned to Pastel the ruthless and unforgivable snake. 

“That happened.” Tommy walked over to the cage and let her out. “What did you want to talk about?” he asked. 

Dream chuckled and walked to the door, “later, I realized right now wasn’t the best time.”

Tommy hummed and turned to put the snake in her cage.

Please help me

Tommy closed the cage and turned to his brother, "What?" he was already out the door. 

..

Tommy was left wondering.

-=======================================================================-

“So you're saying your ability didn't work?” Phil put five plates on the dinner table. They had guests coming over.

“YES!,” Wilbur exclaimed. 

Phil scoffed at his son's outburst. Wilbur frowned and hugged himself, “I'm not lying.” he mumbled.

Techno had himself occupied by texting someone.

The house was silent besides the sound of utensils hitting the plate. Until a question popped out of thin air, “Hey Wil?” Techno asked without looking up from his phone. 

Wilbur gave a quiet, “yeah?” He turned to Techno.

“You kidnapped Dream's brother?” 

Phil stopped to look at Wilbur. If he says yes, Techno would beat Phil's second son's ass. That's when Wilbur froze, he knew how much Dream's family meant to Techno. 

DING DONG

A pair of Brown eyes met Phil’s Blue eyes.

“Oh thank the moon,” Wilbur murmurs, “I’ll get that!” He called.

Chapter Text

Someone is shaking Tommy awake, “Oh fuck off..” Tommy murmurs. He hugged his pillow tighter. They started to shake him faster. “Whattt..” He whined, Tommy opened his eyes for a moment to look out his window, then he closed them. “It's the middle of the night!” He slurred. 

The shaking went to a halt, maybe to look out Tommy's window? “I’ll be back later.” They whispered.

Tommy heard footsteps leave his room, then it went quiet.

-===========================================================-

Someone is shaking Tommy awake, “STOPP,” He complained. The shaking stopped. As Tommy was about to fall back asleep, someone started to pull Tommy out of bed. “stAAP!” Tommy shouted, and with one last tug, he yelped as he fell to the floor. Comforters, sheets, and pillows follow. Tommy jolted his eyes open to find Vans brand shoes, he knew exactly who it was. Then he screams out in frustration. 

-=======================================================-

“So,” They said, taking a sip of orange juice, “That's what we should do.” They realized they had no more pancakes, so they stole some from their other friend. 

“Oye!,” They slapped their hand, “¡Vete a la mierda!” 

Tommy looked up at them, “What are we gonna do?” 

Sapnap rubbed his hand. Before he could say anything, Quackity buds in, “Nothing!,” he eyed Sapnap, “we’re doing nothing.”

Tommy furrowed his eyebrows, “Well if we’re not gonna do anything, then I'm just gonna leave.” He retorted. Tommy stood up and grabbed his coat from the coat rack by the door.

That seemed to alarm Sapnap, “The park!” he blurted out. He grabs Quackity’s attention. “We’re going to the park.” He finalized. Sapnap started to clean the table. 

Tommy rolled his eyes and took a step out the door.

Quackity looked over Sapnaps shoulder to make sure he left. After a few seconds, he turned back to Sapnap, “You heard what Dream said.” Quackity scolded and slapped the back of his head.

“Ow,” Sapnap put the dishes in the sink, “what's the odds of him getting kidnaped again?” 

Quackity dragged his hands over his face. Under his breath, he swears, “If he gets fucking kidnapped,” Quackity met Sapnap’s eyes, “I’m going to-.” he stopped himself, the urge to just smack Sapnaps handsome face was so powerful that he had to stop and take a breather.

“He’ll be fineee.” Sapnap cupped Quackitys face in his hands, Quackity didn't lean into it. Sapnap still gave him a peck on the cheek and both walked out the house. 

Tommy looked up from his phone, “It's like,” he checked the weather again, “88 degrees.”

It was a very sunny day, they could use something cool, and Sapnap knew that. “Hey, Quackity?” Sapnap asked, they all got in Quackity’s car, “you know that park we used to go to as kids?” 

Quackity started the engine, “Yeah,” he drove out of the neighborhood, “why?” Then it hit him, his face lit up as he drove faster–passing the speed limit. He then turned left.

-==============================================================-

It's been about fifteen minutes till Tommy noticed they weren't on a road, but dirt. “Where are we going?”

Sapnap turned to face Tommy, “Here.” His hands turned blue like it was frozen. “It looks like you could use a chill pill.” White particles surrounded Sapnap’s hands until they formed snow. 

“What-?”

Powdered snow got thrown on Tommy like it was glitter. He panicked and tried to scramble out of his seat.

“Calm down!!” 

Tommy glared at the man who did this to him.

Sapnap chuckled and faced forward in his seat. 

“We're here!” Quackity parked his car on the side of the playground. 

The playground was rather small, it had two swing sets, one slide, monkey bars that were missing some bars, and this pole thing with a circular seat that can spin.

Once everyone got out of the car Tommy walked up to the broken monkey bars, “Who did this?” Tommy asked no one in particular. 

Quackity smiled at the memories made here, during that time of life when everyone was together and not apart. 

“GUYS!” Magic swirled Sapnaps hands. He put his hand in the air, “LOOK!” Quackity and Tommy come closer. White shoots to the sky then fall back down very slowly.

Tommy smiled and laughed, “It’s snowing?!” He took his hand out of his pocket to feel the snow. “Holy shit..” He had an idea of what his babysitter’s ability was, it was similar to Inferno’s but Tommy had to ask what it was. “How does your ability work, Sapnap?”

“Um–well, it's hard to explain. I have to like,” It looks like he's trying to hug an invisible person. Snow starts to pile up, “suck the cold out of the air??” Sapnap gives up explaining and grabs snow out of a pile right next to him. 

“What do you–FUCK!” Snow got thrown into Tommy’s face then he stumbles and falls on his butt.

“Woah Sapnap,” Quackity wipes the snow off of Tommy's face, “Careful, he's just a child!” exclaimed Quackity.

“I’M NO CHILD!!” Tommy stood up and grabbed snow to make a snowball. Once he threw it, it didn't make it anywhere close to where Sapnap stood. 

Sapnap burst out laughing till his lungs started to hurt. He collapsed but still was laughing to the point he turned a bit purple. Tommy tried to keep his irritated look but ended up laughing it off. 

Quackity stood to the side watching the two have a snowball fight. He remembered it just like this, everyone was happy and together. George, Eret, and Foolish on the swings. Karl and Niki making snow angels, Bad and Skeppy doing a snowman contest. Sapnap, Dream, and Techno doing a 2v1 snowball fight, Puffy and Phil making sure no one got hurt but still having fun themselves, and himself with Wilbur watching Schlatt metal mold the monkey bars to different shapes. 

Quackity smiled at those memories, he’ll keep them safe.

“HEY, QUACKITY!” Tommy hollered, “I NEED YOUR HELP TAKING DOWN SAPNAHHHHHP!!!” Sapnap tackled Tommy to the ground. Lucky for Tommy, everything was covered in snow. It was like winter but despite the coldness, both were sweating like it was over 90 degrees.

Quackity ran towards them laughing. He put Tommy to his feet and they started to throw snowballs at Sapnap.

He’ll keep this memory safe as well.

-=============================================================-

“When are we going to meet your friend?” Tubbo stuffed popcorn in his mouth. 

All three of them were watching movies until Purpled’s friend came. 

“Later tonight.” He took some more popcorn out of the microwave. Purpled walked back to the couch and sat to the left of Tubbo sensing he wanted to be in the middle. A black and white cat with purple eyes–Ender–sat on Ranboo’s lap. 

The movie they were watching had to do something with a kid trying to find her father who was a scientist and having three witches or something helping her. It's a Disney movie so it must be good. 

Purpled got a dm from Tommy earlier that day saying he might have to sneak out of his house because Dream’s friends were babysitting him. 

And until Tommy gets here, Purpled, Ranboo, and Tubbo were going to watch every movie Disney made.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-._._._._._._._._._.

Temperature Taker: Did you ever go to the beach and the air was too hot and the water was too cold? Well, These Temperature Takers can help! They use the heat in the air to make anything that is heat-related, and when they do this the air gets colder! This can work both ways so don't get too sad when it's too cold outside to play, Temperature Takers can just suck it up!

Weakness: Can use too much heat/cold that there will be nothing left.

Energy type: Solar.

Chapter Text

“When’s Dream coming back?” Sighing, Tommy sat on his windowsill criss-cross with a pillow in his lap. Nightfall has come and the sky is darker than usual. Water drops fall from dark fluffy spots in the sky.

Tommy felt a slight vibration in his pocket.

9:09 pm

alien shit: i think the best time to come is now 

i wanna do som shit

Tommy laid his head on the window. Sapnap and Quackity were in the living room and he already had dinner so it would be the perfect time to leave. 

But what about Dream?

Tommy grabbed his coat from the chair and put on his shoes. There was a tree by the window he could climb down from. He unlocked the window and rain instantly hit his face. He climbed on the first branch, then the second until he was down all the way. Leaves in hair but Tommy didn't care, he’ll take them out on the Uber ride, then the bus ride, then the walk to Purpled’s house, and maybe–just maybe–in the house.

-====================================================-

“Thank you all for coming to this meeting on such short notice.” 

Hermes pulled out a notebook and looked around, “Where’s Lethe?” 

Protesilaus fixed his red and gold masquerade mask, “Out.”

Calliope sank in his seat, he kind of felt guilty for calling an emergency meeting but this was important! 

Oizys spoke up, “So, what's the emergency?” He felt something on his dress and turned to see the unofficial Syndicate member, Slimecicle.

“Sorry.” Slimecicle is a vigilante so he doesn't get to be official but he's still part of the team. He also doesn't wear a mask, it’ll just slide in the goop.

Zephyrus turned to Calliope and nodded.

“My ability doesn't work!” Calliope shouted in distress, then looked around, everyone's eyes were on him. He sank farther in his seat. 

“Yes it does,” Nemesis chimed in, “You used it a couple of hours ago during our scheduled meeting.” 

“Yeah but, like,” Calliope stood up, “a day ago when I was fighting Lucid,-”

“You fought Lucid?” 

Calliope glanced at Hermes, “Yeah, sorry I didn't put that in the report. But like, when I was with the hostage, my ability stopped working.” 

“That's what I wanted to talk about tonight.” Zephyrus narrowed his eyes at Calliope, giving a silent ‘sit down' before he could continue, “Calliope brought this to my attention about two days ago. During his patrol in Newbrooch–which he didn’t alert Hermes about–Lucid caught him around 4th Lamb Street. In a panic, he ran towards a high school with Lucid following. After the fight in the school, he proceeded to ask a student to be a hostage–”

“But they–” 

“Shhhh!” Hermes shushed Calliope, he motioned the notebook and pen in his hands.

Zephyrus cleared his throat, “Right. After about 2 minutes of holding the child, Wi-Calliope felt lethargic. Once he thought it was time to use his ability, it didn’t work. Does anyone have solutions?” Zephyrus looked around the table; Protesilaus, Lethe’s empty chair, [REDACTED] empty chair, Hermes, and Nemesis on the right. Calliope, Oizys, Slimecicle, and [REDACTED] empty chair on the left. Leaving the ringmaster; Zephyrus, at the head of the table wearing a black tailcoat with dark green trim, a white dress shirt, dark green waistcoat, black bow tie, black leather gloves, black combat boots, and a black shiny feather mask; secondary color is dark green.

Everyone was now staring at Protesilaus, except Oizys, who was getting out their laptop to search for who this kid was. “Well,” they started, “The reason he felt a lack of energy was because of the cancellation of his ability. Having an ability comes with a whole bunch of energy, and suddenly without it,” they chuckled, “you’ll feel like a piece of shit.” The hue color of his sunglasses turned white, grey, then blue. “It's the reason parents of 14-year-olds put their child on a shit ton of melatonin and stray them away from energy-producing factors like caffeine and sugar.”

“Okay??” Calliope’s voice came off as rude(as intended), but the syndicate members ignored it.

“But what does that have to do with Calliope’s ability not working?” Nemesis questioned.

“There we go.” Oizys grinned as he turned on the projector which everyone turned to. He clicked a file called, ‘Thomas Taken’.

“That's the kid!” Calliope pointed to the holographic picture of Tommy. 

Oizys clicked around a bit until he reached an interesting folder called ‘Family’. They clicked on it.

“Huh.” Hermes wrote more down in his notebook, “has a brother but no parents.” He looked over to Slimecicle who was slowly falling out of his seat.

“Poor thing,” Nemesis mumbled. “Can't imagine a life without parents.”

Slimecicle pointed to the laptop screen, “Says here Thomas has been living with their aunt until their brother, Clay, was able to get a job at the age of 17.” Bits of green translucent goop fell onto Oizys’ keyboard.

Nemesis yawned, wait..17!? “That means Toms didn’t live with an adult at the age of 12!?” She looked around, “Right?” 

Calliope yawned and curled up in a ball, trying not to close his eyes, “Mhm.” He slowly dozed off.

Oizys started clicking more stuff, “It doesn't seem like Toms has an ability.” They glanced at Protesilaus, who was in deep thought. “Or the rest of their ‘family’.” That’s imposible, Oizys thought.

Hermes yawned, “What time is it?” he asked. He placed the notebook down and took off his goggles to rub his eyes, then put them back on.

Nemesis yawned again and got up to stretch. Then she sat back down.

Oizys checked the digital clock, “11:17.” they said with a yawn.

Zephyrus chuckled and had a yawn himself.

Protesilaus looked up from the ground, “Should we..?”

Zephyrus gave an affirmative nod. He turned to everyone's tired structures, “This will be the conclusion of toda–”

Calliope jolted awake, “We’ll get him!” he hollered. Everyone turned to him.

Oizys stopped mid-way turning off the projector, “Wha–”

“Who is this ‘ we’ you're speaking of?” Protesilaus got up to stretch his muscles. Everyone else got ready to leave.

Calliope fell out of his seat and quickly got up, nearly falling over again, “You'll see.” He walked out the door.

Hermes shook his head, “He is clearly delusional.”

Nemesis giggled, "Where is he going? The way out is the elevator."

-==================================-

“And this crystal helps me find love .” Ranboo held up rose quartz. 

Tommy wanted to look but he was about to beat Mario kart against Tubbo. “Come on, come on, come oooonnnnn..!” One last turn and he would win. “AH, YOU BITCH!” Tubbo threw a banana and passed him, getting the win. He burst out in cackles. Tommy did too.

It was 12:12 am and everyone was getting ready to go home, Tubbo packed his Nintendo switch, Ranboo packed his tarot cards and crystals (which they all used), and Tommy helped clean up. Now they were just talking on the couch.

“THAT'S the high school you go to?” Tubbo questioned the burnt-down building Purpled showed him.

“It’s getting remade, right?” Ranboo asked.

“Hope not,” Tommy bit his fingernails, “That school was shitty.”

“But that school has a five-star rating,” Tubbo remarked, “what was so bad about it?”

Purpled chuckled and put his phone away, “The only reason he doesn't like it is that we only share one class together.” he glanced at Tommy, “and Dream made him take A-energy classes.”

Ranboo looked at Tommy, “A-energy?” he asked.

Tommy exhaled like he had to explain it multiple times, “once a month I have to stay after school and learn about all kinds of abilities and what type of energy it all has.”

“That seems interesting,” Tubbo said.

“Well, it's a shit ton of work,” Tommy retorted. He leaned on Purpled, “Do we still have that field trip?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Purpled, “You, me, and Eryn are a group.”

They sat in comfortable silence until shattering glass had to ruin it. Tommy jolted up, “what the fuck was that?” 

They all looked at each other, Tubbo sighed and got up to check it out. He walked into the kitchen and found a rock on the floor and a Villain trying to get in from the window by the sink. “Um, Purpled?” he called, and all three boys got up and walked to the kitchen.

Tommy jumped, “holy shit.”

“That's not normal,” Ranboo said.

Purpled looked at him, “Of course, it's not fucking normal, what the fuck!?”

The villain stepped on the counter and slipped with a loud thud. 

Calliope’s vision was hazy so when he went to shoot the net launcher at Tommy, it hit a brunet. 

“AK!”

“TUBBO!” Ranboo ran for him.

Calliope then shoots him and the other two.

-================================-

“What time is it!?” Tommy yelled out to Calliope from the floor. Everyone else was sitting upright but Calliope felt the need to throw Tommy in. Calliope was driving them to headquarters in a black van. 

“Maybe you have to yell a bit louder,” Tubbo advised.

“HEY, BITCH!” Tommy tried to sit up, “WHAT TIME IS IT!”

Calliope stopped the car, got out, and opened the back door. Crickets chirped and the sky had no more clouds, the ground was wet and the air was a cool soft breeze.

He sluggishly grabbed Ranboo and took him away.

“Ranboo?” Tubbo tried to get a closer look at where he was taking him, but he just ended up falling over. “Well fuck.”

Tommy rolled over the brunet, “I think he’s asleep.” Tommy yawned, his eyes suddenly getting heavy, “I'm about to be too.”

“Are you guys not thinking about this situation?” Purpled wondered if his friends got drugged. 

“There I go.” 

Purpled watched Tubbo get taken away. Out of everyone here, Purpled was the most aware. Even though he knew it was around 1 am (Calliope checked the time when he didn’t answer Tommy), Purpled wasn’t that tired. I mean don't get me wrong, he is tired, but not that tired. Purpled then watched Tommy’s limp body get taken away. This whole situation seemed uncanny to Purpled. There was no thought behind what Calliope was doing (literally, he checked). Purpled thought, maybe when he picks me up I’ll know.

When it was finally his turn to be picked up, Purpled knew why, Calliope was too goddamn tired to even realize he kidnapped a bunch of children. He was truly delusional. 

Purpled saw all his friends on a platform on the ground. He heard soft snores from the group, then a wave of tiredness hit him. Maybe a little nap will do. Purpled closed his eyes and dreamt with his friends.

Calliope set him down and pulled a lever, he sat down while the platform below them moved underground. His eyelids were too heavy to keep open so Calliope blinked a few times. He blinked one last time until he felt the sweet release of sleep.

-=================================================-

Protesilaus heard the platform come down and hit the ground. He raised an eyebrow and turned to Zephyrus, “You..?”

“I can't believe he did it.” Zephyrus chuckled and walked to a knocked-out Wilbur with four sleeping children.

Techno followed and stepped on the platform. Phil pulled the lever and they slowly went up. 

“I can take Wilbur and Tommy home,” Techno suggested. A glance at Purpled, “I don’t know where Purpled lives but he’s Tommy’s best friend so I’m sure he won't mind a sleepover.” 

“And I'll take Ranboo and his boyfriend home.”

Techno looked at the two, “Aren't they both married?”  

The platform got to the top and wind swirled in Phil’s hair. He grabbed the married–divorced–couple and put them in an air bubble. “Honestly, didn't they have a divorce over a cereal brand?” Phil started to laugh when he remembered taking the lovebirds to the store to cause chaos.

Techno took the keys out of Wilbur's pocket and put him in the back and Purpled and Tommy in the front seats, “Yeah, that did happen.” He started the engine.

Phil guided the wind to pull him off the ground, “Well,” he saluted to Techno, “See you back home.” He flew away with the supposedly ‘divorced–couple’. 

-======================================-

Out of his villain costume, Techno placed both boys on Tommy’s bed. Tommy's room was less messy compared to Wilbur’s (believe me when he says Wilbur's room looks like a whole tornado passed through it). Techno got out and walked down the hall to a certain room. He opens the door to see Dream writing at his desk. “Dream?”

He jumped and ran his hands through his dirty-blond hair. He turned to Techno at the doorway and gave him a tired smile.

Techno walked in, “You should be asleep.”

His smile instantly fell.

“What are you writing?”

Dream didn't say a word, all that came out was a small, quiet sob.

Techno walked over and hugged him. Techno would wish Dream would open up on nights like these, but this is Dream we’re talking about. It has been getting better though, compared to when Dream was dating George in high school. God that was awful, the arguments, running away, the incident. It only seemed like last year Dream was getting better until George had to ruin it and cause another incident. And on these nights, Techno wonders if Dream will ever get better, and maybe get a glimpse of what Dream’s been up to the last couple of weeks.

.-.-.-..-.-..-..-.-.-..-.-.----.-.-.-...-...-.-.-....-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-

Air Advisor:  Air can be many things. It could be of nitrogen and oxygen. Air could be the soft breeze you feel when you leave your home, or it could be a destructive natural disaster. The air has a mind of its own and an Air Advisor guides it in the right direction!

Weakness: Gravity Graphics and things heavier than the air.

Energy: Solar.

Chapter Text

Tommy felt a sudden breeze of cold air, the air smelled of petrichor. It was nighttime and the sky had patches of grey fluffy spots, rays of light were emitted from the moon. It was a peaceful night. There was a bright orangeish light beside him and Tommy realized he was sitting on a bench next to a sign that said ‘Bus stop’.

Did he just wake up here? Or did someone place him here? He tried to remember what happened, but nothing came to mind. Tommy looked around. Across the street, there was a silhouette leaning on the rails of a bridge. It looked like it was looking down into the water, but Tommy couldn’t tell. He wanted a closer look. So, Tommy got up and starts walking across the street. The figure was looking more like someone he recognized. But he couldn’t see their face, they did have a green hoodie on.

“Uhm, excuse me,” Tommy wanted to ask where he was and how he got there. “do you know-”

“Do you think he loves me..?” it said in a teenage boy’s voice.

Tommy didn’t understand where the question came from. But his voice is familiar. “I-sorry?”

“Do you think I should jump?” The boy bluntly asked, looking down further at the water.

Now that was a whole different question. Tommy still doesn’t understand though. 

“Here, hold this,” The man gave Tommy a card with an address on it. Tommy looked at it and opened it. “Name’s Clay by the way.” ‘Clay’ was one leg over the railing.

“How old are you?” Tommy asked, putting the card in his pocket. He looked up and saw Clay struggling to get over the rail. The potential of his falling gave Tommy anxiety. “Um, I don’t think that's safe.” He pointed at the leg. 

The green figure stopped moving. He was looking down at the water, thinking. “...15.” He brings his other leg up and over the railing. His whole body is scaling the edge of the bridge, one wrong step and he’ll fall into the water, drowning himself. “Tell George I love him.., even if he doesn’t love me back..” He whispered the last bit.

George? Tommy thought. He knew a George, but he couldn’t put a face on it. Tommy got out of his thoughts, “Hey Clay?” He asked. Tommy heard a splash of what sounded to come from the water. He ignored it. “Clay!?” Tommy looked around, there were streetlights and benches on the bridge, and there were bushes as well (for exterior design) but no Clay. Why does that guy seem so familiar? He thought.

“Fuck..” A deep voice said between breaths. 

Tommy heard loud footsteps hitting the pavement, it was getting louder and louder within seconds. Whoever this was, they are fast–and I mean fast.

“Clay!?” The voice yelled next to Tommy.

Tommy jumped. He looked for the person the voice belonged to but couldn’t find them. It sounded like it was right next to him.

“Oh please..goddess, no..” The voice quavered.

Tommy can hear heavy breathing and sniffles from right beside him. And that freaked Tommy out! Of course, he won’t say anything! He doesn’t want to get possessed by whatever fucking ghost is out there!

“Fuck-fuCK-FUCK!” The voice let out a frustrated scream. 

“Hey, excuse me-” 

“DREAM, I'M COMING!” 

It was silent. 

...

Tommy heard a splash. 

He looked down and saw bubbles surfacing from the water. “Uhh, HELLO!” Tommy leaned on the railing, more bubbles were surfacing the water. And in a matter of seconds, Clay resurfaced and gasped for oxygen, holding him was a teenage boy wearing bits of pink (it looked like). Tommy looked closer to see the faces, it was at least a 20 feet fall but that didn’t stop Tommy from leaning more on the railing. After 5 more seconds of squinting and leaning on a rail, Tommy saw the faces, and he was not happy, he was horrified. Tommy flinched so hard that the hand holding him slipped and he flew off the railing. And at that moment, Tommy didn’t scream, cry, or call for help. Those faces belonged to Dream and Techno. Tommy's thoughts went everywhere,  every thought he had was about not wanting to die, his brother trying to commit suicide, or him just panicking, but one thought stuck out from the rest. This isn’t real, it said. But it is. Tommy told himself, but then he had a realization, Dream and Techno’s faces looked young, it looked like they were still in high school. So it couldn’t be real... And it truly wasn’t. He had so many questions, like, why did Dream do it, or how did he get here? And what the fuck is going on!? 

So Tommy shut his eyes and kept repeating that thought, this isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isN’T REAL, this ISN’T REAL, THIS IS NOT REAL!! 

Then he woke up.

Tommy stayed laying down in his bed. He tried to open his eyes but he couldn’t. He’s awake?!, but he can't open his eyes! Tommy grabs his pillow(?) case, it feels softer, like cotton? Tommy’s plan is to try and wake up his brain by moving, but the only problem with that is he can’t move because his brain isn’t awake. I mean, he’s thinking and barely moving his right hand so that means his brain must not be..working? Tommy doesn’t want a broken brain! Duh you dumbass, no one wants a broken brain, Tommy thought to himself. See?! If he’s thinking then Tommy’s brain must not be that broken! Right?

Tommy tried to move the pillow closer to him, but it feels like a billion pounds! Did he die or something? And that dream– that dream felt so real but so fake. Was it real? Tommy thought. Wait, what if he’s in the hospital right now? Maybe it wasn’t a dream, he thought. Maybe it was a memory! But that wouldn’t make sense, Dream looked younger, as well as Techno. And he can't recall any memories of younger Dream or Techno besides when he was younger. What if it was a memory of when I was younger? No, in the dream–er–memory, Tommy looked the same age as Dream and Dream right now is older than him. So that means Dream was younger and Tommy stayed the same age in the dream. Wouldn’t Dream in the memory be the same age as me because we were about the same age in the memory? Tommy argued. No, because Tommy and Dream aren’t the same age right now! 

Tommy argued with himself, at this moment, he is very confused, he can't go back in time so it had to be a dream. But in dreams everything is wanky and the ‘dream’ he had seemed very vivid. Tommy tugged harder at the pillow, maybe it was a memory but not his memory. 

…

Tommy is more confused than ever. That’s preposterous. He thought. There is no such thing as memory-giving. And if there was he’d known so! 

His pillowcase grabbed his wrist and pulled it away. 

…

Pillows with pillowcases aren’t supposed to do that. Tommy started to mentally panic. Because of his panic, Tommy managed to move his leg! Now he just needed the rest of his body to move so he can FUCKING SEE!

See.

“Tommy?” said a voice so very familiar. 

Purpled?

Purpled chuckled, “you know,” he put Tommy’s hand down, “If you wanted to wake me up, you could have just said my name. I'm a very light sleeper.”

Says the one that took two hours to wake up. Tommy thought. He would roll his eyes if he could, but he can’t.

“It’s actually been two minutes,” Purpled said. 

No, it’s definitely been fucking 2 hours..wait a second. Tommy heard shuffling and Purpled started to pull him up. YOU CAN HEAR MY THOUGHTS!! Tommy ‘yelled’ in his head.

He and Purpled are in a sitting position, with Tommy leaning on him and Purpled resting his head on Tommy’s. “Do you want to open your eyes or what?” Purpled snickers.

Tommy listened to Purpled’s heartbeat. So, what are you gonna do?

“‘What am I gonna do?’ This is all on you–I do mind-shit, not brain-shit.” Purpled proclaimed. 

Bitch, what? HELP ME! Tommy demanded.

“Just–open your eyes!” Purpled rolled his own.

That’s the thing, I can–oh. Tommy’s eyes fluttered open. He tried moving to but he couldn’t, still.

Why can't I?– Tommy's eyes wander to the corner of his room. There was a figure, it was sitting down. But Tommy could see every inch of what it looked like. It was tall and boney, both of its arms were too long for its body, and it had no hair but the scariest part about it was it had no face, and Tommy knew it was staring right at him. Purpled? His ‘voice’ trembled, what is that?

He held Tommy close, “You might not like the next few seconds.” Purpled whispered.

What the fuck do you mean by that? Tommy watched as the figure tilt its head. Tommy’s heart starts beating fast and Purpled is trying his best to fix it. Purpled, It’s FUCKING MOVING! Tommy tried his best to keep looking at it, but he can't see very well if water is blocking his vision.

“Give me a second. Just keep, looking at it?” That seemed more like a suggestion than a command but Tommy doesn’t like to be bossed around anyway. So it's fine.

“There we go.” Purpled sighed in relief.

Once Tommy blinked, the figure was gone. 

Tommy sucked in a breath and curled up into a ball and just sat there. He didn’t speak, nor did he think, he just sat there. 

Purpled moved to the side of the bed where the window was, “Your moving?” he said, trying to cheer Tommy up. 

“I know,” He mumbled. Tommy watched as his best friend opened the window. 

“Don't forget to go to school today, we have a field trip.” With that, Purpled climbed out the window. 

Water starts to spill from Tommy’s eyes, don't break character, he told himself, don't break character.

-================================================================-

“Define love,” they said in an optimistic tone.

“Love?” The 16-year-old questioned back.

“Love.”

Define love.

“Well, that's easy. It's like,” Clay struggled with his wording, how to define love. Can you even do that? I mean– Clay knows what it is, he felt it before, and he knows how to show it to other people. No one questioned if it was love or not, you just know! 

How to define love.  

“It's like that warm feeling-”

“No.., that's happiness.” She wrote more down into her notebook, her half-brown and white hair swaying in front of her dark blue eyes.

Define love.

Clay didn’t question the cutoff, adults are always right. That's what the principal told him, that's what his coach told him, that's what his parents told him..before they died. Does it really apply after death? 

Clay looked around the room, grey couches, decorative pillows, rugs, blankets, and an abstract painting of a man in a suit without a face (to others it looked like a successful businessman, to him it looked like a man that got shut out by the world), plants, a bookshelf and other shit that would be in a therapy office.

The 16-year-old continued to look at the painting. Something about it made him uncomfortable; was it the fact it had no face? Was it the use of colors? Red and yellow? Black and White? It gave Clay a somber feeling, had he remembered the latest event in his life? Has he finally realized what he has done will be something he could never let go of? Something like the death of his parents, something like his brother's abandonment, something like the falling of his friend? The falling of his friend who saves him from the raging water filling his lunges? Or was it something else? Something like George, and their love.

“Clay?” Her voice laced in concern and worry. 

Everyone's voice seems to be doing such.

He broke away from his thoughts, he now has too many questions without answers. Clay watched her scratch something down on the notebook.

“I’m guessing you ran out?” She glanced up, “I’ll give you another bottle.”

Of ADHD pills? No, I stopped taking it for a reason. It makes me think more. “Okay.” He ended up saying. He didn't want more questions that he knows won't be answered.

“Define love.” Clay recited. 

How to define love.

Clay caught it, “It's like me and George.” He concluded.

“And how so?” She explained further when she noticed Clay's puzzled expression, “Don't tell me what it's like to love, define love. Tell me what it is.” She looked at Clay with her undivided attention. As a therapist, this question should help her understand more about what's going on in his mental state.

Define love.

“It's this feeling of nervousness,” Clay looked at her for any signs of uncertainty, judgment, or pure anger. He saw none. All he saw was a nod to continue, so he did, “it's confusing really. It’s when you’re always wanting what's best for the other, you always want the other to be happy, but then it’s this feeling of ‘what if?’ What if they don't love you as you thought? What if you’re always wrong about what to gift them or how to speak to them? What if you do something that might hurt their feelings? But after all of that, it’s this feeling of happiness, the happiness of doing something right.” 

Clay looked back at the painting he now sees differently. The man in the painting wished for love. He had anything a girl could wish for: good fashion, money, and a good GPA, but it's all a facade. That’s why he has no face.

“I think that's it for today.” She stood up and strode to the door.

“Wait, you're not gon’ tell me the right answer?” Clay hastily got up with her. 

“Duckling, there isn’t a right answer to love. Sure your description was different from the others but you're on the right track!” She opened the door for him to leave.

He walked out the door and stopped in front of her, “What do you mean by that!?” he whined.

She gave him a sympathetic look, “don't forget to get your medicine at the front desk.” She began to close the door. 

He cried out to her, “PUFFY!?”

-====================================================-

Dream exited the escape. The warmth of Techno’s hug left him. He does wish he could tell Techno all that happened, but with the risk of disappointment? No way! 

Dream thought about him and Geroge; what happened the night before...

I knocked on his door. Why did I do that? WHY DID I DO THAT! I’m suddenly getting second thoughts; why didn’t I listen to Techno! Sounds of clicking were made and he finally opened it, “Hey George..” I said and tried to smile, but it was pretty weak.

He looked up at me and smiled, “Dream?” he moved the side. “It’s the middle of the night!” 

Walking into his house, I notice a cute little tabby cat sitting on the kitchen counter. “GEORGE!” I walked up to  it, “Is this real?” I whispered and began to pet it. 

He stood next to me. “I mean–yeah.” he shrugged, “I make gadgets and stuff, not cats.” He continued to stand next to me. I felt his gaze staring at me. 

I cleared my throat, “We need to talk.” I looked into his hazel eyes, “preferably now.”

“What did you want to talk about?” George asked. He sat on his bed, and I followed. 

“Well,” I take a breath, “it’s about us.” I look at him. He’s fidgeting with his glasses–a habit he does when he’s nervous. 

He looked into my eyes–hazel meets green–they're looking innocent like they always do. “What do you mean?” he asked.

It’s like–it’s like he doesn’t even know what happened! “George? George!” I breathed out a laugh, “What do you mean ‘what do you mean’!” I slightly nudged him. 

He stays silent for a moment, “It’s just-,” he shrugged, and murmured, “I don’t know.” George got up and opened a drawer, “can I show you something?” he said and took the item out without my answer.

Oh. “It’s my camera,” George gave it to me then sat down—–a little too close for my liking but whatever. “Do you still have the pictures?” he nodded and stood up. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I wait for him to sit back down in the meantime, I check my texts.

07/17/2022

Panda bastard: hey man

im really sorry

i didnt mean it

and i hope we can talk later

in person.

Should I text him?

“Is that Sapnap?” 

I quickly turned my head and George's face is close to mine. In reality, his whole body is close to mine. He could be on top of me if he was any closer. “George?” I whispered. 

“Yes?” he answers back. 

His breath smells minty.

We stare at each other without breaking contact. I start to think what life would have been like if me and George stayed together. 

Probably dead. 

I start to think of Tommy –– George still in my mind. Has Tommy ever met him? Surely they met once or twice. 

The thing that breaks eye contact is George glancing at my lips. 

And I know exactly what he's thinking, “George,” I chuckled, “do you really think–”

He cut me off,

With a kiss.

.-.-...-...-..-.-..-.-.-.-.-.--.--.-.-.-.-.

Mind Manipulator: Our mind connects us to the world. It would be a shame if someone–or something–were to take control of it. There there are at least 50 types of Mind Mulipulaters. Some can control emotion, others can read/speak inside minds and cause you to go insane. The most dangerous one is mind control(but it's pretty rare to have such ability) But the most special ones, are the ones who can do all.

Weakness: Being very strong mentally and far range. 

Energy type: Lunar

Chapter Text

“I remember how it happened.” 

Downstairs, Eight-ball grabbed a wine bottle from the wine cellar. This wasn’t his first time in his boss's study. He can remember how everything looked like it was the back of his hand. Upstairs, the back wall was filled with rows and rows of file cabinets. The cabinets had files of each citizen. (or so he’d been told). 

“Hurry up down there!” His boss yelled.

Eight-ball swiftly took two wine glasses and hurried upstairs. “I apologize for the wait, sir.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” the boss rolled his eyes, “don’t make me wait any longer.” 

“I, um,” Eight-ball cleared his throat, “I got white wine.” He started to pour wine into the glasses. “Sir.” he quickly added. 

He placed both glasses on the side of the desk. His boss sat down at his desk, filing cabinets behind him. The man with round glasses sitting across, at the other side of the desk near the entrance to the wine cellar. Both men waited for him to be done, but of course, one of them is an asshole (don't tell the boss he said that).

“Alright, you're done.” The boss snatched the wine bottle mid-pour and managed to spill a bit on a...file.

“Shit,” Eight-ball muttered. He pulled out a cloth from his pocket and started cleaning the spilled wine.

The man with round classes took a sip of his wine, “Be easy on him JSchlatt. He probably had a way harder day than you have.” The man gave Eight-ball a wink. 

He ignored it.

The boss gave Eight-ball a look. Eight-ball raised an eyebrow, “Would you like anything else, sir?”

“No, that’s all. Go to your post.” JSchlatt said with a hint of aggression.

“Yes, sir.” Eight-ball stood at the far right corner near the entrance of the wine cellar.

While cleaning the wine, he couldn’t help but look at the file. The name, Thomas Taken is printed on the cover.

On the left and right walls, there were display cabinets filled with medals, articles, and photographs of this famous supervillain. In all honesty, Eight-ball could guess JSchlatt was the one to sculpt his medals since he’s a Metal Molder and all.

“Quackity! Get your ass over here!” His boss yelled.

Quackity tried not to roll his eyes while walking over to his boss. “Is there anything you would like, sir?” 

Completely ignoring Quackity’s question, JSchlatt placed his wine down, “Tell him what you told me, Wil.” 

Wilbur swirled the glass of wine, “Tastes like apple juice,” he said with a smirk.

Quackity looked at him in confusion, “You’re talking about the wine, right?”

“Of course, he’s talking about the wine!” JSchlatt shouted, “Go get us another one!”

Oh, now he’s yelling at Quackity for getting his fucking favorite wine. “JSchlatt, why are you yelling?! I got your fucking favorite wine!” he gestures to the empty wine bottle.

Wilbur bursts out laughing, “You like apple juice JSchlatt? Like a fucking baby!” 

Quackity started chuckling, “I mean, if you really think about it, all JSchlatt does is rage over the smallest things.” 

Wilbur started laughing louder, “You’re so right!”

Schlatt was fuming at this point, “Let's see who’s right about this!” He picked up two things and aimed for their heads.

Quackity dodged his object with ease. Wilbur, fortunately, did not. He got hit with a fucking cookbook.

-===================================================================-

Let's be honest, after a nightmare, who the fuck falls back asleep? Like really, who does that? So you’d understand that at 4:19 in the morning Tommy would be walking the lonely streets of Newbrooch. 

Now to get into the city he would’ve had to take a 15 min walk to a bus station, then take a 1-hour bus ride to the city, and get dropped off at another bus station.

A lot, right?

He would have to do that every day PLUS wait 10 mins for ANOTHER bus to pick him up to get the Newbrooch high. And that lasts about 45 minutes (60 minutes if there was traffic, which there is every day) to get there. If Tommy were to walk the city to high school, that would take an hour and 20 minutes; just enough time to think. 

What the fuck happened? He thought to himself while getting off the bus. He waves to the bus driver, a silent thank you. A wave of cold, crispy air hit Tommy’s face. Tommy didn’t expect it to be so nice outside. 

“Okay, let's do this step by step.” Tommy took a deep breath and sighed, “So, you got kidnapped.” 

A leaf flew in front of him.

“Well, you got kidnapped at Purpled’s house—I guess that doesn’t really matter.” He said at a fast pace.

Tommy continued walking. He debated putting on music to drown out all his problems but decided against it. He felt as if drowning out all his problems now will take a toll on him in the future.

Looking up at the nautical-twilight sky, there were grey clouds. He hoped it was just lighting and not the fact rain would be present to add to his misery. 

Oh, poor, poor Tommy. Stuck outside. Know where to go—besides school of course. But learning’s boring! He wants adventure in his life! Sure, he got kidnapped and had a vivid memory dream about his brother trying to kill himself and Techno rescuing him. After that, waking up unable to move, nearly having a panic attack over something grabbing his arm, discovering it was Purpled but REALISING Purpled was in his house–which was weird in and of itself. Then, Finding a creepy-ass demon in the corner of his room, Purpled using his ability on Tommy, then nearly having a mental breakdown at 3 am.

Tommy nodded to himself, he did well for one night. Well, most of it almost made his heart jump out due to fear but getting hit with a net-launcher gun was pretty badass, he thought. 

Still, Tommy needed more. So, in an impulsive state of mind, Tommy turns right, into an alleyway.

-===============================================================-

“WILBUR!” Quackity yelled as watched one of his ex-childhood best friends get hit by a book. “SCHLATT, WHAT THE FUCK!??!?” He dived for Wilbur and they both fell to the ground with a thud.

“Oops ,” JSchlatt said sarcastically.

He continued talking bullshit while Quackity on the other hand was panicking.

“I don’t care about how your dog died,” Quackity said, “JUST TELL ME HOW TO WAKE THIS MOTHERFUCKER UP!” He violently started to shake Wilbur.

JSchlatt stared at his worker in disgust. It’s the fact that Quackity cares. Not about his (non-existent) dog, but Wilbur. Quackity had a little love triangle with Wilbur and JSchlatt. Both boys tried their hardest to win Quackity’s heart and be his best friend forever, but nothing seemed to work. In the end, Quackity went sprinting to his crush, Sapnap, and left both boys to rot at the monkey bars.

“Have you tried CPR?” He suggested. 

After finishing his glass, JSchlatt took Wilbur’s wine glass and had a sip. He wasn’t angry at Quackity for getting his favorite wine, actually, he was more surprised that he remembered, but he was frustrated with wanting Quackity back. And if that wasn’t enough, JSchlatt was jealous of Wilbur. He was jealous because Wilbur was smart, poetic, charming, confident, and a born leader. And JSchlatt? JSchlatt was none of those things. He was selfish, mean, reckless, hypocritical, and all in all, a fucking asshole. And he knows with every damned bone in his body that no one, AND NO ONE, will ever love him. That is a fact. 

...

So why does his heart give in?

Why is it, deep inside of him, away from the man he made himself to be, wants his friend back? Wants love back? He knows he’ll never get it, but why?

JSchlatt noticed Quackity staring back at him. He gave out a frustrated sigh, “I need another drink.” And walked out of the room.

-=======================================-

When Tommy turned the corner, he thought he was going to meet a nursery of raccoons, but instead, Tommy was shocked at what he was seeing right now.

Lethe, a villain, in a fucking dumpster and vigilante Dino beside the dumpster. Both in a conversation.

Tommy didn’t know what to do but he was more scared of Dino than the actual Villain in the dumpster. It was rumored after Dino would save someone, that person would be in dept. And if they didn’t pay him off? He would kill them. 

Tommy got full-body chills. He had to get out of here.

“So, where should we go?” Dino said with a smirk. He was leaning on the dumpster looking at a very flustered Lethe. 

Lethe flicks their black and white tail out of the garbage and brings it to their face. Resting on it is at least a dozen purple particles. “It says we should have a dinner date,” Lethe says with a smile.

Dino furrowed his eyebrows, “That’s nice.”

Lethe snorted.

“Is chat paying?” Dino said, amused. 

Tommy would also like to go too, but he might not make it if two raccoons jump him. He backed away slowly and then screamed, “Holy SHIII-” when the two raccoons pushed him into a trash bin. 

Dino’s head snapped towards the noise. A child’s legs were sticking out of a trash bin, flailing helplessly. Dino assumed (and hoped) that the rest of the body was in it. Within the bin, two black and grey striped tails were wagging very fast, while outside, three standing raccoons walked around. 

“You should go help them,” Lethe whispered while struggling to get out of the dumpster.

Dino smirked, “Not until I help you first.” he whispered back, with a wink. 

Dino offered his hand.

“Very charming,” Lethe grabbed his hand. 

He tried to hide his blushing but purple is a very noticeable color. And it made Dino smile. 

“GHAAAIIHAA!”

Right… 

Dino snapped his fingers and two vines burst out of the pavement. He signaled one of the plants to move forward and grab the kid.

Tommy didn’t know what was touching him though it felt smooth and stiff at the same time?? He assumed it was another raccoon. “GET OFF OF ME YOU LITTLE FUCKS!” 

“Chill, I'm trying to help you.” 

Dino lifted his hand; the vine followed his signal. 

Tommy didn’t know who was talking. It was probably the vigilante besides Tommy who HEARD the rumors. “NO, NO, NO, I DON’T NEED YOUR FUCKING HELP !”  

Dino rolled his eyes, “Too late.” He put his hand into a fist.

Tommy felt pressure on his torso and he knew he was about to get lifted. Tommy wondered if he was going to be late for school. 

“Are you ready?” Dino asked.

The answer would have been ‘no’ and ‘fuck you’ but he didn’t have the time to answer. 

Dino lifted his fist and Tommy felt the air hit his face hard. He had to squint because his eyes started to water. 

Once it stopped, Tommy thought it was over. As a result, he assumed that Dino would let him down and he would be on his way. But no, Tommy started to violently shake, and it wasn’t Tommy shaking, it was the vine shaking him. “WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA DICK HEAD???” Tommy yelled. “D’YOU REALISE I HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL AND TO DO THAT I HAVE TO LOOK NICE?!” 

“No!” Dino hollered.

“You still have raccoons on you!” Lethe added but a bit quieter.

Dino looked him in the eyes.

“What?” Lethe asked.

“...” 

Nothing.

They were starting to get nervous when Dino didn’t answer back. Their tail wrapped around his leg.

That seemed to get his attention. “Sorry,” Dino said apologetically and looked down.

“F-for what-?”

“Do you have a map?” He asked and looked back into Lethe’s eyes, “I keep getting lost in your eyes.”

That took a second to realize what Dino said though once they finally got it, they started blushing hard. “You–you cant-”

Dino shot him a flirtatious wink and started to move his other hand. The vine wrapped itself around both of the raccoons. 

“WAIT!” Tommy shouted, “I WANT TO KEEP ONE AS A PET!” 

Dino paused. “What?”

“Yeah,” he said, “since my brother won't give me a cat, I want the closest thing to one.”

Dino didn’t bother to ask for Lethe’s advice. They were probably still gawking because of him. Plus, part of his mind told him to flick it and the other said blow it up. (Considering they were talking about a raccoon, Dino didn’t know how to feel about that.) So, he chose the best option, murder it. 

“BYE-BYE!” Dino threw his arm and the raccoons went flying in the air, never to be seen again. 

Tommy looked around quickly, “hehe, yeah, okay.” Once he thought about it, he is in the same position the raccoons were in. “Hey um.” he took two uneasy breaths, “can-can you...put me down?” 

“Can I?” Dino smirked.

Tommy shut his eyes and took a deep breath, “Put. Me. Down.”

“I think you should put him down,” Lethe said. He tugged on Dino’s arm but he wouldn’t budge.

He rolled his eyes, “Your no fun.”

Dino released his fist and Tommy went diving to the ground. 

“Dino!” Lethe swatted his arm and was going to get an ender pearl from his coat but the child already hit the ground. 

Tommy grunted, “Ow! OWWWW!”

As Lethe rushed to the kid, he slowly sat up and opened his eyes, only to be met with stabbing pain in the head.

His eyes flew shut as he quickly put his hand on his head and winced. 

“Are you okay?” Lethe asked with concern. 

They looked back at Dino he shrugged his shoulders. Lethe furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head with disapproval.

“Can you..” they stared at the kid, “look up for me?” 

Tommy was scared to look up, but he had to. And because he had to, he would look up slowly for dramatic effect. The first thing he saw was boots. To be more specific, it was Edwardian boots. Looking up further, Lethe wore victorian trousers.  He could tell they were wearing a coat, but he didn't know what type. (He had to look up farther for that too.) 

A decent and classical man would know a collared shirt by just looking at the sleeves. Collared shirts? Tommy thought. He knew about those. A shirt men wore in the 16th century because they got lazy. The last time Tommy checked, it was the 21st century. There were sparkly green-blue circular cufflinks. He also figured out the coat was a black steampunk frock coat that matched his black waistcoat. It looked costly. 

But the best thing about the whole outfit was the side cape. The cape was black, yes, and it had a golden trim on the outside of it. It connected to them via thin golden string. He didn't know what it hooked up to. It looked like an eye-pendant thing. But the cape itself was beautiful. He could say Lethe as a whole was a monstrous, beautiful thing. But the cape--oh! The cape. But the pendant. The string was hooked up to a pendant by the looks of it. It was strange because whenever he would focus on it, he felt like his whole outside world didn't matter.

Right in the middle of the pendant was a black ‘tear’. The only reason he thinks it's a ‘tear’ is that it looks as if it got clawed right in the middle of the pendant and the color that was there is fading. The light green surrounding the ‘tear’ was getting darker and darker, blending into a dark blue-green as it got closer to the edge of the pendant.

Good golly gosh, Lethe was hot. Despite Tommy’s responsibilities as head of the fashion department at the Theater club, he could only recognize some of Lethe’s clothing. 

“Are you okay?” The monstrous, beautiful thing asked again. This time, they nealed down to try to meet his level. Even sitting, Lethe was tall as fuck. If Tommy looked straight at Lethe, he would be looking at their pendant. 

The pendant. Tommy looked at the pendant. It was beautiful. The more he looked at it, the more relaxed he felt, he felt like he was being put into a calm trance! A thought popped into the back of his mind. 

⊬⍜⎍ ⏃⍀⟒ ⏁⊑⟒ ⎍⋏⟟⎐⟒⍀⌇⟒, ⏃⋏⎅ ⊑⟒ ⟟⌇ ☌⍜⎅. 

What?

Tommy looked into Lethe’s glossy, vibrant purple eyes. It looked like glass balls. Tommy quickly looked away, “What time is it?” 

He tried to stand but he felt another sharp stab at the side of his head. 

Dino approached them.

“It’s 6:45.” Lethe put his pocket watch back. 

“Time to go,” Dino swooped Tommy in his arms.

“Let me down, bastard!” he tugged on Dino’s white scientist coat. “I will undo your green tie.” he threatened.

“Oh no, not my tie.” He said it as if he didn’t care. 

Some silence passed, it wasn’t very comfortable so Dino decided to break it, “your pretty small-”

“I AM NOT SMALL!”

“Your like, 5’8.”

“I’M SIX FOOT ONE!” Tommy shouted.

“If you were six foot one, we would be the same height.”

Tommy decided to change the subject due to embarrassment because he is 5’8 the stupidity of this man for not being able to count measurements. 

Tommy looked at the tulip vines all over Dino. “That's a lot of flowers,” he scrunched up his nose, “It smells weird.” Tommy suddenly felt tired.

“Good, that means it’s working.”

“What’s work-” Then it clicked, “Oh you piece of shit. I didn’t even know you could do that.”

Dino chuckled and flicked his wrist, “Are you ready?” he tied a vine around him and the child.

“You know what else is a piece of shit?” He didn’t wait for an answer, “Your gas mask, your coat, your shoes…”

Tommy continued insulting the vigilante's appearance, “your thick brown hair, your hazel eyes..” even in the air, “your trousers, your shoes again.”

“Why are you insulting my appearance?” 

“Appearance is the most effective and easiest way to insult someone,” Tommy said and then yawned.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just go to sleep, you grumpy child.”

Tommy rested his head on Dino’s chest, “I'm no child.” He said quietly.

A few seconds later, Tommy was breathing more slowly.

-==================================-

Quackity watched JSchlatt walk out. What’s up with him? 

He shook his head. Literally everything.

Quackity looked at Wilbur and caressed his cheek, “I'm not going to kiss you.” he said while smiling.

He already made sure Wil was breathing, so he didn’t have to do CPR. Quackity got up and he suddenly remembered what was on JSchlatt’s desk. He checked the door and tip-toed over the file. 

Thomas Taken it said in bold letters. 

Quackity sighed, “This will all be over soon. ”

“What will be over soon?”

Quackity jumped and his eye darted to Wilbur. He sighed again, “You're awake?” he stated the obvious. 

“What will be over soon?” he asked again. Wilbur patted the floor with a smile on his face.

Quackity laughed at his attics and sat down next to him. 

It was quiet for a while..well, in their minds it wasn’t.

What do I do? Quackity thought. He put his elbow on his thigh and rested his head on his fist. I really don’t to tell him, he won’t believe me. He closed his eyes and sighed. 

Wilbur interlocked his and Quackity's fingers.

He opened one eye and saw Wilbur’s hand in his. He didn’t want to be rude and let go, so he gently squeeze his hand. “Are you okay?” Quackity asked and he shut his eye.

“I mean, my head hurts but y’know.” He shrugged. With his free hand, he touched the spot that hurt the most and felt soaked cloth. Wilbur took his beanie off and stuffed it into his coat. His hair was painted red. “You said something will be over soon?”

Quackity opened his eyes and looked at Wil, “You won’t believe me if I tell you.” 

Wilbur raised his eyebrows, “Is this one of your visions!?” he exclaimed.

Quackity nodded sheepishly.

Wilbur scooted in closer. With his bloody hand, placed on Quackity’s shoulder, he leaned to his ear, “show me.” he spoke softly. 

Wilbur backed his mouth away from Quackity’s ear but their faces were extremely close. 

Quackity didn’t see ill-intent in his ex-childhood friend's eyes, only curiosity, and warmth. He looked at him like he was worth it. Like he meant something to him. It reminded him of the past–the good moments.

The three of them, mostly just him and Wilbur would go deep into the forest that was surrounding the playground. If you go about four-thousand yards out, there would be a clearing. During the day and night, the trio would set picnics, blast music, sing songs, stargaze, and camp. They would also practice their abilities even though Wilbur had to use it on one of them and Quackity couldn’t freely use his. But once Quackity had a vision, he would tell them all about it! JSchlatt never believed him and Wilbur was always too scared to listen but it was fun. 

Quackity didn’t know he was smiling until he remembered three things: fear, pain, and regret. “You know I can’t tell you.” Quackity looked up as he tried not to cry. “You know what happened last time.”

They might not remember what happened last time. 

When you are angry, you remember what you are feeling, what you are doing, and what you are going to do after. You have no care about your surroundings, no care about who gets hurt, and definitely no care about the consequences.

(flashback noises)

The trio was at the monkey bars, Quackity was dangling upside-down, and Wilbur was sitting on the rubber flooring and throwing woodchips at JSchlatt while he lay on the ground molding one of the bars to anything he desired. None of them were talking and it was peaceful. To kids, it was boring. 

The day before, Quackity expressed concern about how long he had been without a dreamful sleep. So, his two best friends that were older than him by a year and had experience with that type of thing gave him advice. Wilbur said the problem could be because “he didn’t have enough lunar energy.” JSchlatt said it was because “fortune telling wasn’t real.”

But that was what the ability was for, wasn’t it?

Today, Quackity was excited and nervous. This wasn’t like any other vision, it was about them—the three of them. 

Should he tell them?

“What’s on your mind?” Wilbur asked without looking at him. “Usually you would be cracking jokes or telling us how much you hate George and Dream’s relationship.” he chuckled.

Quackity huffed like he had to explain this a hundred times, “They’re incompatible. Dream is too full of himself and George is too clingy to realize Dream will only do what’s best for himself.” 

JSchlatt looked bored, “So? Why do you care? You act like it’s your problem.” 

“Well, it is!” he started to pull himself up.

“It’s really not,” Wilbur stated, “Their relationship has nothing to do with you.”

“Yes, it does,” Quackity argued. He sat on the top of the monkey bars, his legs dangling. 

“How so?” Wilbur asked. This conversation was pissing him off. Why can’t Quackity understand that their whole relationship has nothing to do with him and Dream and George are happy? 

“First of all, whenever they-”

JSchlatt groaned, “Can we just stop talking about Dream and how you pity George? You act like they are your best friends.” he sat up and stretched.

“I mean, they are.” Quackity fixed his beanie, “it just pisses me off when Dream..”

Quackity continued talking but JSchlatt and Wilbur didn’t listen, they had one thought in mind and one thought only.

“I thought I was your best friend.” They said at the same time. Wilbur and JSchlatt glared at each other. If they had the ability to shoot lasers from their eyes, both of them would be toast.

Quackity stopped talking and jumped down. “You both are my best friends-”

Wilbur cut him off, “You can’t have two best friends.” he snapped at him. 

Jshlatt nodded. That was the only thing they could agree on. 

“And,” Wilbur continued, “A best friend is someone who you trust the most, would rather be with the most, someone who you value the most, and someone who is better than everyone else in a friend group.” 

“You basically defined a romantic relationship.” JSchlatt deadpanned. 

“Well, in some cases-”

Quackity started sweating, “Okay guys! That's enough.” he weakly smiled.

Wilbur shrugged. 

I was quiet for a moment and Quackity could feel the tension rise. JSchlatt was molding the metal into sharp shapes while staring at Wilbur with narrowed eyes, and soon, Wil started humming.

Before anything got worse Quackity started coughing to get their attention. Both boys looked at him with concern (and maybe with disgust too.)

Should I tell them? Wil and J have my attention, so it’s a bit too late to tell them off. Quackity thought. He pulled on his sleeve. And looked for anything that could distract them. All he found was Dream, George, and Sapnap on the swings looking conveniently in their direction.

“I-uh wanted to tell you guys I had a vision.” He said rapidly. They were silent. Y’know what? Maybe I shouldn't have. 

Wilbur draped his arm on Quackity shoulders and smirked, looking directly at JSchlatt. He stared daggers at Wilbur..literally. The metal in his hand formed into a small sharp object, and this went by unnoticed. 

Quackity extended a hand to Jschlatt and he gladly took it, still staring at Wilbur like he was going to kill him. 

“You guys ready?” Quackity heart started racing and he had to stop himself from jumping up and down. He hadn’t done this in a long time.

JSchlatt squeezed his hand and smiled at him. That calmed Quackity down just a bit. 

They closed their eyes and began to dream.

Everything was blurry. You can barely tell what's going on. Lights of different colors flashed and the music was so loud it felt suffocating. Rows and rows of slot machines filled the room, as well as other things. People wearing their best outfits stood in circles. Some with cards in their hands, others with drinks, and others waiting to spin a wheel. And it was so, so, loud. People were talking, screaming, laughing, crying, walking around, running around, drinking drinks, and spilling drinks.

Quackity looks older—–in his early twenties maybe. The music was loud and it was dark. Quackity was standing to the side with a beverage in hand and his other with a phone held up to his ear. When he started to speak, he was disorientated. “Hey, can you go to the casino? I need you to win this deal.” 

“Get here in like-,” Quackity checked his wrist. “20 to 30 minutes.”

“And just bring yourself, we don’t need him to know. He’s moody as hell.” They replied and he hung up. Quackity sighed. When he was putting his phone in his pocket, the caller ID read, ‘My best friend.’

Quackity jolts up and pushes away from them and takes multiple steps back. He knew them too well to not know what they were thinking. 

“It’s not what you t-think.” He tried not to stutter but failed. He cursed at himself, this is so fucked up, he thought.

Wilbur could feel his body burning with rage. It was scorching hot. He began to pull his hair because of how angry he was. But, it got him thinking, who was on that call? 

“Quackity? Who was on that call?” He said softly.

It didn’t help though. Quackity tensed and scanned Wilbur, he seemed calm. He avoided eye contact and shook his head slowly.

“Quackity?” Jshlatt asked threw his teeth.

He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, “Yes?” and looked at him. Jschlatt mouthed, stay back.

Quackity's eyes widened and his mouth went dry. He took hold of his wrist and started rubbing on it to get himself to calm down. 

Wilbur saw Quackity’s reaction and furrowed his eyebrows. He was shaking... Wil thought. Did JSchlatt scare him? He heard the crunch of woodchips and he fixed his eyes on JSchlatt. He frowned, “You look like you’re about to bloody-”

“Sorry man.” JSchlatt patted Wil's arm. “You know how it goes,” he said. 

“What?”

“There will never be enough room for the both of us.”

There was something sinister behind that. And Wilbur understood it. “H-hey man, let's talk about this.” Wilbur raises his left arm to defend himself. "I'll give you ten buck not to beat me up."

JSchlatt harshly grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm so he could get a good aim. He stabbed Wilbur’s upper arm with his newly formed dagger, it happened so fast.

Quackity screams and Wilbur collapses with shock written all over his face. JSchlatt goes in for another stab but Quackity manages to steal the metal with his sleeve and throws it in the opposite direction.

“I told you to stay back!” He shouted.

“I'm not going to stand around while you're hurting my friend!"

While he was distracted, Wilbur lounged for JSchlatt and punched him in the face. They both went flying to the ground. JSchlatt kneed him in the stomach and Wilbur twisted JSchlatt’s wrist. 

Quackity watched as they had a fistfight. He knew JSchlatt was going to be okay since he had a better build but Wilbur was bleeding out whether he knew it or not. To help them both, Quackity did the only logical thing to do, he ran. 

The ‘Dream Team’ weren’t at the swingsets anymore but, they had to be close by. Quackity didn’t have his phone on him since he trusted Wilbur to keep it safe. It turns out that was a bad idea and now Wilbur has a bigger chance of dying.

Quackity knew how stupid it was to show them that vision. It was entirely his fault for even bringing it up! Now he was running in the woods looking for three teenagers that were here 10 minutes ago to save one of his best friends.

“Dream!? George!? Sapnap!?” he shouted.

...No response. Fuck.  

He tried again, “SAPNAP!”

...

“Yes!?” 

It was quiet, but Quackity heard it. He smiled out of relief and yelled again. 

With tears in his eyes, he ran for help for his two friends.

..and maybe for himself too.

(flashback ending noises)

“What are you guys doing in here?” JSchlatt asked. He glanced and Wil, “Finally awake?” He put two bottles of whiskey on the desk. He looked down at them, “..is there a reason you're on the ground or?” 

“Uh,” Wilbur said and scooted away from Quackity. “No there isn’t.” 

JSchlatt scanned them both, “You two look awfully suspicious.” he shrugged and opened one whiskey bottle, “but I’m too drunk and tired to care.” 

While JSchlatt was ambling over to the chair, Quackity spoke, “I wanted to tell you guys about a vision I had.” he said cautiously. 

Wilbur stood and helped Quackity up. 

JSchlatt placed his foot on the deck and crossed them. “Oh, really?” he disinterestedly said and rolled his eyes.

“Yes, really.” Quackity snapped. “I stop showing you after you put Wil in the fucking hospital.”

“He’s lucky it was just the hospital,” he gulped down the whiskey, “I should have done a lot worse.” He cracked up laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” Quackity said with disbelief strained into his voice. “Tell me!” 

Wil placed his hand on Quackity’s shoulder, signaling him to let it go. “Tell us about that vision?” he offered. 

“Fine. Uhm,” Quackity rubbed his face, “You both each get three questions and one hint.”  Quackity looked at the clock, “Oh!” he said in realization, “and hurry up! I have to go.”

“I'll go first,” Wilbur put his hand down and took a glance at JSchlatt, “Is it about us?”

Quackity hesitated, “How did-!?” 

“I'm only guessing because you won't show us.” he bites the side of his cheek. “Sorry about that.”

Quackity sighed, “JSchlatt?” 

He swirls the bottle, “Do I get to kill Wilbur?” he took another sip.

Quackity crossed his arms, “No, but you do get to kill me.”

“Excuse me, what!?” Wilbur blurted out, suddenly alarmed.

JSchlatt put the bottle down and stood up. He began to walk over to his best friend. “I don’t believe it.” he teased.

Quackity reared back, he was offended, “I’ll take my leave.” he said. He strode to the door, “Oh, and I’m not coming back.” 

When he opened the door Jschlatt pulled him back, “You're not quitting.” he taunted and squeezed Quackity’s wrist.

Quackity knew what he was capable of when he was drunk, but the thing is, Quackity was fed-up. “Yes, I am. And you can’t do shit about it.” 

Wilbur just stood and watched, he didn’t want to get involved. It’s not like was powerless but he felt like Quackity was in the same position he was all those years back. 

“Listen hear,” Jschlatt snarled in Quackity’s ear while he tried to struggle out of his [Jschlatt's] grasp. “Your little ability isn’t real, and I will never kill you, so don't lie but, I’ll guarantee you one thing,” he took a glimpse at Wilbur. He was looking down–most likely thinking. “Wilbur isn’t going to last long.”

Quackity broke free and Jschlatt began laughing. He walked back to his desk. 

“YOU’RE FUCKING INSANE!” Quackity yelled with tears running down his face. 

Wilbur jerked out of his trance and speed-walked to Quackity. He tried to console him but he was pushed away.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!” He wiped a tear off his face and ran out the door. 

..

Wilbur sighed. This was expected honestly, after how they had treated him.

He turned his heel and walked over to JSchlatt, who was looking at the file. “You know that isn’t true.” he sat on the desk, “Quackity is lashing out.” He took out a cigarette and lit it.

“Love is never free.” JSchlatt agreed, “I won’t let that get to me.” He nudged Wilbur, “Plus,” he gestured to the file and smirked, “we have some work to do.” 

-============================================-

Tommy was dying. 

Well, not actually but that’s what it felt like. He had his head down because that stupid feeling of getting stabbed every five minutes was really killing his mood. It started happening when he woke up with no one around him besides Tubbo. 

He was very confused about why Tubbo was here and he asked and Tubbo said, “I had a transfer because apparently burning down schools is a trend.” And, he wasn’t wrong.

After he said that Tommy got stabbed in the head for three seconds and decided to go back to sleep.

So, here he is. His head was down on the desk while the principal said an announcement to the whole class, “So class, I know you most likely heard about almost every teacher running away, so, I got you one new teacher!” said in a silvery voice.

Student started clapping and Purpled nudged him, “Isn’t that your brother’s girlfriend?” 

GIRLFRIEND!? “My brother’s GAY!” he said a little too loud. Half of the class turned in his direction and the other half just began gossiping. Either way, everyone laughed. 

“Now class, settle down,” he approached Tommy, “What did I say about yelling things in class?” he softly said.

Tommy groaned.

“Wake up,” he patted Tommy's shoulder and began to speak again.

The principal was a nice one. He believed every student deserves to be taken care of and loved. And to most students that were annoying. It was more annoying for the students that always got in trouble and had to see him every day. Tommy couldn’t lie though, it was nice getting muffins every time he went into the front office.

Tommy looked up and was met with a blinding light. He squinted his eyes, “Tell me I'm not going to heaveeeeen! You BITCHY SUN of GOD!” 

Purpled turned off his flashlight.

“HEY!” the principal said in a high-pitched voice (students giggled at that), “What did I say about nicknaming our sun!?”

Tommy fixed his hair, “That we might get smited the second we go outside-”

“NO!”

“I’ll record you,” said one of the prep girls.

“I’ll hand out flyers.” said one of the artsy kids.

The rest of the class exploded with ideas, “I’ll pray to the Gods to forgive you,” said a theater kid. “And I’ll sing the prayer,” said a choir kid.

“I am so sorry about this,” the principal said, “Tommy is a handful-” there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get it,” said Technoblade–the new teacher.

Standing on the other side were two heroes, one in green and the other in blue. 

The hero in blue wore his signature shirt and a streetwear cargo jacket and (streetwear cargo) pants in black. He also wore black boots. Everyone knew under all his clothes, he had a suit made out of technology shit. And if you ever got to touch it, it would light up blue. His circular glasses are the coolest part. His glasses are clear and if you press a button on the top corner it will show whoever you are looking at their civilian file and everything in it.

(a/n: 404 has no mask, it’s just the glasses. If he ever takes them off, they’ll be like GEORGE!? But if he puts them back on it’s like, oh it's just 404.)

The hero in green had a regular green hoodie, a smiley mask, REGULAR ASS CARGO PANTS, and oh!? He added something, new shoes.

You could say Lucid downgraded. 

The principal eye’s lit up. He turned to the class, “Be good, we’ll be back in a bit!” He waved them off and exited out the door with Technoblade following.

In the hall they all greeted each other, “It’s nice to meet you both,” he clapped his hands.

“Is everything okay sir?” The green hero observed him, “you seem stressed.”

The principal chuckled nervously, “Please, call me Bad. I was just telling Technoblade about Tommy's behavior.” 

“If you don’t mind,” 404 spoke finally, “will you tell us about his behavior as well? He is our assignment after all.” 

Bad starts, “That's right. As I was saying, Tommy is a handful. He’s very... what's the word, troublesome?? He doesn’t listen to teachers, doesn’t do his work, and speaks whenever he wants to. You know, he's acting out.” 

The green hero nodded for him to continue.

“But, that’s on a good day.”

Lucid crosses his arms, “What do you mean by a good day? Isn’t that bad?”

Bad rubbed his neck, “Well, on bad days, Tommy does this thing called outbursts.”

Technoblade furrowed his eyebrows, “And you would let that happen?”

Bad was lost for words, he didn’t expect THAT “I-i mean,” 

What? Lucid thought. I never was told about this. “Is there something else we need to know about his behavior?”

Bad hesitated, “So, have you ever seen Mean Girls?”

...what.

Without thinking, Lucid said, “You think he’s the Regina George of this school?”

404 elbowed him, “This is serious.”

“Him being Regina George is serious!” The green hero hissed.

“We wouldn’t say he acts like Regina George,” Bad somewhat dismissed the question, “he just has too much influence over the kids at this school.”

Damn Lucid, I mean *cough cough* Dream. You have a bratty teen as a brother. Tommy probably sang World Burn after you put him in those A-Energy classes for revenge.

“I don’t think it’s his fault for having influence over the school.” Techno said, still in thought, “It could just be him overreacting to everything and him being popular. Tommy probably has a lot of friends.”

Meanwhile:

“I think I'm dying,” Tommy said.

Purpled looked away from his phone to look at him, “I mean, you do look like shit.”

“Do I really?”

Purpled nodded.

“Oh man, If I look like shit, do I smell like shit?” Tommy started sniffing himself.

“Why, are you okay?” Purpled looked at him in concern.

“No, some shit happened in an alleyway and I got caught up in it,” he said and softly placed his head on the table.

Purpled was quiet. He was thinking. If he really thought he was dying, shouldn’t they go to the hospital?

“Do you want to go to the emergency room?” He asked.

Tommy shook his head, “I’ll miss the field trip.”

“Didn’t you hear from the principal? There is no field trip.”

Tommy looked at him in confusion.

“You were probably asleep, weren't you.”

“Does that mean no Zoo?” he said, tearing up.

Is he about to cry?? “We still get to go on a field trip, to the hero building.” He reassured him. 

It did not work.

Instead, Tommy began bawling and threw himself to Purpled. Tommy got stabbed in the head again and began to cry even more.

This caught the attention of all the students and they all tried to comfort him.

(a/n: Tommy's not actually getting stabbed in the head. It's just a really bad headache I usually get and the best way to describe it is getting stabbed in the head.)

-===========================-

Ranboo was a simple man. 

He was also late. 

What happened was after Dino left with Tommy, he needed to take a shower and get out of that body. Once he got into his human body, it was 7:12. Since he was already going to be late, he decided to get a pastry and drink from the cafe he works at.

He decided to order Brown Sugar Pearl Milk Tea and a French Apple Tart.

(a/n: I never tried the milk tea before so I don’t know if it tastes good but it looks the part.)

Once he finished his tart and drink, he got into his BMW car and drove off.

(TIME SKIP)

Ranboo stopped walking at the gate. He looked at his new school in awe, “It looks like this school came out of an anime show!” Ranboo looked around, “It’s perfect because I’m in the middle of nowhere!”

Ranboo was right, it’s green grass for miles. 

“Is that a fountain!?” He ran up to it. After five minutes, the bell rang. Shoot! He thought. He ran into the school.

The first thing he saw was the front office, he continued walking. He needed to get to the third floor because that is where his first class starts. He decided against taking the elevator because he would get too nervous if people were in it, so he took the stairs. 

Ranboo was finally on the third floor. He strolled down the hall and two people in all black stood up. 

“Uh, hello?” Ranboo waved his hand.

“My name’s Sneeg,” said the shorter one.

“And I'm James Marriott.” said the other one.

“Come join us!” They said at the same time with their arms extended. 

Ranboo backed away, “No thanks! I need to get to class.”

The both of them grabbed his arms and dragged him to the bathroom.

“Get in there,” said Marriott.

“NOOOOOO, HeELLp!” Ranboo held on to the door.

“Push him in!” the shorter one said.

They started to push him in and Ranboo’s fingers slipped. “NOO!” he got pushed into a stall and Sneeg locked it.

“Look what I have.” Sneeg pulled out what looks to be some weed. 

“Oh-ho, sick bro, look what I have.” Marriott pulled out a bag of white powder that looked like sugar.

“Aw-haw, let me take a line.”

Ranboo just stood there. The bigger question is, was he going to do it too?

-===========================-

“Hey, Tubbo!” 

The bee boy looked away from his phone, “Yeah?”

“Can you go get the principal? Tommy threatened to jump out the window and turn into a moth. I think he's delirious, he said he thinks he's dying!”

Students circled around Tommy with their phones out. He was saying this big speech to go on strike for not letting them go to the Zoo. Once he said that almost everyone cheered.

“Yeah okay.” Tubbo got up and open the door. He walked out and saw two heroes and the adults arguing about the movie: Mean Girls.

What the fuck? “Hey, excuse me?” everyone stopped arguing and turned to him, “Tommy is threatening to jump out the window and no one is stopping him, people are actually encouraging it. If you want to know if Tommy’s the Regina George of the school, you should go ask before he dies.”

Technoblade rushed in, “Tom Simons, get your ass down right now before I call your brother.” They heard him say. 

 “Are you coming with me?” Bad said quietly, referring to 404.

“I need to talk to Lucid for a moment.” 404 pulled Lucid's sleeve.

Bad nodded his head and went into the classroom.

404 took him into the bathroom, “Are you insane?”

Lucid put his hand through his hair, “I just wanted to make sure Tommy isn’t an asshole.”

404 scolded him, “And that’s fine but you can’t get your personal life to interfere with your Hero's life.” 404 realized he was still holding on to Lucid's arm.

He let go.

Right when they were about to walk out the door, banging was heard from one of the stalls. “HELP HELP!” The call for help was muffled.

“Shhh, they’ll find us out!” said in a rather loud voice.

The banging continued.

The heroes looked at each other and Lucid sighed, “fine.”

He went to the stall making the noise, “Are you okay??”

The person's scream was muffled.

Lucid didn’t know what to do in this situation, does he just open to door? Or is there something else he should be doing? “Hey, can you open the door?” 

There was a bang on the door and it opened. A teen boy fell out and landed on Lucid, sending them to the ground.

“Tell my mother I’m sorry and I wasn’t a good catholic boy and tell my father in coming out as gay and also PLEASE don’t arrest me! I’m not a stoner!” He said while wailing.

Lucid saw two other boys wearing all black escape the bathroom. “Hey,” Lucid said in his sweetest voice, “everything will be okay. Life is full of ups and downs and whatever happened in that stall, you will get through it.” 

The boy stopped crying and hugged Lucid tighter.

-================================-

Tommy froze mid-sentence, he knew that voice. “Techno?” He turned around. Pink hair, square glasses, a pig pin on his lanyard? Yep, that was his Techno. Tommy immediately jumped off his desk. 

Students backed away to watch the drama unfold.

“What are you doing here?” Tommy asked while rubbing his hair.

Techno raised an eyebrow, “did you not hear the morning announcements? Or were you too busy dreaming for attention?”

“Ooooo.” and “sick burn.” was heard from the students.

Tommy gawked at him.

Mr.Techno snapped his fingers and pointed to the desk, “sit down.” he said sternly.

Tommy did so.

He walked to the front of the class where the principal was at, “Okay class, sit down while I tell you the procedure for today’s ‘field trip’.”

404 and Lucid walked in with a new student.

Purpled waved him over and he also tapped Tubbo’s shoulder to sit around Tommy’s desk.

Ranboo began to walk over and the student watched him with curious eyes: why was he with the heroes? Walking past this one girl, Ranboo could have sworn she said he was hot.

When he finally got to the desk, there wasn’t a chair so he just decided to sit on the ground.

The principal looked at him, “Do you want a chair? We can get you one.”

Ranboo shook his head, “I’m fine here.” he said in a raspy voice. 

“Okay well, Lucid and 404 are going to be here for a while. And class, don’t mess with them, you will have three warnings.”

Tommy eyed the heroes. He whispered to his friends, “We should bother them tomorrow.” 

“Why?” Ranboo draped his forearm on the desk. “Won’t we get in trouble?”

Purpled shook his head, “We won’t. Tommy will.” He started snickering.

“Class settles down,” the principal said. 

The only ones talking were them.

(TIME SKIP)

Tommy was not happy. He’s in a group with his best friends, Eryn, Purpled, and Freddie––WHICH IS COOL! But his guide is Lucid.

Everyone else left and they were the only ones outside.

Eryn groaned, “Can we just go inside now?? My ability won’t work in the sunlight!!”

Purpled put his phone away, “I agree with the first statement.”

Lucid opened his mouth.

“And before you say anything, I will not take off my hoodie.” he rolled his eyes.

Lucid sighed and started walking towards the door.

Eryn and Freddie went ahead but Purpled and Tommy stayed behind. 

“I know that look,” he said with a smile.

Tommy kept his head down, “What look?”

Purpled nudged him, “That look.”

Tommy nervously chuckled and ran his hand through his hair.

“We’ll cover for you, you know,” he said.

Tommy lit up to that, “R-really!?”

Purpled snorted, “I mean, yeah! We always do.”

Tommy grinned and hugged him.

Their wholesomeness was cut short when Lucid yelled for them to get inside.

Tommy sighed, “Shut up! You stupid bastard!”

Purpled laughed and so did Tommy. They both ran to the group and Lucid opened the door. He urged everyone inside.

Finally, inside, Tommy looked around in awe. The circle reception desk was in the middle of the room. Long cylinder light floated in mid-air. The building had many floors that resembled indoor balconies that aligned with the west and east walls. Tommy looked up, if he were ever to fall from the highest balcony in this building, going down would look like a loop.

While the rest of the group went right to a seating area, Tommy ran up to the receptionist. “Hey, Mr. Skeppy.” He said while taking multiple peppermints out of the jar.

“Tommy.”

He turned to see the principal standing beside him. “Oh, I didn’t notice you.” He popped a peppermint in his mouth.

“Rude,” Bad pouted.

Skeppy chuckled, “Here kid,” his palm started glowing blue, “take a diamond for your troubles.” Skeppy handed Tommy the small ore.

Tommy grinned and continued going forward. He saw his group walking to a big glass door. He was going to run to them but Purpled pointed to the elevator. 

The elevator had 404 in there and 404 is way cooler than Lucid, so he began sprinting. “Shit, shIT, SHIT!” 

“STOP RUNNING! YOU’LL TRIP!” BBH yelled. 

Tommy slipped into the elevator right when it was about to close, “You know, 404, I could have sworn you were pushing a button to close the doors faster.” Tommy laughed, “Good thing I got here on time.”

404 murmured, “That was the point.”

“What?” Tommy said loudly, “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over my beautiful voice!” 

Tommy turned around to see Ranboo, Tubbo, and someone else.

“Oh hey Ranboo!” he beamed.

Ranboo shyly waved.

“Tubbo!!!” he shouted.

“Tommy!!” he shouted back but with less enthusiasm while looking at his phone.

Tommy turned to the new recruit, “Who the hell are you?” he eyed him.

“Uh-Uhm, I’m Aimsey.” He held out his hand for Tommy to shake.

Tommy rolled his eyes, “Sorry, I don’t shake hands with short people.” he playfully said.

“What!?” Aimsey didn’t catch the drift. “We’re the same height!” he exclaimed.

Tommy’s neck turned red from holding back his laughter, “NO! I’M SIX FOOT NINE!”

Tubbo stifled his laugh with his sleeve.

“HOW!? You're 5’7!”

Tommy gasped, “AND HOW DID-i mean-DO YOU KNOW!?” he scanned him.

“WE ARE THE SAME HEIGHT!”

“I'M NOT FOUR-ELEVEN!”

“You think I’m 4’11!?”

The elevator’s classical music stopped and the door opened. Both of them burst out laughing.

“Why did you say 6’9!?” He said while wiping a tear from his face.

Tommy clenched his stomach, “That’s the only number I could think of!”

“C’mon guys!” They heard 404 say.

Tommy ran out and he stopped at the rail. “Wow,” he breathed. He put his palm on the rail and dread washed over his body. He took a step back, last time Tommy leaned on a rail, he fell.

“Hey, Tom!”

Tommy jumped.

“Holy shit, are you okay!?” Tubbo rushed over to him in uncertainty.

Tommy’s smile looked genuine, “Of course I am! I’m a BADASS! And you interrupted my BADASS monologue!” he shouted.

Tubbo rolled his eyes playfully, “Stop shouting, I bet people can hear you from a mile away!” he put his arm over Tommy's shoulders.

He giggled. It kind of hurt, but it was a joke, and jokes are meant to be funny. They entered the room and joined the circle.

“Now that everybody is here, I should show you my ability..shouldn’t I?” 404 looked up in thought. 

“Can I see your glasses?” Tommy asked.

404 looked at him, “No.”

Tommy whined, “Whyyyy not?”

“Tommy, he said no! Just leave it!” Aimsey said in annoyance.

Tommy looked straight into their eyes, “I will murder you.”

“Yeah! Shut up Aimsey!” Tubbo jokingly agreed.

“HEY,” They looked at Ranboo, “Ran, help!”

Ranboo gripped his trousers, “S-stop being mean to Aimsey.”

“Anyway,” Tommy got up and sat in front of the 404. “Can I see the glasses or not?”

404 sighed, “If I give you them, you’ll recognize me.”

Tommy furrowed his eyebrows, “Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen you before.” 404 looked at everyone else, “I’ve actually seen all you guys before.”

Tommy lowered his head in thought, “So if I take off your glasses right now, I’ll know how you are.”

404 nodded, “yeah, most likely.”

Tommy grinned, “POGGERS!”

Ranboo reached for his arm, “That doesn’t mean do it though!-”

Too late, Tommy’s gremlin hands were already on 404’s glasses, ready to take off-

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” Tommy pulled harder, “Am I really that weak?”

Aimsey put their hand on his shoulder, “Aww, it’s okay Tommy, some people are just built differently.” They said as a joke.

To Tommy, it sounded sincere. He looked at them with unexpressed anger, “What the hell is wrong with you? If you couldn't pick up glasses, you'd start crying.”

“I-i was just..”

“Okay, everyone just shut up! Tubbo, move next to Aimsey, Tommy, sit where he was sitting.” 404 pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in frustration, “kids,” he murmured.

They all shifted into their new seats on the ground. Tommy leaned on Ranboo.

“I will go first,” 404 said, “then we’ll start on the left.”

404 began to rub his palms, and sparks of electricity could be seen. He held out his hand, “anyone?” 

Aimsey took it and yelped in surprise. All their hair stood on end, “Damn, did you shock me?” 

404 chuckled, “I would recommend not drinking water for the rest of the hour.”

“Wait, if you did that, can you make lighting!?” Tommy looked at 404 in a different way. Respect.

He shrugged, “When there’s enough electrical energy in the air, yeah. But I would have to recharge. In thunderstorms, I could do it all day.” He grabbed something from his pocket, “I have another trick,” he placed a mechanical frog on the ground. He raised his hand and the frog raised with it. It was like a puppet, and 404 controlled the strings.

Everyone began clapping and 404 put his frog away.

“Alright, your turn Ranboo.”

“Uhm,” Ranboo nudged Tommy.

“Hm?”

“Can you volunteer for me?”

He huffed, “As long as you don’t kill me.”

Ranboo smiled, “I’ll try not to. Just look into my eyes.”

And Tommy did so. He heard from some girl in his class that the eyes are the window to someone's soul. He doesn’t know if that's true, but it’s really interesting.

You know...Ranboo’s eyes reminded him of that pendant Lethe wore.

Tommy blacked out for a second and when he opened his eyes, he was seeing himself. “Is that what I look like?”

Aimsey gasped.

“I’m pretty damn sexy,” he said.

“Please don’t flirt with yourself, not like this.” Tommy-or, what? Said while his face reddened.

“Wait…” Tommy–well, really it’s Ranboo but Tommy grabbed Ranboo’s phone. “AH!” He yelled, “WHY AM I IN YOUR BODY RANBOO!?”

“That’s amazing!” 404 laughed, “As much as I love this, please switch back to your respective bodies. I will not get scolded by Bad.” He turned to Tubbo, “your turn.”

“Hey! You skipped me!” Tommy said in Ranboo’s voice, eyes, body, and everything.

“Well,” Tubbo said, ignoring Tommy, “I can heal stuff with plants.”

404 raised an eyebrow, “Really? How so.”

“I just ask. Apparently, Mother Nature really likes to help people, but she needed humans to borrow nature's health and convert the energy into healing magic shit.”

“That’s a very useful ability." 404 never heard anything like that before. He would ask Tubbo to do an example but he doesn't have a plant. "Anyway, Tommy? You ready?”

“Been ready.” 

404 turned to "Ranboo", “You’re still in his body.”

"Ranboo" shrugged, “we were planning to switch back later.”

“Fine. Go.”

Tommy cleared Ranboo’s throat, “I don’t have one.”

“What? You’re 15 right?”

“Yes, but I don’t have one.”

“Everyone above 15 has one. Maybe-”

Tommy cut him off, “Well, I don’t!”

404 sighed, “Fine, I’ll just skip you. Aimsey?”

They nervously laughed, “Well, I know I have one, but I don't know what it is.”

“Well, you can always figure it out. Do you have the basics?” 404 said.

“Yeah, I’m guessing my ability is solar-energy based. But I haven't had any physical symptoms yet.”

404 thought for a moment, “are you sure it's solar?”

Aimsey nodded.

“Well your ability probably won’t have a physical form, but a physical property or force, like sound.” 404 checked the clock on his wall, “We should get to the training room. It has been an hour.”

Everyone got up and Tubbo stretched and Aimsey walked to "Ranboo", “Hey Tommy, what I said could have come off wrong and I just want you to know I didn’t mean any harm.” 

“Thanks, Aimsey. I didn’t mean to snap at you, I was just in a bad mood.” "Ranboo" said.

They both walked out of the room together. Almost everyone was in the elevator.

“Hey, can I just take the stairs?” "Tommy" asked. He gripped the side of Tommy’s shorts and started to rub on the fabric as a stress reliever, “It was getting a little stuffy last time and I wanted to just let you know-,”

“Suit yourself.” 404 closed the elevator door.

“Oh,” "Tommy" nodded. He walked down the hallway and tried not to look down. He didn’t need to fall somehow and break Tommy’s bones. 

Now going down the stairs, he needed to think, If me and Tommy stay like this the rest of the day, does he have to drive my car? I don’t think he can drive one but I can’t because I’m in his body. And Tubbo will not drive so how is that going to work?

“Tommy!” 

Ranboo looked up and saw Lucid standing in front of the glass door.

“Where have you been?” He asked while walking over to him.

“O-oh, I’m not,”

“Let’s go.” Lucid grabbed Tommy’s wrist and they began to walk in through the glass door. 

On the opposite side, there were so many heroes, interns, and kids using their abilities, it was crazy. Ranboo could only think this was the training room.

It’s a good thing Ranboo’s ability doesn’t matter to Lethe, and Tubbo didn’t say the full of his ability either so they wouldn’t be able to find them out. Ranboo thought this program was really clever, trying to figure out this generation’s abilities just in case anyone turns into a villain (because it’s a very popular trend, ) or if the heroes need help. It was indeed clever, but not clever enough.

This generation was born in the God and Goddess names, meaning everyone born in 2003-2005 has the most unique, strongest, or most Godly abilities in histories time.

“TOMMAYEE!!” 

Lucid turned around, “What the hell?”

Quackity wrapped his arm over "Tommy", “How are you, man!?” He asked in glee.

“Oh, I'm not To-”

“Look man, I need to speak with you,” he said much quieter, “It’s pretty damn important.”

Ranboo really didn’t want to get into Tommy’s business but does he really have a choice?

“Hey Lucid, MY MAN!” he patted Lucid’s back to get his attention, “Where are the bathrooms?”

Lucid sighed, “go out of this room and take a right, it’s behind the stairs.” he said in annoyance.

Quackity patted Tommy’s shoulder twice and left.

Ranboo followed Lucid to his group. 

“Now that Tommy’s here, would you share your ability?” They both sat down.

Shoot! What did Tommy say!? “I don’t have one?” Ohhh noo. WHY DID I SAY IT LIKE THAT!? 

“Okay, that's okay if you haven't discovered it yet. We can start small, do you know what type of energy it is?” 

Lucid sounded annoyed and bored, at Ranboo couldn’t blame him.

He began to meditate, usually, when he switches bodies, Ranboo borrows a bit of the energy for him to use. But Tommy didn’t feel like he had much, so he didn’t take much. “Uhh,” Ranboo opened Tommy’s eyes, “I don’t know.”

Lucid started to tap on the floor, “What do you mean, ‘I don’t know’?”

Ranboo gripped Tommy’s shorts, “I mean, I’m picking up a lot of different energies in this room and I can’t tell which one’s mine so-”

“Wait,” Lucid stopped him, “Picking up? What are you talking about?”

What is he talking about? The last time Ranboo checked, he could only pick up the moon’s energy and his own! 

“Uhh-,” Ranboo stammered, "his" stomach is getting queasy, “I'm going to throw up,” he muttered and jumped up and started running.

“TOMMY, WAIT!”

Ranboo ran to the bathroom, past Quackity, and into a stall.

“Holy shit Tommy, are you alright?”

Ranboo was breathing heavily, “A bit.” He got out of the stall and washed "his" face and mouth.

“Oh, well, I need to tell you something.”

Ranboo nodded, “but can I tell you something first?” he put "his" hand in Tommy's pocket. He felt multiple things that surprised him. A lot of peppermints and a tiny diamond. It was probably plastic so he threw it away and popped a peppermint in his mouth.

“Yeah, but make it short.” 

Ranboo nodded, “Okay, well, long things short, I’m not Tommy, I’m Ranboo.”

Quackity looked him up and down, “Y’know, for some reason, that makes sense.” Quackity looked outside to make sure no one was near, “Okay Ranboo, this is very important. Since Tommy is in your body, he’ll be safe. As for you..,” he turned back around to Ranboo, “not so much.”

“Wait, what? Am I about to get murdered!?” he rubbed his fingers on Tommy’s shorts. "WHO EVEN ARE YOU!"

“Uhh” Quackity nervously chuckled and he began to pull his sleeve, “hopefully not. And I'm Quackity, Tommy's babysitter."

Quackity? The Quackity? Ranboo heard his name from Wilbur. He talked about him a lot during the Syndicate meetings. He wouldn't be surprised if Quackity knew all the Syndicate members' personal names and abilities because of Wilbur.

Wait, hopefully not? “WHAT!”

“You know how Calliope’s ability works, right?”

Ranboo nodded.

“And Jschlatt’s?”

“I don’t work with Jschlatt!” he yelled.

That's right! Eight-ball/Quackity works with Jschlatt. Ranboo never talked to him but Tubbo knew that supervillain personally! It was kind of annoying because he lived with Tubbo and 80% of their work conversations were about Jschlatt and the other 20% were about Tubbo's dad...which was Jschlatt. Even though they talked about Jschlatt a lot, Ranboo didn't know much about how his ability worked.

“Just calm down and take deep breathes, in and out.”

Ranboo did so.

“Okay, the plan is for Calliope to get Tommy, aka you. And Jschlatt to distract everyone with his metal.”

“How do you know this?” Ranboo said, now calm.

“I overheard them talking about. Anyway, your job is to not give in to Calliope’s ability, he’s going to try and bribe you with anything you’d want-or really anything Tommy would want. I ordered Purpled to help you defend against him. Once Calliope gets frustrated he is going to get Jschlatt. Eryn is going to use his ability to help you get out of there.”

"Is this like a plan to stop the plan?" Ranboo asked. If this was the plan to stop the plan, Ranboo would need a lot more details.

Quackity thought it over. "I guess, yeah. Technically." 

“What about the Heroes?” Ranboo asked.

“Eryn is going to blind them with his little shadow stuff.”

“And what about Tommy?” Ranboo let the plan to stop the plan settle in, he still had a few questions.

“I called Tubbo to let him know about the plan. He is going to get him out of here.”

“Okay. That's a good plan,” Ranboo took a deep breath, “what if I get caught?”

Quackity hugged him, he really needed that.

“If you end up getting caught, Calliope is going to realize it’s you..because y'know, your the only person that can switch bodies with another person, then I will be the one getting you out of there. Maybe Slimecicle will assist me. But make sure you act like Tommy just in case. That's the whole point of the plan. We don't want the actual Tommy getting hurt. If for some reason he finds out it's you early,” he let go, “I’ll call Tubbo and tell him to hide Tommy and the Syndicate’s base.”

“The Syndicate? They’re in this too?”

Quackity shook his head, “I don't think so. But even if they are, Tommy is in your body, it won’t be suspicious. And Calliope won’t try to get him since he’s around everyone else.”

"Okay, one more question, why are Calliope and Jschlatt doing this? Because it seems out of the blue. And I haven't heard from the Syndicate about any of this."

Quackity shrugged his shoulders, "Remember that time when the school burned down? I think it has to do something with that. That was the time Tommy got 'kidnapped' by Calliope. Earlier this morning, Wilbur came by the office to talk to JSchlatt and I saw Tommy's file on the desk. But whatever happened between Calliope and Tommy must be really stupid if he didn't talk to the Syndicate about this. I'm pretty sure you guys would have stopped it all." Quackity chuckled.

Ranboo hyped himself up, “Alright! I noticed everyone that’s in this plan is planning on becoming Vigilantes!? Besides Tubbo, he already is one.”

Quackity laughed, “Vigilantes are pretty stealthy. And I told them 'this is like training'. If they fail this then they shouldn't become Vigilantes.”

Ranboo laughed too, it was Tommy’s laugh that came out.

Their little time was cut short when a big crash and screaming were heard from the training room.

“Shit,” Quackity cursed, “the plan to stop the plan is a go,” he took Tommy’s wrist, “stay calm and let's go.” 

They ran out of the bathroom and the screaming was a lot louder. They saw interns and children running out of the training room and out of the building.

Surly this would be on the news.

Quackity tightened his grip on Tommy’s hand. They pushed through the crowd and into the room.

Ranboo looked up and there was this humongous robot that looked like a transformer. At the top, he saw Calliope in his phantom costume and Jschlatt in his suit.

Quackity let go of his hand.

“Where are you going?” Ranboo asked, now realizing this was real.

“I’m going to go save some kids!” He shouted and went into the crowd.

Ranboo took many deep breaths. He looked up and saw Calliope looking straight at him, “Let's do this,” he said and began running to the middle of the room.

-==================================-

Tubbo grabbed "Ranboo's" hand and he screamed, “We’re leaving!” Tubbo shouted and they made their way to the back door.

“What about our friends!?” Tommy shouted back.

“They’re behind us!” 

They ran and pushed others to get to the back door.

Tommy looked behind him and Freddie and Aimsey were there, “What about Purpled and the rest?”

“They’re with Ranboo.”

The four of them were finally outside. The principal was on the phone and interns were making sure student’s where okay.

The four of them went into the bushes that aligned the wall, “What are we doing?” Tommy asked. 

Crawling Tommy. You are crawling. “Leaving,” said Tubbo instead. Without anyone looking, he used his ability and the bushes became more green and full of leaves.

“How are we going to get out?” Aimsey wondered.

“By Ranboo’s car.”

“I can’t drive!” Tommy whispered-shouted.

“I can,” Freddie said.

Tubbo looked behind him. Freddie behind Tommy, Tubbo nodded, “good. You need to drive us to my and Ranboo's house.”

They all got out of the bushes and Tommy saw Ranboo’s car.

“Wow, it’s hidden well,” Aimsey said. 

The car wasn’t even hidden in a bush, there was just one leaf on it.

“How are you so prepared for this?” Tommy asked while getting in the back.

Tubbo turned around to look at him. He still was getting used to Tommy speaking through Ranboo's voice, “Let's just say, we saw this coming.”

-==================================-

Ranboo stood right in the middle of the room. There were fewer people but it was still very loud. Shouts from the heroes and abilities getting used and all.

Lucid ran up to him, “Tommy, what are you still doing here!?” he said out of breath.

Quick, think of something fast! “I lost my phone.” Oh, that was pretty good.  

Lucid grabbed Tommy’s wrist, “You’re leaving!”

“Not so fast!” Calliope sang as rolled down from the metal arm. “We need to have a talk, Tommy. Just you and me.”

Metal charged at Lucid and he dodged, but it was pushing him back and the metal was surrounding The Dream Team heroes.

Calliope stepped into Ranboo’s view, “I know we got off on the wrong foot.”

"Tommy" stepped back, be strong. “We really didn’t, I’m pretty sure I compiled to getting kidnapped the first time.” Something in Ranboo’s mind was telling him to say that. Was it Purpled? “And didn’t we go to a restaurant after?”

(a/n: Really it's Tommy's mind since Ranboo's soul is in his body but every time I read it I get confused so whatever)

Calliope was going to say something, but he stopped and looked around for help he knew he wasn't going to get. “Shut up.” 

Ranboo compiled.

“Look Tommy, that second time I kidnapped you, I’m sorry for that. I was..” he was thinking of a word to say, “drunk.”

"Tommy" looked at him confused, “drunk?”

Calliope snapped his fingers, “yes. And I’m sorry I kidnapped you.”

“I..accept.” It was something about how Calliope said that. It sounded sincere and Ranboo would feel bad if he declined.

“Great!” He took Tommy’s arm, “We can go get ice cream, go to the park, play Minecraft! You kids like to do that stuff right?”

Ranboo knew this wasn’t right, but everything Calliope said was so..addictive. He doesn’t remember the last time he had ice cream.

Ranboo? RANBOO! 

Huh?

HE WILL MURDER YOU!

WHAT!?

"Tommy" yanked his arm back, “Wait, hold on. I didn’t consent to any of that.”

Calliope looked surprised. Then he looked at Ranboo weirdly, “what type of kid doesn’t want ice cream?” He murmured.

He glanced up to Jschlatt taunting the heroes, “HE DOESN’T WANT THE ICECREAM!”

“WHAT TYPE OF KID DOESN’T WANT ICE CREAM!?”

Calliope pointed at "Tommy", “THIS KID!” 

That caught the heroes' attention.

“Why do they want Tommy so bad?” Inferno said he tried melting the metal but it just got hotter.

On the other side, Poison-Limon placed their hand on the metal. Acid melted a hole in it.

“Lime!”

“Sorry,” they said, “me and the other heroes were helping the kids out. You guys looked like you needed help.”

They went out of the hole.

Lucid saw "Tommy", “WHY THE HELL IS HE STILL HERE!?”

Ranboo heard that. “Hey, Calliope?”

“What, child.”

“Lucid is running towards us.”

Calliope turned to where "Tommy" was pointing, “WHAT THE HELL!”

Poison-Limon, Lucid, Inferno, 404, Atlantis, and Totem came dashing to them.

"Tommy" backed away.

“JSCHLATT!!! I HAVE A PROBLEM!”

“Yeah! I see that!” He shouted.

Metal spikes came out of the ground, which slowed down the heroes. On the other side of the room, music started blasting.

“Is that ‘Dick’ by StarBoi3 ft.Doja Cat?” Calliope shouted.

Ranboo saw Eryn jumping into the shadows behind the heroes. He laughed.

Calliope looked at him, “What are you laughing at?”

"Tommy" looked behind him and laughed even harder.

“Me, bitch.” 

Calliope turned around and screamed.

Eryn shot him a shadow and Calliope scrambled back.

“I CAN'T SEE!” 

By the time the heroes got there, Eryn and "Tommy" jumped into Calliope’s shadow. They came out of Purpled’s. “We should go,” Purpled said and he turned off the music.

“Tommy’s house?” Eryn suggested.

The trio left the training room and jumped into a plant's shadow.

.-...-..-..--------.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-..-..-.-.-.

Metal Molder: Metal is something organisms use every day. Without metal, modern technology wouldn’t exist! Someone that can mold/bend metal. (Gold, steel, iron, etc.

Weakness: Shit-that-messes-with-fucking-metal abilities. Toxic Manipulators. 

Energy: Solar

.-.-.-

Soul Suckers: To take a soul is to kill innocent life. Souls follow in shadows, Suckers can find and capture a soul going into heaven and hell. Once Soul Suckers have it, they can exploit it, or become one with it.

Weakness: Light, the sun, and solar abilities.

Energy: Lunar.

.-.--.--.-.-.-

Sweet Singers: Everyone loves a sweet, beautiful singer. Every man loves a sweet, beautiful girl! Sweet singers would do anything to please you! But don’t get addicted to their performance. Once they have your attention, they will rip you to shreds.

Weakness: Mind-based abilities, inability to use mouth and woman.

Energy type: Lunar.

.-.-.-.-

Electric Expert: Electricity is used all around the world, and in our bodies too. Do you ever wish your phone can charge without having to get up and get the charger? If so, an Electric Expert can do the job! Can control lightning and electricity (Technology too).

Weakness: Hard Solid-based abilities(Rock, metal. etc) and rubber.

Energy: Solar.

.-.-.-.-

Future Finder: Fortune telling isn't real. They can't hurt you. You can sleep peacefully without a glimpse of the future. It's just déjà Vu. If anyone claims it is real, visit www.Jschlatt.co/service.

Weakness: They are nightmares, and stop staying up. Do you need a therapist? Is your mental health okay?

Energy: It's dark and the moon is out.

.-.--.--.-.

Spirit Switcher: Have you ever heard that saying, “Before you judge a man, walk in their shoes”? A Spirit Switcher can do just that, but in return, you have to do the same. And don’t be scared about the fact that they are using your ability and you are not. It’s all about walking in your shoes!

Weakness: the other has a protected soul.

Energy: Lunar.

.-.-.-.-.-

Ore Organizer: What do you want? Gold, Crystals, diamonds!? They are shiny and beautiful and definitely rare! But only one type a day! We don’t want it to get mixed up! An Ore Organizer makes ore, but only one type a day. (maybe you can ask them to build something for you!)

Weakness: Exhaustion.

Energy: Solar.

.-.-.-.---..

Nature’s Helpers: Mother nature can’t do things on her own. She asks the gods to share her energy so others can help her. Having this ability is a gift and a privilege. Nature’s Helpers can control plants and use them for anything they would like. Mother nature was too desperate.

Weakness: Fire-based abilities, poison, pollution, and anything that can destroy Mother Nature's creations.

Energy: Nature, but with the help of the Sun God, life got a lot easier. (The Moon Goddess was drunk that night.)

.-.-.-.-.-

Poison Projector: How do you let your negative emotions out safely? Poison everything in your path! A Poison Projector uses their negative energy to make poison. It’s a real stress reliever, but not so for the other person. 

Weakness: Positive emotions/energy.

Energy: Solar.

Chapter Text

Ranboo heard the door open and shut. Eryn and Purpled already left two hours ago to meet with Quackity, so it couldn’t have been them. It was late. He has no idea how he is going to get his body back. Ranboo got a text on Tommy’s phone.

11:46

Beeboy: Tommy is at home asleep I told the syndicate u couldn't make it to the meeting because u had to take Micheal to the vet

Ranboo rubbed his face in exhaustion. He needed to discuss meeting times with the Syndicate, now that he has school. 

Ranboo yawned. He was so tired. He took the snake off of his neck and placed her in her tank. Ranboo didn’t know Tommy had so many pets. Maybe his ability will be something that has to do with animals. 

“TOMMY! GET YOUR ASS DOWNSTAIRS RIGHT NOW!”

Ranboo’s peace was interrupted, was that Tommy's dad? Why does he sound so aggressive??? He was kind of scared to go downstairs. He tiptoed to the door and opened it. No one was in the hallway. Ranboo quietly crouched to look through the staircase poles.

“Dream, you need to calm down, I don’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing but yelling at Tommy won’t do anything to stop him.” 

Wait, why is Technoblade here?

Ranboo continued to eavesdrop.

Tommy’s “dad” kept pacing, “No…no, that is the least of my concern.” He turned to Techno, “it’s the fact that villains are after my little brother and I don’t know how to stop them!” He said in a hushed tone.

Techno gave him a blank stare.

Dream shifted on his two feet, waiting for his best friend to say something.

“You-,” Technoblade didn’t want to say it out in the open. You know, just in case someone is listening in?

Dream got the message, “I know! But like, I don’t feel like telling him upfront. What if someone goes after him!?” 

“You have to tell him at some point. Plus, someone is already after him.” Rubbing his temples, Techno looked up.

Busted. 

Ranboo stood slowly. He doesn’t want to speak, what if his voice fails him? What if his voice fails him!? 

“Tommy, come down here.” Techno pats the chair in front of him.

Tommy? Tommy’s here? “Tommy” turned around but instantly realized he was Tommy. His face flushed red. 

He descended the stairs with his head down. Ranboo sat in the chair Techno patted. 

The three of them waited in silence. For what? Ranboo was too nervous to ask. 

“...” Tommy’s “dad” scrunched his eyebrows in thought. He began pacing again.

“Dream, please.” Techno walked over to him, aggravated. He placed a hand on Dream’s shoulder. 

As they gazed at each other, they exchanged glances. The hand on Dream’s shoulder tightened and the eyes narrowed. 

They were communicating by just looking into each other's eyes. It was special, their relationship. Ranboo could tell they were brothers–not by blood, by heart. Soul, and mind. Dream, and Techno. They were linked and without one, the body cannot function. They cannot function.

Dream eyes widen, “Oh.”

Techno raised a brow, “Oh?” He let go of Dream’s shoulder.

“Oh.” He said, sadder. His gaze falls on “Tommy” with apologetic eyes. “Tommy, I-” The smell of alfredo pasta with turkey sausage and peas filled his nose, “haha,” he nervously laughed, “let me go get you some dinner so you don’t starve.” He quickly left the dining room.

Techno facepalmed and focused on “Tommy” instead. 

He was rubbing his fingers on the side of his shorts. Techno examined him closer. He was tense and wasn’t blinking. Tommy wouldn’t freeze up like that if he was nervous. He would fiddle around and laugh. Techno sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Ranboo would freeze up like that. Before he could say anything, Dream waltzed in with three plates of pasta. 

“One for you,” he placed the plate of food in front of Ranboo, “One for you,” Techno grumpily walked over to his chair, “And for me.” he sat down and started eating. Techno followed in order.

Ranboo on the other hand stared at his food, something felt off–and it wasn’t the food–he felt uneasy, he felt like he was being watched. 

“Is everything alright, Tommy?” Dream’s hand slowly gravitated down until it hit the table.

“Tommy” nodded. Maybe he was just being paranoid.

“Hmph.” Dream hummed. He started drumming his fingers on the table. 

Techno closed his eyes. He waited about 3 seconds before he tapped his fingers back. 

Dream jumped up, “Hey Tommy,” He yanked “Tommy” out of his seat and pried him upstairs, “why don’t you go take a shower, you smell like shit.” He gave a nervous laugh.

Techno got up as well.

Ranboo sniffed “himself”, “I smell like flowers.” he grumbled.

Before Ranboo was able to make it to the first steps, a loud shatter was heard from the window behind them.

The three of them spun around.

Two people in black entered the house. The shattered glass stuck on their uniforms.

Dream’s voice hardened, “Tommy, I need you to upstairs now.”

Ranboo knew in situations like these, you should leave it to the adults. In his defense, he is turning 17, and seventeen is basically 18, and eighteen is an adult. Therefore, he is an adult.

Ranboo said, “I wanna help,” vigorously.

Dream’s eyes widened, “WHAT?”

Technoblade charged for the two people in black. He punched one in the jaw, they stumbled back, and the other came behind him and kicked his knee pit. Techno's knees almost buckled. He grunted, “are you two just going to stand there or what!?” 

Ranboo wanted to step forward but Dream stopped him.

Techno spun and tripped the guy, they yelped and hit the floor with a thud. He came back around and elbowed the other guy on the kidney, the one on the ground quickly recovered and threw themself onto Techno. He began to thrash around the get rid of them. 

The other one raised his hand to his ear.

Three more people in black entered the house. 

“Fuck..” Dream dived for the ground to slide to Techno, who finally got the guy off. He reached for Techno’s dagger hidden between his leg and ankle. Quickly getting up, he punched the nearest intruder. They gasped for a breath and flew to the floor as blood quickly flowed down their nose. 

Two more people in black entered the bloody mess. One was tall and bulky and the other was small and curved. There were seven intruders inside. Techno and Dream were fighting the five and the other two were coming close to him. 

Ranboo was quick to note the goat head symbol on both intruders' uniforms as one of them unbuckled a net launcher from their waist. Ranboo’s back collided with another before the net reached him. A ruff hand on his shoulder caught him off guard, but they weren’t fast enough to stop Ranboo from twisting their wrist away and pushing them past him so the net devoured their body instead of his. A body crashed against Ranboo and he stumbled back to another whose arms wrapped around his chest and neck, trapping him from escaping. 

Ranboo yelped as pressure began pushing the air from his lungs. He tried to wiggle out of their grasp but the pressure increased more. Ranboo would have stopped moving once black spots spread across his vision but Dream dived for their legs to bleed a bright red which caused a cry. Air filled Ranboo's lungs as he collapsed onto the floor, but Ranboo was quick to get up and punch the bulky intruder square in the jaw, knocking them out cold. 

“When did you learn how to fight like that?” Dream’s chest rose and fell at a fast but patterned pace. 

Ranboo’s eyes fell on Technoblade, Techno was manhandling unconscious– or dead –bodies and throwing them out of where they came. Ranboo’s eyes fell back on the bulky high-ranked intruder before him, he watched as their blood spilled onto the wooden flooring. He’s been in much worse fights than these. He’s seen people die, some from his friend's hands, others from his own.

“Tommy’s” eyes sunk, “I’m fine.” 

Techno dragged the body out the window, and a red trail followed. 

“I didn’t-,” Dream's voice abruptly stopped, he sighed “okay. That's good to know.” He walked into the kitchen with a bloody dagger.

Ranboo looked around the dining room, chairs were across the room, blood was on the walls and floor, and the only thing kept intact was food on the plates. He walked over to it, still warm, he thought. He didn’t have time for eating. He needed to contact the Syndicate about the goat head symbol he saw on the two intruders’ uniforms. It had to mean something important. Ranboo wandered into the living room, his stare was on the fish tank. A beautiful goldfish dances in the purest of waters, he wonders how much it knows. 

KNOCK KNOCK

“TOMMY, DON’T YOU OPEN THAT DOOR!” Dream immediately yelled after he heard the knocking.

Oh, too late anyway, Ranboo’s hand was already on the doorknob. He was greeted by someone in the middle of the liquid and solid state. “Slimecicle??” he whispered. He glanced behind him, and when the coast was clear, he stepped through the door. A wave of cool air engulfed him. Autumn was coming. “What are you doing here?” 

Slime smeared the goop off its shirt, it didn’t help that much. “I’m patrolling.” Slimecicle smiled.

They stood in awkward silence, Ranboo was waiting for Slimecile to continue. Slime was waiting for nothing. 

“A-are you going to continue?” Ranboo felt the fabric of Tommy’s pants, it helped him stay calm.

“No.” 

Ranboo looked at it oddly, “Oh-Okay. Well, bye.” Ranboo placed his hand on the doorknob but Slimecicle grabbed his shoulder.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m here?” Slimecicle’s voice was unnatural, it felt uplifting and cheerful. It made Ranboo feel unnerved.

“Not-not really.” Ranboo stuttered out.

“RANBOO FROM NEWBROOCH, I’M ON A SECRET MISSION TO SPY ON YOU TO MAKE SURE YOU DON’T GET KIDNAPPED!” Its smile never wavered. 

“Oh,” Ranboo relaxed, but then realization hit him, “Wait! How do you-I'm not Ranboo, I’m Tommy from...” His voice faded.

“OH! NO WORRIES, I'M PART OF THE PLAN TO STOP THE PLAN!” 

“You are?” Ranboo’s mind went back to the memories,  he does remember Quackity mentioning Slimecicle, but not in this situation.

“YEP! I’M HERE TO BRING YOU BACK TO TOMMY FROM THE BEYOND!” 

“Tommy from the Beyond?” He spoke quietly.  Is he not from Curisles? He jumped out of his thoughts, “Yeah, that's probably for the best.” he supposed. Ranboo shivered at the thought of it happening again. 

“TOMMY!” Dream opened the door so fast, he nearly broke the hinges. “What did I say about you opening the FUCKING DOOR!?” he seethed.

Ranboo shrank, “uhh, to not to?” 

Dream looked past him, “What the fuck is that??” he pointed at the ‘thing’.

Ranboo chimed in, “That's Slimecicle.” 

“HELLO DREAM FROM THE BEYOND, I’M SLIMECICLE–,”

Dream groaned, “I don’t have time for this. Tommy, get inside now.” 

Ranboo rushed inside.

“Slimecicle,” he looked him up and down in a revolting manner, “Stop yelling, you’re going to wake up the neighborhood.”

“Okay,” it whispered.

“Oh, and uh, you might want to stop turning into a liquid for a while, your brain seems to be getting mushy.” Dream shut the door on it. “And it makes my job easier if your gone,” he muttered.

-==================================================-

A knock on Tommy’s window woke Ranboo up.

“What the…,” Moving around, he gazed out the window, “Tommy?” He opened it.

“OH, RANBOO!” 

He puts a finger to his mouth, “Shhh, your dad is still asleep.”

Tommy gave him a very perplexed look, “You mean my brother?” Tommy climbed in the window, landing on the bed. (It was a little difficult to get his legs in but he managed.)

Ranboo blushed, “Oh, uh, I suppose so.” 

How was Ranboo supposed to know that was his brother? They don’t even look like siblings! Dream has green eyes and dirty blonde hair, while Tommy has blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. They look nothing alike! 

“Yeah, we don’t look like siblings, do we?”  Tommy flopped his back into the bed and sighed, but he quickly jumped up, “Body back–body,” Tommy took (technically) his shirt into his hands, “please please please–.”

Ranboo brought a hand up and playfully rolled his eyes, “Okay, okay!” he stifled a laugh, “just look into my eyes and don’t move.” 

…

The eyes mirror the soul. 

On Ranboo’s 16th birthday, exactly 1 year after he got his ability, he asked himself what keeps the soul bound to earth. Was it the body weighing it down? Or was it the mind controlling it? He then asked himself, what is the soul? Was it the eternal abstract of human life itself, or was it just everything that makes us, us? A few days later, he was asking Miss Moon for the only thing he ever needed from her, guidance. He searched within himself for her answer only to find more questions. What are the subconscious, conscious, and unconscious? Is it all the mind? And is it related to the soul? What part does the body play in all of this? 

He remembers one night. He was walking the streets of Westinglog, the area Tubbo lives in. The opposite of Loveast? The more trashy one? Yeah, Westinglog. He just came back from Holedeplete (the opposite of Walmart. He knows, very trashy) and was in the neighborhood. He was supposed to meet Tubbo at the abandoned skate park in 5 minutes, but he had a feeling to take the longer route. So, there he was, walking for 10 more minutes with groceries in hand. That was until he stopped, dropping all his things. He began to run. He saw it! He saw it happen! Right before his own eyes! The poor thing! Ranboo thought. With each breath he took, it lost. Ranboo ran into the street, and he slid down, ripping his jeans. But it was worth it. Ranboo had told himself. He placed his hand on its heartbeat, it was alive. Ranboo cried with joy. He took off his hoodie and covered it. After picking it up, he began to run again. Why was he doing this? Was he that soft-hearted? Did he care that much? Ranboo looked down at it. Bloody and hurt. Yes, yes he did. Once you are better and happy, Ranboo thought, I’ll call you Michael.

-==================================-

Tommy got off the bus. He was feeling good today. He had his body back…and that’s about it! Staying at Ranboo and Tubbo’s house was an experience. They have a pig and a black and white cat that can teleport. Kinda weird in his opinion but he can’t be talking, he literally has two dogs, a goldfish, a snake, and no hamster because it definitely died of old age. 

Tommy took a glance at the bridge. He agreed on whatever happened that night was a dream and not a memory, but if it was a memory, he would of, you know, remembered it. Still, it was kind of weird he ‘dreamed’ of his brother committing suicide. 

Tommy checked his phone, it was 6:05 am, and the next bus would be here at 6:15. Tommy sighed, the government should make a school in Loveast because he hated waking up at 4:40 in the morning and wasting about 2 hours on getting to school on time. 

In the meantime, Tommy ran across the street for the bridge. He put his bag down and leaned his forearms on the railing. The cold wind untangled his hair, it made him shiver. This –doesn't scare him anymore. He examined the waters below, and at that moment, Tommy didn’t scream, cry, or call for help. He didn’t need to. He wasn’t falling and he wasn’t going to fall. That– doesn’t scare him anymore. 

Tommy checked his phone again, 6:15, he heard a screech of a machine and knew exactly what it was, “WAIT, DON’T LEAVE ME!”, he shrieked. Tommy darted off to the bus.

-==============================-

Tommy huffed and plopped himself on the seat in front of the heroes. He got to the school at 7:15, but instead of going straight to homeroom, he visited the Theater Club. Because of such actions, the teacher is now questioning him, “Where is your pass?”

Tommy raised a brow, “now why the fuck would I have a pass?”

“Because your late, and,” Mr.Blade searched for his bag, “where is your bag?”

Tommy shrugged his shoulders.

Mr. Blade gave him a disapproving look, “that will be a write-up and an absent.”

Tommy snorted and turned around.

“How is that funny?” Lucid asked.

Tommy looked up at him, “First off, I don’t give a shit, and second, it’s not like they can take me to court, I own it.”

404 rolled his eyes, “you don’t own court, you haven’t even been,” he checked Tommy’s file on his holographic device, “well,” he murmured, “except for this one time, but I don’t think that counts.” 

Tommy nudged Purpled and he looked up from his phone, “what?”

“What are we doing?” Tommy looked around the classroom, everyone was just chatting, “no one is doing anything, and where the fuck are Ranboo and Tubbo?”

“We’re down here,” Ranboo waved.

“Oh!” Tommy snickers, “why didn’t you just take a chair? Or you could have taken this one,” he motions to his chair, “I wouldn’t have cared.” 

“Oh uh,” Ranboo averted his gaze elsewhere, “I thought you would want it, plus, I don’t mind sitting on the ground, I was doing my own thing anyway. Then Tubbo joined me.” 

Tommy nodded and rotated to Purpled’s conversation.

“-always like this or–” 404 got interrupted.

“WHAT’S UP BITCHES?” 

“Tommy, quiet down!” he heard the teacher say.

Tommy ignored him. “Hey Purpled, remember that ‘thing’ we talked about?”

Purpled furrowed his eyebrows, “What ‘thing’? We didn’t talk about any ‘thing’,” Tommy was looking at him with pleading eyes. Purpled stared at him incredulously, “of course I don’t know what ‘thing’ you’re talking about because you never said anything!” Purpled groaned and ran his hands on his face.

Tommy laughed and grabbed his arm and began shaking him, “Please? Just do it once and I won't ask for the rest of the week.”

404 closed out his device and whispered to Lucid, “what’s happening?”

Lucid looked up from his paperwork and 404 gestured in the kids' direction. Tommy was shaking Purpled and continuously asking please while Purpled hid his face in his hands. Lucid chuckled, “I don’t know, what do kids do nowadays?”

“Fine!” he grumbled. 

Tommy stopped shaking him.

“...raccoons?”  Purpled watched Tommy between his fingers.

He snickered, “No not that thing,” he waved a dismissive hand, “the other thing.”

Purpled looked at him and rolled his eyes, “the Dream match-up?” 

Tommy threw himself onto Purpled, he yelped, “Tommy what the fuck?”

Tommy hugged him, “It’s like you read my mind!” he beamed.

Purpled glared at him, “Oh yeah, I definitely don’t have the ability to.”

Tommy reached over Purpled to seize his bag, “come on, I know you have it, you read my mind.” 

Purpled snatched the bag out of Tommy’s grasp, “ I just read your mind,” he unzipped it, “but your right, I do have it.”

Purpled took out a deck of pictures.

“What is that?” 404 asked.

A small laugh escaped Purpled's mouth, “It’s just a match-up thing,” he replied.

“It’s not just a match-up thing,” Tommy took off the rubber band and spread out the pictures on the table, “it’s the match-up thing.”

404 chuckled, and he nudged Lucid. All of his friend's yearbook pictures were laying on the table, including his own. 

“What the hell is this? How did you get these?” Lucid took ahold of Sapnap’s football picture. He examined it. This picture was before the game, he was kneeling with the ball under him. After the game, he got severely injured and had to go to the hospital because he broke his foot.  Dream went with him, and Sapnap’s boyfriend went also. At the time, Sapnap didn’t have two cute boyfriends with him, he only had one, Quackity.

Tommy snatched the picture, “We did him and Dream last time.” 

“What do you mean ‘you did him and Dream?’” 404 questioned.

“He means we did the compatibility test for Dream and Sapnap the last time we did this.” Purpled moved on picture to the side and put everything else up. 

404 held the discarded picture, it was his civilian self winning a prize for hacking into the school's security system. On the upcoming Saturday, everyone came back to school and had the best night out anyone could ever imagine! There were fireworks and alcohol, but no cocaine. He made sure of that. George said if he saw one speck of white powder he would call the police and everyone would go to jail for underage sex and drugs.

404 placed the picture down on the table. Purpled and Tommy had markers and glitter out. With blue, green, and black markers, Tommy wrote: George And Dream’s Compatibility Test! He put glitter all over the compatibility word. Lucid was glad no one could see his face, otherwise, they would be able to see how red he was, and not the ‘Oh my Gods this is so cute!’ red, it was the, ‘WHAT THE FUCK, I WANT TO KILL MYSELF’ red. 404 burst out laughing! Everyone was able to see his face, just not able to recognize it because of his glasses. The irony of it all was just killing him! Lucid gave him a blank stare, oh yes, the irony was also killing him.

“What’s so funny? Tommy stopped mid-pouring more glitter on the paper.

404 tried to stifle his laugh, “Oh, nothing. Would you mind showing me how much Dream and Goerge are compatible?” 

Tommy lit up, “Yeah, Of course! I was going to show you anyway!”

Purpled popped the cap of the marker off, “We’ll first start with Zodiacs. George is a Scorpio and Dream is a Leo, Scorpio’s are usually…” 

Lucid drowned out the outside world, but he did catch a glimpse of 404 glancing at him.

-============================-

“We’re having leftovers.” Dream took out the alfredo and peas.

Tommy looked over his shoulder, “When did we ever eat that?” Tommy ambled to the table with his face all in his phone. 

Dream brought the plates out and set them down, “We had this yesterday,” he looked at him in concern, “you remember don’t you?”

Tommy looked up from his phone, “uh,” 

Dream stepped toward him, “you must have hit your head hard when you fell.” he mumbled. He tried to check Tommy’s face but he pushed him off.

“I never fell, and I assure you, I’m fine,” Tommy said harshly.

“Fine, and,” while walking back, he showcased Tommy’s phone in his hands.

“Hey!” He looked around himself, “how did you get that? I had it in my hand!”

“This is a privilege,” Dream put it in his pocket, “and I’m taking it away.”

“What the fuck!?” 

“Do you think after what happened at school, you’ll come back without consequence?” he scoffed, “unbelievable. I thought you were better than that.”

“Look, it’s not my fault. School’s a bitch anyway.” Tommy stuffed pasta in his mouth.

Dream rolled his eyes and thought of a new subject to talk about, “Hey, how do you feel about working in the hero building?”

Tommy smirked, “Wow Dream, sending me off to ‘boot camp’, and here I thought you loved me.”

Dream snorted, “I’m being serious. Since I supposedly don’t work, why don’t you get a job so we can keep our house?” he took sips of his water. 

Tommy laughed, “how much money?” he said as a joke.

“70k a week.”

Tommy took this job with sudden interest, “wait, really? Why would they be hiring now?”

Dream chuckled at his antics, “yes really, and workers got scared because of that whole villain attack.” Dream’s expression hardened, “which is also something I want to talk to you about.”

“Oh, you mean about Calliope?” Tommy moved his food around with his fork, “I don’t know what I did, but I feel like it has to do with him kidnapping me that one time.”

Dream started thinking, Tommy did too. He started thinking about that bridge, and that dream he saw. “Hey Dream?”

Dream hummed in acknowledgment.

“Have you ever tried to kill yourself?” He said bluntly.

Dream choked on his food. “What makes you say that??” He started sweating.

Tommy didn’t look up from his food, “I mean, I had a dream about it and I thought it was kind of weird,” he chuckled, “why would I ever dream about you trying to kill yourself?”

Dream was starting to feel physically ill, how did he know? 

Tommy looked up, “Are you okay, Dream? You don’t look too good.” Tommy was SO sure that it was a dream and nothing else. But how the way Dream was reacting? He wasn’t so sure. He got up and walked to Dream’s side.

Dream had to tell him. He already feels guilty about it and maybe this will relieve some stones in his chest. “Tommy,” Dream spoke softly as if trying to soothe a baby, “whatever you saw was the truth.”

Tears gathered in Tommy's eyes, “what?” he stepped back.

Dream stood to meet Tommy’s level, “I’m sorry you had to see that.” He engulfed Tommy in a hug.

“Your sorry?” Tommy returned it slowly, “I’m sorry for whatever happened to you. It must have been bad if you, y’know?” 

Dream gently smiled, he felt lighter. “Hey, I want to show you something, just give me a minute.” He ran up the stairs.

Tommy sat on the couch, it isn’t every day your brother confesses to trying to kill himself, but it kind of felt like Tommy pushed it. Of course, he could have never known the result of the question, but he did bring it up. What if Dream wasn’t ready to tell him? What if Dream didn’t want to tell him at all? Tommy hoped he was okay now because he sure isn’t. Now, this whole villain thing adds to his misery. He could just ignore it, ignore the sadness, like what he’s been doing for years. He only started to notice it again after his hamster died. He thought he didn’t care for it but he kind of misses the sounds of the wheel rolling at midnight. 

Tommy knows most of what happened he caused because he decided to do something. Like, if he didn’t walk into that alleyway, he wouldn’t have got that bad headache that lasted for three hours. Or, if he didn’t go with Calliope, he would have finished his last few weeks of the school year and maybe they wouldn’t have gotten kidnapped and this whole villain thing wouldn’t be happening! 

Tommy wiped his tears away. Now that he thought about it, it is all his fault. 

He’ll just ignore it for now.

“Tommy! I'm ready!” 

He ran up the stairs and put on his best smile, for Dream. 

His brother was waiting outside his room, he fiddled with his hoodie strings, “Follow me.” Dream led him to his closet. 

“Is this where you came out of?” Tommy joked. He began laughing.

Dream turned his head in Tommy’s direction, “I’m about to kick you out of the house if you don’t stop.” Dream couldn’t erase the smile painting his face. 

Dream opened the closet and pushed Tommy in, “Hey!” He moved the clothes out of his face. Dream stepped in and closed the door. It was pitch black. “What the fuck.” Tommy reached out for anything. 

“Stop touching my fucking face, I break out easily.” 

Tommy backed up. He must have hit something because the floor began to glow, “WHAT THE FUCK?” The floor opened and they fell through. 

And yes, he screamed. “WHAT THE FUCK?” Tommy laughed, “THIS IS SO COOL!”

He and Dream landed on something very soft. “What is this?” Tommy asked. He gestured to what broke his fall.

His brother helped him up, “I don’t know, but it reminds me of marshmallows.”

Tommy took in all of his surroundings, there was a desk in front of high-tech monitors. On the other side of the wall, there was a board with red string everywhere, and a table near that with unorganized papers around it. “Wow, this is all a mess.” 

Dream watched him as he went around the room.

 “I didn’t know we had a basement.” Tommy’s eyes caught something he never thought would be in his presence. The one and only: Lucid’s mask shelved in Dream’s secret room. Tommy gasped. 

It all made sense. The reason he knows what happened at school, the reason why he doesn’t work, the reason why he has Lucid’s mask. Hell, if Tommy thought about it, his brother is wearing a green hoodie around his waist–the same color Lucid’s hoodie is. It all made sense, Dream is dating Lucid.

-.-.-..-.-.-..-..-.-

Thought Tinker: If we didn't think, what would we be? Thinking is the manipulation of information within our minds, but what if we can't think for ourselves? A thought Tinker is a sub-genre of a Mind Manipulator, they can read and speak in minds and mess with our thoughts–to the point of insanity.

Weakness: Being strong mentally and big gatherings.

Energy type: Lunar.

Chapter Text

Weeks passed and Tommy never thought he would be in the Hero Building for business. He was waiting in the sitting area with his soon-to-be brother-in-law, Lucid. Man, it felt so weird being in his presence. Every time he catches a glimpse of Dream's soon-to-be Husband, his legs would start giving out. (And it wasn’t out of flattery.)

“You scheduled for a meeting and an interview?”

Tommy nodded. Anticipation radiated through him.

“Okay,” Skeppy tapped his earpiece, “they’re ready for you.” 

Dream’s Partner entered the room.  Tommy followed him to the elevator. 

Tommy’s friends wouldn’t believe it, but he is actually nervous. He knew he was going to have an interview today, but a meeting? With the Heroes? The only path he could see this happening is if he was a hero–and he’s not. He couldn’t even save Dream, and if he can’t save Dream, who can he save?

The elevator stopped on the 7th floor. This time, he was on the west side of the building. On the 7th floor, there weren’t multiple doors, it was only three. One was the interrogation room, the other was a meeting room–the one he was about to go in now–and the infirmary. It was weird, having the infirmary on the 7th floor. If someone ended up dying on the ride up, that would be their problem. 

Tommy leaned on the railing, he took three breaths in and out.

This kind of feels like I'm getting ready to perform on stage. Tommy grinned, that is exactly what I’m going to do.

“Are you ready?” Dream’s true love seemed slightly amused.

Tommy anxiously nodded.

Dream’s significant other strode into the meeting room. Tommy quietly followed in pursuit.

There was a long table in the center of the room. The Heroes stood in all their glory. Inferno, Poison-Limon, Totem, Atlantis, 404–holy shit, it was 404–Snapdragon, Warden, and Dream’s Love–who was urging him to sit down.

Dream’s Boyfriend cleared his throat, “If I could start this meeting, that would be great.” He spoke over.

The room got quiet. Dream’s soon-to-be-spouse motioned to 404. Putting on gloves, 404 sighed and pushed his middle finger and thumb together, it lit up blue. He parted them and a holographic screen appeared. 

“Before we begin, everyone, this is Tommy. Tommy, this is The Dream Team.”

The Dream Team, Lucid probably named that after Dream. Tommy thought.

The Heroes chorused versions of ‘hi Tommy’. 404 pushed the floating screen to the center of the table. He made it big enough for both sides to see. 

“In this meeting, we will be discussing our,” he paused, glancing at Tommy, “our Villian problem.” 

Of course, it had to be that. What else would it be though?

Tommy smirked. Since this is a serious meeting, he’ll make it as fun as possible. “This ‘Villian problem’ is more of an inconvenience.” 

Dream’s teddy bear stood, you couldn’t tell from his face, but by the sound of his voice, he is already annoyed.  He climbed on the table, “Tommy, this is you.”

The picture shows Tommy in the middle of the attack.

“I look devilishly handsome, don’t I 404?” He flashed him a smile.

404 glared at him.

“I think you look adorable Tommy!” Snapdragon playfully winked.

Tommy giggled. He didn’t know others would go along with the bit, but it makes it so much more fun.

“Snapdragon, don’t encourage him!” Dream’s loved one scolded.

“Lucid calm down, these meetings are already boring as hell. It’s nice to have some jokes thrown around.” Inferno expressed.

Dream’s suitor groaned, “This meeting is very important. We need to know why Calliope and JSchlatt are after Tommy!”

Tommy averted his attention away from 404, and to Dream’s man, “I bet the only reason Calliope is after me is that his ability didn’t work that one time. He has a big ego.” 

Atlantis placed her hand on the table, silently telling everyone it was her turn to speak, “even if that was the only reason, there must be something you did, Tommy. He wouldn’t go to big measures if his ability didn’t work for one time.” 

Dream’s sweetheart clapped his hands, “thank you Atlantis. That was the point I was trying to get at.”

Tommy was getting nervous, there literally was no other reason. At least not one he could think of. Tommy considers this conflict to be an internal issue for Calliope, even if it was just once when he could not use his ability, it probably brought up some unwanted feelings that caused Calliope to go after him. 

“Atlantis is right,” Warden turned to Tommy, “there must be something you did. Whether or not you knew it.” 

All the Hero's eyes landed on Tommy.

Remind him never to come back to a meeting.

“Umm,” Tommy thought of every time he was with Calliope, “he did kidnap me this one time, but I don’t think that's a good reason–”

Warden cut him off, “he did what!?” He shouted.

Warden and Atlantis had the same look. They looked up to Dream’s lover for guidance in this matter. 

Dream’s soon-to-be awfully wedded stood, undisturbed. Just like Dream had, Tommy thought to himself. When he told Dream about getting kidnapped, he didn’t seem to care.

Warden stood up slowly, fists clenched. “You knew…?” His gold agate armor clanked as he assumed the worse.

Tommy was a little shocked. He bearly knew the guy and this is how he reacted?

Dream’s darling waved it off, “We can go back to that topic. You shouldn’t be angry at me, you should be angry at Calliope. That is why we are discussing the Villian Problem.”

Soon-to-be-brother in law’s kidnapping not as important as the ‘Villian Problem’? We’ll see what Dream has to say about this. (Even If Tommy did tell him, he’ll probably wave it off.) Tommy glowers at him. He’s never been fond of Lucid anyway.

“You should have told us sooner,” Atlantis uttered, stiffly.

It’s strange, having two heroes that don’t know him personally actually care that he got kidnapped.

Dream’s bitch gave her a warning glare.

Tommy could feel the tension in the room. Everyone was silent and Tommy was very uncomfortable. He laughed nervously, “If it makes you guys feel better, nothing really happened. Plus, I had just told my brother about it a few weeks ago. Filing reports and putting them into the system must take a while, so Lucid couldn’t have possibly known until he started to arrange this meeting.”

The two hero’s bought it. Warden plopped down in his seat; Atlantis looked elsewhere. Tommy ran a hand through his hair. That was horrible.

Dream’s second half got off the table. He sat down in his seat, “Tommy, we need you to be honest,” he leaned in, “tell us everything that dealt with Calliope hunting you down.”

Tommy gulped. The thing is, he doesn’t want to inform them. It’s not because he’s a ‘rebel teen’. It’s because he’s paranoid. If Calliope ever found out about this meeting, he definitely wouldn’t hold back. Tommy lowered his head, “Well, we first met at the school and I asked him to take me with him.” 

“Why would you–”

Atlantis snapped her gloveless fingers. Dream’s peanut butter to his J immediately shut up.

Tommy hugged his knees to his chest, “we went to a diner then he left.” Tommy saw Dream’s Romeo glance and Warden. He nodded.

“Okay,” Dream’s idolizer said. Tommy couldn’t tell if he was responding to Warden or him. “And what about the fight?” he asked.

“What fight?” Tommy knits his eyebrows together, trying to remember.

“Technically, it was more of a discussion between you and Calliope.” Totem corrected.

Tommy twirled his hair between his fingers, “the only time I remember talking to Calliope was at lunch.”

If you could even call it lunch. They only spoke briefly and once the news came on, Calliope had a gun–that wasn’t even loaded–pointed at everyone's head. 

“I don’t get it. I know the others saw you,” said Warden matter-of-factly. He observed  the picture being shown on the holographic screen, “but how were you not there?”

“So he’s telling the truth?” Snapdragon asked.

“Yeah, he is,” Warden replied.

“What if you guys thought you saw him?” She questioned, not completely believing Tommy.

That question would irritate Warden, Tommy was sure of it. Why would a Sincerity Sensor lie?

Totem was sure of it too, so gestured to the picture, “there’s proof if you need it, Snapdragon.”

Poison-Limon chimed in, “that’s a drawn picture,” he deadpanned.

The heroes continued arguing. Tommy guessed this had to be the same ‘fight’ Dream had asked him about nights before.

404 laughed abruptly. Everyone quiet down. He covered his mouth trying to stifle the laugh, “you guys didn’t switch, did you?” 

404’s eyes locked on Tommy.

Tommy raised a brow, “uh, no?”

404 laughed again, “That makes sense.”

There was no way in hell Ranboo, in his body confronted Calliope. There was just no way! Okay, and what if Tommy never watches the news? When Ranboo used his ability to switch souls, Tommy didn’t think he would do something as stupid as that!

“Hey, what’s going on here,” Inferno looked between 404 and Tommy.

“Something with one of the kid's ability.” 404 pulled the floating screen back to him. He typed a few things and threw it out again. 

“Who the fuck is Rahn-boo?” Inferno snickered at the name.

“It’s Raan-boo!” Tommy shouted. 

“He’s his friend.” 404 said.

“A Spirit Switcher?” Snapdragon said in awe.

Tommy looked up at the holographic screen. It was kind of weird seeing all his friend’s information.

Family:

2 moms, a sister

The current place of living:

3425 Birchlane Drive, Westinglog

The current place of Education:

Newbrooch High School

Ability:

Spirit Switcher

The current place of Work:

Cupid’s Bow Cafe

…

There was more Tommy could read, but it wouldn’t feel right.

“Pfft–” Inferno rolled his eyes, “that's basically nothing. He can’t do anything with that.”

“Even if it is ‘nothing’,” Totem put two fingers up, gesturing to quote and quote nothing. “That is a very rare and powerful ability.” 

“Man,” Poison-Limon pouted, “I wish I was born in Generation OP. They have some cool-ass abilities.”

Tommy snorts. Being born in Gen OP isn’t that cool. Sure, that generation was born in the God and Goddess names, meaning they have the most unique, strongest, and godly abilities in histories time. It doesn’t mean you can’t get shit abilities. For instance, Tommy’s ability. 

…

Exactly. He doesn't HAVE an ability–AND HE WAS BORN IN GEN OP!

Months after Tommy’s 14th birthday, he realized he didn’t have an ability. And that messed with Tommy’s brain. He felt like the most unimportant person in the universe. He could physically feel Miss Moon and Saint Sun tell him how much of a waste he was. How much of a burden he was. How much of a–

“Tommy, are you alright?” She whispered in his ear. Tommy moved his head slightly, only to see Atlantis.

The point was there. Everyone in the world had an ability. Everyone in the world except him. 

He let go of his hair. He didn’t realize how tense he was. He let his legs fall. Fuck, his head hurt. He was glad it wasn’t that stabbing sensation–‘cus shit, that hurt way more–but the pain isn’t something Tommy wants to feel. 

Atlantis touched a spot on Tommy’s head. 

He winced.

“Holy shit, Tommy. You’re bleeding.”

That caught the ear of one hero, “All I heard was bleeding. Is everything alright?”

The other heroes began to quiet down. Their attention is on Tommy.

Truth be told, Tommy hates unwanted attention.

Totem walked down to them, blocking Tommy’s right view when he stopped. He examined Tommy’s head. “Woah, Tommy. You don’t get a gash like this on a regular Sunday.”

“Tommy, what happened?” Atlantis asked in the most subtle way he could imagine.

He shrugged, “I don’t know. Surely pulling my hair isn’t the reason.” He didn’t want to tell them. It was quite embarrassing.

Totem moved Tommy’s locks away from the gash, “The gash looks a tad bit old, but it seems like it now just started bleeding.” Green-light tainted Totems fingertips. 

Tommy let the sensation bore into him, the heat was burning cold.

“You don’t have the faintest idea of what happened?” Warden questioned, “or do you not want to tell us?” Gravely, he said.

I couldn’t give a fuck about what happened, I’m just paranoid, Tommy thought. Still, Warden caught him there. How was he supposed to explain what happened to him in that alleyway? First, it was embarrassing, getting jumped by raccoons, and second, Dino and Lethe. The former scared him more. Tommy still has to pay him back for ‘saving’ him. 

Even though he was the one to cause the gash. 

He can’t let that scare him though. Tommy is a big man and big men do big things. That includes not lying to a Sincerity Sensor. “I got stuck in a trash bin and then fell from the sky,” he said tersely.

That got laughs out of the heroes, including one from Dream’s romantic relation. He was going through multiple files and documents.

“Don’t bother lying, Tommy. There’s no point.” Poison-Limon voiced in a sharp tone. They motioned to Warden, whose sitting beside them. 

Tommy waited for Warden to correct them, but he never did. Warden just continued talking to P.L.

Man, heroes here were insufferable. Tommy voiced in his head. Tommy didn’t realize Totem was done until he sat back down in his seat. He went to go touch the top of his head. It didn’t hurt anymore, that's good for him. He should probably thank him. Tommy looked up to see Totem, Warden, and Poison-Lime all in converse.

He eyed two of them, maybe later , he told himself.

Atlantis sat beside him,  “you didn’t answer my question.” 

Tommy tried not to jump out of his skin. He blinked, “pardon?”

She smiled softly, “If you were alright? You seemed tense and your breathing was a little…”

Tommy faltered. Why was she worried about him? She didn’t even know him! 

He shook his head. “What are you? A therapist?” Tommy plastered on a smile, “I’m fine.”

Atlantis nodded. She turned her gaze to Warden, he was already looking at the both of them.

Dream’s one and only stands up clapping, “We discussed what we needed and now it’s time to end the meeting,” he announced. He checked the clock, “the time is now 5:18. Thank you all for coming today, and special thanks to Tommy. This meeting is now concluded.” 

Heroes began to stand. Totem and Poison-Lime were fast out the door. Snapdragon and Atlantis gathered their stuff and 404, Inferno and Lucid were all conversing. Well, not really. Lucid and 404 were talking to Inferno and Inferno was talking to both of them, but Lucid never spoke to 404 and vice versa. 

The only reasonable reason Tommy could think of Lucid ignoring 404 was that 404 found out Lucid was dating Tommy’s brother, but 404 liked Lucid. Tommy buzzed in his seat, he really likes making L’found theories.

Warden walked up to him, “If you don’t mind, we should get going to start the interview.” 

Tommy stood, tittering, “you’re interviewing me?”

They walked out the door together. There weren’t that many people working since it was a Sunday.

“Yes, I am,” Warden replied.

Well shit. Now he had to tell the truth.

The elevator ride was silent. All Tommy could think about was the job he could be getting. The one he’s interviewing for has to do with Hero and Villain fights. He would watch hero and villain fight footage and come up with strategies–or maybe even be on the comms–to help heroes win more fights. That would be cool. 

Dream also said Tommy could interview for a job that had to do with an ability field. He said no of course. Letting someone without an ability work in an ability field is a bad idea. Another reason he didn’t want to do it was because it reminded him of those A-energy classes he had to take.

Dream rolled his eyes and said, “You have an ability. You just don’t know it yet.”

Tommy called bullshit and took that claim to court (or at least he tried to).

The music stopped and the elevator door opened. “Follow me.”

They walked past Skeppy and back into another elevator. “Gods, how much walking is there?” Tommy sighed exasperatedly. 

Warden chuckled, “We’re almost there.”

-===============================-

“So? How was it?” 

Dream and Tommy entered their nice home. 

“It was terribly fun,” Tommy said, meaning both meanings in the word.

Dream laughed. He knew exactly what Tommy meant. They were brothers after all. 

They went into the living room and made their way to the couches. Tommy immediately took out his phone–not being able to before because of top-secret hero business–and messaged his friends about the day. Dream turned on a documentary about raccoons .

A noise tugged Tommy away from his phone. He recognized it all too well. Tommy scowled at the tv. “Can you please turn that off?”

Dream jolts at Tommy speaking, He composes himself, “I thought you liked raccoons ?”

He spoke under his breath, “before they jumped me, yeah.” 

“What?” Dream asked already knowing what Tommy said.

Tommy shrugs, “Nothing of importance.” At least not to you.

Dream looked at him with a pensive expression. “Tommy,” he finally spoke up, “at the meeting–”

“I'm sure your boyfriend,” he said the term ‘boyfriend’ sardonically, “has told you everything!” He sunk his head into his knees, still on his phone. “We don’t need to talk about it,” he said in a distressing manner.

Dream sighed, he completely missed the boyfriend part. That didn’t matter though. Dream reassured him. “Tommy I care. I really do–”

“I didn’t ask if you cared –”

“But I can just tell.” He said with a pained expression. “Something is bothering you. And sure, it could be this, ” he gestured to the raccoon documentary, “but I feel like it is something more than that.”

The documentary became white noise for him as he observed Tommy. He was rubbing a spot on his head. He was rubbing it very gently. That must be the spot Totem healed. At that time, Dream was so unbelievably angry. How could Calliope do that!? He thought. Then again, Tommy said he got stuck and then fell from the sky. Warden hadn’t confirmed or denied that.

Tommy took a shaky breath. “I don’t believe it,” he said so quietly, it was almost inaudible. The hand on his hair tightens. His whole body starts to tremble.

Dreams eyes sunk at the sight. “Tommy…” Dream stood up and he tried to comfort him, “you know I love you, right?” 

Tommy shoots up, “Then why don’t you show it?” He yelled. Tommy shoved past him and ran up the stairs, later slamming the door shut.

Dream sits back down. At the meeting, Tommy seemed..okayish. At one point he seemed shaken up. Dream hoped that Tommy knew he could talk to him.

Then why don’t you show it? 

He cooks him food, buys him things, and put a roof over his head. And for what? To show he’s just doing things?

Then why don’t you show it? 

Dream does show it. Sure, he’s not the most affectionate person in the world, but he tries.

Then why don’t you show it? 

He doesn’t want to trouble Tommy. He hides what he feels behind a mask, for the sake of Tommy. He deserves his best life, and Dream was going to give him that.

Then why don’t you show it? 

He thought Tommy didn’t like hugs, he thought Tommy didn’t like when he said, ‘I love you.” 

Define love.

Suddenly he was back with Puffy.

“George most likely has a different love language, that's all!” Puffy reassured 16-year-old Dream. “Some people like hugs and being told ‘I love you’, while others do.”

“What am I supposed to do!? Buy him things?” The 16-year-old retorts. “George doesn’t even like the things I give him!”

Puffy exhaled, “Some people–”

“I mean, sure. When I give him something, he pauses. Then he asked me why I gave it to him. I say ‘it’s because I love you!’ Then I ask him if he likes it, and he says ‘sure.’” He stopped pacing. The 16-year-old groans, “It’s hopeless.” he flops back down on the couch. “Why do I even bother? It’s not like he cares.”

Puffy chuckles, “What if he does? Some people just don’t show it.”

The therapist jots something down in her notebook. It was silent for a moment.

“I know he loves me.”

She looks up.

“We go out to places, we make jokes, he laughs and smiles a lot,” he told her. “But at the same time, I can’t be so sure. ”

“That is a problem for you?” Puffy asked.

The 16-year-old quiets in thought. He knows George loves him, at least he thinks he does. He thinks the reason George doesn’t say ‘I love you’ or give him physical affection is because his mere presence is enough, but for Dream, that isn’t enough. “I suppose it is. I like being reassured that I’m loved, instead of having to assume it.”

Present Dream sighs. Because of George and his love languages, Dream had to stop being ‘super affectionate’. (Something George would say). Clearly, that wasn’t enough. Dream continued to assume he was being loved, and George continued to be less expressive. That was one of the reasons for their downfall…or more of his.

Then why don’t you show it?

Dream’s eyes widened at the realization. He was doing the same thing George was doing to him. Tommy didn’t need gifts or things like George did. His brother wanted Dream to react to things he said, instead of pretending he didn’t hear a thing. Maybe Tommy did like hugs and being reassured he was loved. Dream doing nothing was making things worse for Tommy, he was sure of it. Fuck, Tommy probably felt irrelevant. Did he have to reassure himself about Dream caring for him?

Tommy knows Dream loves him, right?

Like gum to hair, he couldn't get the thought out of his mind. His attempts to fix the problem only make it worse. Eventually, he has to cut it off. A wave of guilt crashed over him as he went upstairs.

Dream heard sniffles coming from the other side of the door. His hand trembled as he knocked on the door.

“Go away,”  Tommy’s voice, muffled.

Doing the exact opposite, Dream opened the door. 

Tommy sat on his bed, making no notice of Dream. His back was away from him.

Dream stood a few feet away from him. He was thinking of words to say, until Tommy spoke up, “I have to face the fact that I feel hurt. I want to ignore it,” he sniffled. “But I just can’t! ” His voice heightened. 

Dream saw Tommy’s arm lift, most likely wiping tears. He looked down, shameful. Dream has never seen Tommy cry like this, and it isn’t the best feeling. “Tommy–”

“I’m not weak,” he exclaimed, wiping his whole face with his sleeve harshly. “I'm a big man and big men do big things.” 

A small, saddened smile tugs Dream's lips, “Crying doesn’t make you weak. It makes you ready for the future.” He sat on Tommy’s bed. Tommy didn’t need to reassure himself, not anymore. Dream was going to do anything and everything in his ability to make sure his little brother lives his happiest life. A few sweet words could get him started. “Tommy, you are the greatest gift the Sun and Moon shined down on me. Your love and affection will always brighten my day, as well as for others. It’s a joy to have you around. I wouldn’t know what to do in my life without you being alive. I just want to say I love–”

Air rushed out of his lungs as he was tackled into a hug. His smile brightened, “Tommy! I didn’t get to say–”

“You don’t have to!” Tommy hugged him tighter, “You’ve found a way around it, with better words than ‘I love you’.” 

Dream’s heart swelled with joy. Having the opportunity to be able to fix his relationship with his brother makes living worth it.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sincerity Sensor: What is false, and what is truth? Truthfulness is the property of being in accord with fact, and falseness is not in accord with fact, incorrection. Sincerity Sensors know when you're lying and telling the truth. Would you be able to tell the difference?

Weakness: Can only sense full lies and truths.

Energy: Lunar.

.-.-.-...-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..

Health Helper: Health is a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. The levels of healing depend on how big the wound is, not speed. A Health Helper can heal whatever depending on the level of mastery. Healing requires the patient to be alive, even if on death's doorstep. 

Weakness: Death. The level of mastery. Rate of speed.

Energy: Solar.

Chapter Text

Lucid and 404 cover their ears as Protesilaus sound waves crash through them. Lucid takes 404 by the arm and uses his grapple gun to get away from Protesilaus sound range. 

Oizys nods to Protesilaus, he nods back. 

Both villains jump to the next building where the heroes are currently on.  Lucid charges for Protesilaus with his right arm high. Protesilaus dodges and grabs Lucid by the waist and throws Lucid over his head. Lucid touch the ground with his hand and flips.

Oizys bumps into a brick wall. They fetch a pink glowing ball from their coat and throw it in 404’s direction. He ducks and the ball hits Lucid’s foot. It expands into a goo-like foam and hardens. 

Lucid tries to pull his leg but Protesilaus punches him in the stomach. The foam shatters like glass as Lucid flies into a brick wall. 

404 grabbed something from his jacket, a white rod. It was the size of a lotion bottle. He pointed it to the sky. Lucid has a hard time getting up but manages. When he finally sees what's going on, he yells at the other hero. Clouds form above 404, and lightning strikes between them. 

The villains take a step back, ready to run.

Lightning bolts down on the rod and it starts glowing. He doesn’t have much time before it explodes. So he points it to the villains and releases the–. Lucid tackles 404 to the ground. The rod flings out of his hand and energy shoots out in another direction. The villains make their dashing escape, jumping from building to building.

“Whoa.” Tommy is on the edge of his seat. This is like the second-best thing to a movie. 

Fundy clicked off the video. “Okay so–”

Tommy interrupted him, “Who were they?” He asks an awkward smile plastered on his face.

Fundy raises a brow, “Who? The heroes?”

Tommy shakes his head. “No, no.” He runs his fingers through his hair. He laughs. This is pretty ironic. He has personally spoken to the heroes and now works in close proximity to them but he doesn’t know their opponents. 

He lives in a world where there are heroes and villains, heroes and villains that have abilities, with everyone else in the world, and Tommy doesn’t know who the villains are.

Tommy points to the screen, “Those two!”

Fundy follows Tommy’s finger. His eyes widen, “Protesilaus and Oizys?” He looks at Tommy with wide eyes, “Are you fucking serious?”

Tommy grimaces, “yeah?” Maybe he should have said nothing at all.

Fundy stood there in shock–which, is expected. It would be okay if Tommy didn’t know Oizys. They usually are out before school hours, when Tommy is asleep, but Protesilaus? Protesilaus second-handily defeated every single hero that was thrown at him. He is number two on the ‘Villian Watch List’, beating Zepherus. 

Fundy shakes off his shakenness. He’s never met a person that didn’t know those villains. “The one with sunglasses, a white undershirt, a black corset, brown boots, brown coat–”

“Okay! I get it! They're like a poet, right?”

Fundy nodded. “Yeah, and um, Protesilaus has the long, pink hair.”

Tommy knows somebody with long, pink hair.

Fundy didn’t care to elaborate on what he is wearing, but, Tommy is captain of the fashion department in Theater Club. Sure he doesn’t know most pieces of clothing and during important events, he doesn’t wear the best, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know shit. So, in Tommy’s words, Protesilaus is wearing a red marching band uniform (without the hat) and a nice pair of boots. It does have some gold buttons and stuff. The looks of the Villain’s costume are so much better than what Tommy could describe. 

Fundy gives Tommy his work papers. All he had to do was point out the heroes' mistakes and tell them to do better. This is easy enough, but Tommy’s mind went blank for whatever reason. He was too focused on the fight he forgot to analyze it. “So, uh, question.”

Fundy raises a brow, telling him to continue. 

“This is gonna sound awful, but–”

“You weren’t paying attention.”

Red crept onto Tommy’s face. He ran his hand through his hair while laughing. “Yeah.”

Fundy smiled. “That happened to me too on my first day.” He played the video back, “Just pay attention this time.”

Tommy nodded and moved his gaze to the screen. 

Fundy is nice.

-=================-

“This is Wilbur,” Fundy said in an almost sheepish manner.

Wilbur perked up at the sound of his name. “Fundy, is that you?” He said in a baby voice. He faced Fundy where he was sitting.

Fundy’s face turned red as he grumbled something no one heard.

Wilbur smiled and then noticed another person in the office. His smile turned upside down. “Who is this?” He asked, already knowing the answer.

Fundy shook the embarrassment off and introduced Tommy. “Wilbur, this is Tommy. The new intern.”

“...Tommy,” Wilbur said mumbling wistfully. Sadness clouded his features as he looked at Tommy in almost what seemed to be regret. “Well Tommy, it’s nice to meet you.”

Tommy nodded in agreement–a bit shaken up by the emotional response. Has he already screwed up?

Fundy looked between the two, “Right. Well, I’ll leave you to it Wil.” Fundy begins to walk towards the door.

Wilbur instantly lit up, “Okay! My son!”

Tommy’s eyes widen, “Son…?” 

Fundy glared at him, “no, not son,” he said sternly, “he is not my father.”

Wilbur chuckled, “Not biologically of course. But in bond.”

Fundy rolled his eyes, “I’ll be back.” 

And with that, he shut the door.

Wilbur turned to Tommy, “May I see your report?” He held his palm out.

Tommy placed it in his hands, “Yeah, man.”

The older scanned over it, “guard down, separation,” he mumbled, “tackle and pinning down.” Wilbur look up, “You know the reason for that?”

Tommy wondered if Wilbur was asking him a question just because he didn’t know or if he was making sure Tommy knew. 

He shrugged his shoulders.

“With Oizys ability taking place,” Wilbur started, “the heroes were way more emotional than they needed to be,” he laughed.

“So Lucid wouldn’t have tackled him and 404 wouldn’t have used his super cool lighting rod?” 

“Yep,” Wilbur replied.

Tommy’s eyes lit up, “THAT’S SO COOL!” He shouted in excitement.

Wilbur chuckles, “Yeah, I guess so.” 

He placed Tommy’s report on the desk and took out his phone. 4:15. This is going to be awkward. “What do you want to eat?” Wilbur asked, hoping this would get him out of his comfort zone.

Tommy sat down, “Huh?”

He redirected the question, “What do you want from Chick-fil-A?” Wilbur tapped on the app.

Tommy looked up at the ceiling, “Uh, I don’t know. The nuggets?”

Wilbur gives him a look, “Nuggets?” He bursts out laughing, “Of fucking course you want nuggets!” His face turned into a tomato as he was wheezing.

Tommy grinned but tried to cover it up. “H-hey! They're good!” He shouted. Tommy couldn’t believe this man! Making fun of someone for their food preferences!? 

That bastard. 

He’d be damned if he starts talking about the fruit cups.

Wilbur smirked, “You want a children's book with that?” Wilbur mocked him in the tone you would speak with when you talk to a baby.

The gremlin child laughed, “Okay–fuck you, man.”

The older put his hands up, “Woah language.”

“You sound like my principal.” Tommy giggled.

“Who? Mr. BadBoyHalo?” 

Tommy’s eyes shot out of their sockets, “You know Bad!”

Wilbur scratched his jaw, hair prickling his fingertips. “I went to Newbrooch High.”

Tommy wheels his chair closer to Wilbur, “really?”

“If you're implying I’m old,” with his foot, he pushes Tommy’s chair back with enough force that he hits the wall.

“Hey!”

“—Then you’re mistaken.”

Tommy pushes his foot onto the ground and accelerates backward, hitting Wilbur’s chair. “I'm just saying you don’t look like you from here.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re not from here either.” The older wheels the gremlin's chair next to him.

Wilbur's words went unfazed by Tommy. “You look like you can from that one landfill in Westinglog.”

That particular landfill Tommy is talking about has a lot of animals, specifically raccoons. Wilbur smirks, “Like-wise.”

Fundy opens the door, “your food is here.” He says in the most ‘9-5 employees’ voice ever. He walks in empty-handed.

Before Tommy could even voice his confusion, Fundy’s hand goes into an invisible force and disappears.

“Wha–!”

He throws a smaller box at Wil and a larger one at Tommy.

“The fuck!?” The younger says in great astonishment.

Wilbur claps, “Well done son!” 

Tommy stares intensely at Fundy’s still-gone hand. The space around where his hand has gone is warp-y but the door and desk around it is still visible.

Fundy pulls back out and throws money in it. It disappears. 

Wilbur notices Tommy's astonishment and smiles, “Fundy’s a Supply Summoner. Cool right?”

All Tommy could do was nod.

Fundy sits down in another swirly chair. He takes his phone out and starts scrolling.

Tommy takes out his nuggets and right when he was about to eat one, the number one and two heroes, Lucid and 404, enter.

“I need an ability analysis and a fight report,” Lucid says in his high demanding voice.

Wilbur wipes his hands and starts to type up the analysis. 404 walks over to him to project it onto a holographic screen.

Tommy hands Lucid the report.

He scans over it. “This is all basic information.”

The younger dips his nugget in sauce, “‘If it was basic information, then why didn’t you use it to the best of your ability?’” He pops it in his mouth. “My old teacher used to say that. Then I told him I don’t have an ability.”

A sizeable holographic screen appears. Graphs and log analytics show. 404 observes the screen. “Oizys barely used their ability.”

“That means we were already pushed to their liking.”

“We?” 404 eyed Lucid.

Lucid faced the hero. “Yes, we . You thought you had the right to use Twitch .”

The #2 hero clenched his jaw, “I do have the right to use Twitch …it’s my fucking weapon.” 

Tommy snickers, “Gods, get a room!”

Lucid turned to him wordlessly. His mask caused such a feeling of dread Tommy could feel Lucid’s anger restrain his energy that begged to be released. Tommy winced under his harsh gaze.

Right...Lucid has a boyfriend.

Someone nudges him, “You alright?”

Tommy laughs, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Wilbur rolls his eyes and roughly ruffles Tommy’s hair.

“Hey!” 

Lucids and 404’s arguing continues. It's crazy how they're allowed to work together.

Looking at Wilbur, Tommy has this sense of familiarity. It was like he felt Wilbur’s energy before. Not the type of energy you get from a person when you speak to them, it was the kind of energy that supplies your ability. The thing is, they just met. Wilbur and Tommy could have passed each other on the streets but they have to have been together for a long duration of time for Tommy to be able to remember Wilbur’s energy.

He wanted to ask, but it’s not really professional to ask your co-worker what their ability is. 

“Okay, you know what! Fuck you, I'm leaving.” Lucid walks out.

Fundy snickers, “Damn.”

404 checked the clock, “Tommy if you don’t leave now you’re going to miss the bus.”

Tommy hastily grabs his things, “Oh fuck,” he ran out the door.

-============================================-

Walking home was probably the most calming feeling as of now. There was nothing to interrupt him but his thoughts. He looked around the lonely streets of Newbrooch. Last night was….something.

It didn’t make sense to him. How could he forgive so easily? How could he break character? The feeling of loneliness has been drowning him for a while. No one knew, of course. He had made sure of that. Being this outgoing, loud, reckless kid was all for his character. He’d suppose most of it was to be able to feel something, but it always backfired in the end (for instance, getting jumped by raccoons). Even then, Tommy has always felt this way. 

Ever since he was a kid. 

He was only nine when it happened. 

Tommy never got to see Dream for more than an hour. He was always leaving to go to these “sessions”, one for strength and one for guidance. When he was free, he was with his friends, going to this “secret park” that snowed during the hottest days. Nine-year-old Tommy was very bold. One day, he caught Dream before he left. 

“Can we go somewhere together?” He asked. He pulled on his brother's sleeve. 

Dream was too stunned to speak. That was expected, he hadn’t talked to his brother in a long time. Little Tommy feared he would say “no”. So, in protest, he ran past Dream and shoved him inside.

“Tommy!” His brother shouted, stumbling back. “I’m sorry, I can’t .” he said, “this date is too important.” 

“More important than me?” Tommy retorted. Family was always first, but by how unresponsive Dream was at the moment, he wasn’t too sure. Tommy blocked the door, “Please!” He whined. “Please!” He whined again.

Dream stared at him, so Tommy stared back.

He rolled his eyes, “Fine.” He took Tommy by the hand and they left.

“Where are we going?” Tommy asked. Wonder filled his eyes. It was the first time his brother willingly took his hand.

“To the mall.” They stopped at a bus stop.

Minutes pass but they made it to the mall. Dream let go of Tommy’s hand and ran for a stranger in blue. They began to walk away and Tommy hurried to catch up. So many people pass and cool-looking stores caught Tommy’s eye. Unfortunately, Tommy wasn’t looking where he was going, causing him to bump into someone. 

“Sorry,” Tommy backed up while apologizing. 

A kid in purple looks to be around the same age as Tommy. The kid shrugged his shoulders. He walked past Tommy.

Tommy looked forward, but Dream wasn’t there. Tommy looked behind him, but Dream wasn’t there. 

A stranger bumped into his shoulder, “Sorry kiddo.”

A little kid pushed past while running. 

Tommy fell to the ground. Suddenly, it got too cramped. A tall figure walked past him, making no mind to a kid on the ground. 

Ever since he found out Dream left him–on purpose–Tommy would tell himself, he always had this feeling his brother never liked him.

A crash pulls Tommy out of his thoughts. “What in the actual fuck.” He pauses and slightly turns his body to the noise. After the raccoon incident, he’s been a lot more careful of his surroundings. No longer shall Tommy walk in alleys without further inspection. “Hello!” He calls. 

A flash of pink light floods Tommy’s vision. Tommy steps back and trips on his shoelace. He yelps and falls to the floor. “Oww..” He rubs his eyes. He hears foot’s steps approach him.

“Tommy…?”

Tommy whips his head up to see a girl in a Military Lolita dress. The top layer of the skirt is black along with her jacket, tie, hat, boots, and mask. The second lair of the skirt is a soft pink along with her blouse. The bottom layer of the skirt is white along with the strappings, tights, and gloves. The dress itself is black and the secondary color is soft pink. This couldn’t be no other but the villain Nemesis.

“You look concerned, are you alright?” The villain says with worry laced in her voice. She waits for his answer.

Tommy realizes she has a gun in her hand.

“You should go home.”

A figure runs out of the alley and Nemises shoots them without turning her gaze away from Tommy. 

Tommy’s eyes widen as he sees the figure falling to the floor. He takes a deep, shaky breath in. “Holy Gods of Light, what the fuck.”

Nemesis acknowledges the figure on the ground and she steps away from the kid. “Oh Miss Moon,” Nemesis mumbles. She takes out her communicator,  “I’ll call Hermes to come and get you. I don’t think it’s fit to let a 15-year-old walk this late.”

“I don’t want him to know where I live!” Tommy shrieks. It wasn’t because Hermes was a villain, it was because he seems like a crackhead. 

Nemesis takes Tommy’s words into consideration but quickly redirects herself. “He won't hurt you,” she says in the hope to comfort the teen, “We just want to make sure you come back to your home.”

Back to my home..what!? “N-no thanks, I can get home just fine.” Tommy gets up and smiles for good measure.

“Oh..”

Tommy turns to the unfamiliar voice.

“I came all the way down here for what? At least give something.” Hermes says and walks over to Tommy.

“Wait–how did you?” He looks behind him for Nemesis but she’s not there. He turns back, “How the fuck did you get here so quickly?”

They both start walking to Tommy’s home.

“Suprise..!” Hermes says.

.-..-.-..-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-..-...

Supply Sender: If you could have anything in the world, where would it be? A Supply Sender opens portals to different parts of the world and transports objects in or out. Usually, these portals cannot be seen by the human eye. So, if you ever need anything, call up a Supply Sender!

Energy: Solar.

Weakness: Mass and Distance.

.-...-...-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sound Sniper: Sound is vibrations that travel through a medium and can be heard. A Sound Sniper's limits are endless. They can create sound, manipulate sound, mimic sound, nullify sound, absorb sound, etc. They can do anything as long as a medium is present. 

Energy: Solar.

Weakness: No medium, distance(?), disturbances.

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Curse Creator: Having a bad day isn't always your cause. These people don't need ingredients, all they need is their minds and a victim. A Curse Creator creates hexes, jinxes, and curses. So, If I were you, I wouldn't get on their bad side.

Energy: Lunar.

Weakness: not enough knowledge, skill, and/or power.

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Super Surpriser: Surprises, surprises! We love surprises. A Super Surpriser gets an enhanced condition that changed unexpectedly throughout any duration of time. An enhanced condition can change from a powerful enhanced strength to a useless enhanced beauty in whatever amount that surprise lasts. As of now, scientists aren't sure how long an enhanced condition lasts or what pattern the condition switches in. It's a real surprise! 

Energy: Solar.

Weakness: Depends on the enhanced condition, not knowing the enhanced condition changes and if you can control the enhanced condition.