Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Today we look back on the day of reckoning, one year ago the worst day ever happened to our beautiful country, our beautiful people” The news reporter is speaking a script but it almost sounds like it’s actually got emotion in it, but it didn’t 

Because they weren’t there that day 

They didn’t feel any of the heartbreak that he felt

Yet they continued 

“Many of the country’s greatest protectors were lost that day, heroes and vigilantes alike and we thank them for all they’ve done” They paused either for their emotions or just for that E F F E C T “For all they’ve sacrificed” like you would know anything about that

  “ no matter how they were like before they all came together to help” the reporter looked on the verge of tears as they continued, seemingly through their heart “this year a memorial service is being held for not only those brave souls but the others who tragically lost their lives in the fallen rubble and blood coated walls” 

They pause for a few seconds hoping to get their emotions in check but you can see them failing, the tears are there but it’s not like anyone would be judging them for it considering everyone was weak…not like him…never like him

“Let them live on in our memories” 

The lines are choked out and the screen fades to photos of the memorial in a new pristinely built city

It seems not everyone wants to remember, they just want to move on, to continue how they were 

Why would they when they or their money weren’t affected 

Slowly the screams that had grown so familiar in his past filled the room leaving him in darkness 

I guess it never really left, none of them left 

How could they after what he’d done

                           ————————————————————

He opened his eyes,

the alarm was blaring too much to ignore it so he was forced to get up and repeat the day that had done for months now and to be honest it absolutely sucked, all the old ladies complaining and him actually having to have a smile through it all

At least he’s doing he’s doing something and not just wallowing in pity and guilt, he doesn’t help in the way he used to it hurts too much to do that, 

only for now hopefully 

But it still made him feel guilty, no matter how much it hurt him he should be out there helping others not just…doing whatever this is 

I guess that can’t be help though and so it probably shouldn’t be something he should be worrying about right now because the day waits for no one

Getting out of bed he hears his name shouted from the kitchen “TOMMY INNIT YOU ARE GONNA BE LATE FOR WORK”

Better hurry or else he’ll get defenestrated again

Isn’t such a great word, defenestration, it’s the act of being thrown out a window which isn’t so great but still    what an amazing word

Wrestling with his hoodie of the day  Tommy walks into the kitchen to grab his none exist breakfast, they just didn’t have the money to eat so much food and anyway he’s used to not eating much

Taking a moment he asks “Where’s Ranboo? I thought he wakes up really early” that was true, he was always awake before even the sun and Ranboo was hard to miss considering the fact that he was like 7ft tall and was usually the one to make sure he doesn’t lose his job 

Falling onto the couch Tommy sees that Tubbo is already working on his busted ass computer, without looking up or even stopping he just answered his question kinda annoyed (probably at how late he is for his job) I think he’s asleep still, he might have done the night shift as well”

Tommy sighed, Ranboo definitely known he wasn’t meant to do that no matter how bad their situation was and he Literally said as much

Such a Hypocrite 

Tubbo stops completely and just stares into Tommys very soul, he has the ‘excuse me wtf’ yet it’s still able to unsettled his soul

“I said that aloud didn’t I”

Tubbo sighs but goes back to work, so Tommy just counts this as a win, says his goodbyes and goes to work

 he had all he needed in his pockets from yesterday anyway so there’s no point staying anymore

Even though he really should’ve just stayed if not the entire day, at least a little while

Maybe he could avoid this cruel fate, although it’s only a mugging the universe surely does hate him 

He had started running towards the bus stop once he realised that he was definitely going to be late

Panting he had made it in time, the bus however had not

He regretted running because  “typical logstedshire” but he certainly didn’t regret his extra sleep 

leaning on his knees he looked up at the man that sat at the bus stop and had said his exact thoughts 

and immediately judged him for sitting on the shity half of a bench that the city had so graciously included in the bus stop

Seriously though that thing had like 200 things wrong with it including that people that had sat on it before

They did awful things to that bench and Tommy would never make the mistake of sitting on that bench ever again

Finally catching his breath and the eyes of the man who had been actually been creepily staring at him since he ran around the corner to the bus stop

Although now the man had his attention and an equally creepy smile plastered on his face, 

Tommy watched him for his next move as you can never be too careful (or ignorant) of the people of this dumb ass city (he understands why the hero’s hate caring about this place, the people suck…yes he had cared about and protected them but that doesn’t mean lots of them weren’t criminals or creeps) 

he saw the man start to speak “but now I get to sort out my bus fee” he took Tommy a second to realise what was happening 

to be honest He was just done with this, this entire thing was stupid including the fact that no one pays any bus fees here, no one cares or even has the money to waste on those stupid things 

The man slowly stood up, eyes locked on him “why don’t you just hand over your money kid, neither of us want this to go south, do we?” At this point this is just fucking annoyed with this man’s whole insinuating voice, the creepy aura he gave off, also the fact that he called him kid

 no one calls him a kid

Tommy watches and waits for the man to finish his little strut over to him, even if that struts leads him to be a few centimetres from his face

He’s so close that all the wrinkles and crusty bits can be fully seen, 

Dude, this guy is fucking old

Why is an old man trying to threaten him? Tommy has no idea so he just blurts out “get your gross face away, no one wants your rabies old man”

 he totally didn’t mean it….totally 

Before either of them could say or do anything the bus just appeared next to them

Ok it didn’t appear it’s just that neither of them were paying attention especially when the bus driver yelled for the man to get away from Tommy 

At least there are some good people here 

He hops onto the bus goes to the back as he has to wait quite a few stops, it’s a big city and his job is a whiles away 

After half an hour Tommy finally gets off the bus, his destination only a few blocks away 

10 blocks 

He’s got like 5 minutes 

So naturally he starts running because he caught the wrong damn bus, he was meant to catch the one before since it took the other route through more of the suburbs but no he had to have his sleep

Through his panicked running he didn’t manage to notice the person in the shadows or the damn time because he ends up around 4 minutes late and absolutely exhausted 

but hey that’s 9 minutes, that’s not the worst time he’s run that and definitely not the worst late time 

Almost falling into the door beneath the pastel sign that announces his boss Nikis cafe to the world 

She owns it with her wife Puffy, she gives him free food so she amazing and definitely good enough for Niki

Taking a deep breath he jumps over the counter that connects to the front wall and walks to the back to get his apron, unfortunately for him though he spots Niki there and Niki spots him

She’s baking cake, there’s probably a shortage of it on the display so he notes that down and tries not to get fired

“Hiii Niki” 

She just gives him a look 

He should have realised that he wouldn’t have gotten away with the late entry, especially with just a hi 

She luckily just sighs and says “At Least it’s only 4 minutes this time, the day shouldn’t be that busy and graysons called in sick so you’ll have to do the closing shift as well” 

She pauses for a moment and adds “also no jumping over the counter there’s a liftable part to it so please use it”

Tommy grimaces at the last part - she always knows when he does that- but other nods to the rest of what she’d said 

Tying his apron he goes to check the cakes, they seem fine so he goes to see what else he’s missing from the display today

There’s nothing missing 

In Fact it’s all stocked all

Nikis been stress baking again, what about though everything with her seems fine though so this must be something new

He’ll just ask her tomorrow when he comes into work

For now he’ll just get through today, one problem though It’s an extremely slow day

Niki was right as she alway is

He wouldn’t wish for a busy day just something a bit less boring y'know like it didn’t have to be absolutely nothing all the time 

Today the universe gave him his wish, was it still a cruel act or just a nice act for all the harm it’s thrown at him

Well you’ll know soon

Chapter Text

he really should’ve just stayed home if not the entire day, at least a little while

Maybe he could avoid this cruel fate, although now it’s not only a mugging 

It’s a goddamn building 

He was making a latte for a customer, his final one before he would take his lunch when noticed a ruckus outside, that wasn’t uncommon so it wasn’t all that worrying but he did take note of it

Thing is he really should have payed more attention, then he might have realised what was actually happening outside the cafe 

On the other side of the glass that separates Tommy from the outside world a Villain was fighting a certain strength based hero 

The villain had launched at the hero firing out spewing flames however they missed, only giving the hero a few slight burns while they staggered to get up with their almost broken leg, the hero only stood waiting for the next onslaught of fire not paying attention to anything but his foe

Turning to fight once again the villain was suddenly lifted off the floor, they tried firing lots of fire but in their flailing they once again missed the hero instead being spun around and launched into a door made almost entirely in glass and steal

Ouch 

Even more painful when they flew through the door into the back wall of the cafe well that’s not good 

The building began to fall inwards due to the force of the throw causing many inside to get crushed under piles of concrete 

One of those being Tommy who was setting up the display which he had noticed was getting empty, no matter the slow day, he had looked up and had seen the villain crashing into the back wall along with the cracks of the concrete 

It was too late though 

 His eyes widen in fear and he attempted to fling himself out the way but the walls still crumbled and fell knocking him and everyone in the building out and under piles of rubble 

It takes a while but Tommy eventually wakes along with others in the store but what set him apart was how much he began to panic

Tommy started clawing and flailing at the concrete trying to move it while his breathing picked up but no matter how hard he tried it wouldn’t move off or away from him, he did not have the strength to move the concrete and his legs were trapped under a large piece of rubble

His thoughts were fast, panicky and downright depressing with him begging, apologising for not doing more and him thinking that he was sure to die here

Same as they had but this time you’re all alone

The last of his thoughts he started speaking, more yelling for help

“HELP, PLEASE! GET ME OUT OF HERE! PLEASE” 

It didn’t help though, his quick breaths, screaming and erratic movements wouldn’t set him free and soon felt himself falling into the inky darkness once again 

“I’m sorry” was the last thing he managed to say, his breath laboured and filled with desperation before he went back into the unconscious 

Luckily Tommy woke again but this time when he woke again he was met with bright, blinding white

He covered his eyes with his hands and tried to blink away the light but instead his eyes adjusted and he saw white ceiling and walls 

Uncovering his eyes he looks around and takes in the room

It's a hospital room 

Although cleaner and overall nicer than he thought they were like, Tommy had heard stories about the hospital but had never been to one himself 

Even if he should have

He was told that the logstedshire hospital wasn't really worth going to, no matter what it's just not the best especially if you could fix it at home (well thought you could) so that's what they had always done

This place however was nothing like that and that realisation began to panic Tommy because if this wasn't the logstedshire hospital then what was this place, where was this place

Suddenly he was thrown out of his thoughts by someone coming into the room 

His eyes snapped to the person momentarily clear minded but that soon ended when the person started speaking to him

"Hello, I'm here to ask some questions about you" 

Okay it's not that much panic but it's still panic, they can't know everything and sure as hell he wasn't gonna tell them everything

But what if they could tell when he was lying, he knows someone who could do that so it's not impossible

Also it would makes sense if this was an interrogation

The person spoke again

"Nothing too personal just some stuff about what you remember before waking up here and simple information like your name and stuff" 

Guess he was overthinking again 

" Ok what do you want first" Tommy's tone was unsure and overall just sounded scared which seemed to worry the person

So they asked the first question "How about your name? Mines Dr lemon or Ponk if you want" 

Pausing for a moment he thought if he should but Dr lemon? Ponk? Whatever he was named is a dr, it's in one of his names so he answered " I'm Tommy, Tommy innit" 

Dr whatever his name was smiled at that and continued asking questions like where does he live, what did he remember and what was he doing before the building fell

After the last question he realised that he probably didn't have a job considering Niki's bakery was just destroyed

Niki

"Does she know what happened?" 

"Who knows?" 

Tommy looked up at Ponk realising that he had said that aloud

So of course he panicked once again, he spewed out "Niki, she owns the bakery, she's so nice and now she's gonna be so upset that it's gone"

Ponk simply smiled again and began telling him that "I think there's someone who'd like to see you" and he got up and left the room leaving the door slightly ajar

Needless to say Tommy was left confused

Until Niki slammed the door the rest of the was open 

She half ran to him and asked " are you okay?" While grabbing his face and inspecting him for anything she deemed to be needing fixing up, it seemed that the hospital or whatever this place is did a good job dealing with his injuries because Niki deemed him fine 

He did feel fine so he told her "I'm alright although I am very confused" 

She breathed a sigh of relief at his comment before asking another question"what are you confused about?"

finally it was his time to start asking questions so he did " Well first off where the fuck am I??"

She laughed at that " actually your kinda" she had an odd smile 

"I'm kinda what??" Tommy pressed 

So she continued "Your on the hero towers hospital floor"

Well that left him stunned, so he just kinda sat there for a minute, but only for a minute because then he just yelled "WHAT" causing Niki to shush him while laughing

"Hospital remember, you need to be more quiet"  

That caused them both to laugh "Why am I in the hospital if your meant to be quiet" Tommy questioned her logic

She was still laughing but sounded a bit worried "Because you got hurt in a building collapse" 

Well that reminded him of why he asked about her in the first place "I'm sorry about the cafe"

Niki just smiled softly at him "Its fine I have the money to rebuild it and not lose all that much but while that's happening I'm more worried about what you're gonna do about your job?"

That hadn't crossed his mind 

Before he began to think on losing one of his jobs someone else walked in the door, this new person looked to very guilty about something and more importantly part goddam fox, he's got ears and a tail

He started speaking to them both with a very guilty tone "actually about your jobs, you got a call about being.. uh .. late for the last time" he kinda squeaked the last part out but Tommy still heard it 

Absolutely devastation is what he felt currently and his face must have shown that emotion because Niki hugged him and the fox boy looked even more guilty, if that was even possible 

Fox boy began rambling apologies and other such things but Tommy wasn't listening anymore until something fox boy said caught his attention 

"...You could try to take one of the job openings here.."

"How much do they pay?" 

The fox boy was surprised "what?"

Tommy clarified "I heard jobs here pay more than others, if that's true then I'll be able to have one job and be able to pay for my rent and stuff plus I kinda need a job soon" 

Fox considered it for a minute then seemed to have an idea and ran out of the room yelling back "Wait there!" 

Niki began laughing again "he seems to have that sorted, guess we won't have to worry" she got up to leave " unfortunately I have to leave considering I've been here for a while, sorry I couldn't be here more while you were awake. You'll be let out of here once they've checked you over again. Once you've got out of here make sure to say hi to Tubbo and Ranboo for me" then she waved and left, closing the door on the way out  

Leaving him alone go wait only this time awake and once again looking to a way to get himself back a stable job, not his entire life this time

Chapter Text

Tommy had been discharged from the hospital (wing), luckily there were no problems with any of the surprising monumental amount of paperwork 

Guess that's what the hero tower does, force a whole buncha paper work down people's throats or maybe that's just the normal amount, not like Tommy knows how much paperwork a normal hospital uses

All of the no problems business is great considering his documents were forged around 5 years ago by a random man that one of his friends half knew, a bad choice but hey what are you gonna do when you might not exist 

Or just be bad at finding your legal documents because you're goddamn 11 

Thank you random man

Although the man did fuck up his age 

but then again he did save Tommy a 3 year wait to get a job

 everyone thinking you're currently 19 when you're 16 is a actually a very good thing when trying to earn a living wage apart from the fact the the 'living' wage is never enough to live on

There was one problem to this whole thing though, how the fuck to you get to logstedshire from the hero tower

Tommy had never really been near L'manburg, he had no reason to since it was the rich person part of town and he wouldn't get hired or ever afford to buy a house or apartment near here since they wouldn't want some poor folk moving in next door

So he just decided to wander around the city till he found a subway or any public transportation really

No one’s will mind 

….

Remember how no one wants a poor person in jobs or housing here

Well 

Turns out people don’t want poor folk around at all 

Which Tommy had to find out the hard way and currently he’s getting dirty looks from passersby

One even spit on him

These people are disgusting, it’s not him 

That’s what he keeps telling himself but snarky comments fill up the background with the static of the bitchy rich

Tommy tries to speed up, to get away from the void of voices behind him when he ran into someone 

Into the number 5 hero Spectre 

Tommy had fallen onto the floor but the hero in front of him just seemed kinda annoyed and not really hurt at this which wasn’t that good for the person who had just run into him

Spectre just roughly pulled him up by his hoodie though so it’s okay, maybe

Maybe they know about the bui- no, they do not, go away 

Apart from the Intrusive thoughts spectre also began speaking to Tommy “I’ve received several complaints about you doing various crimes” those lying fucks “but considering they all came within 20 minutes and they all had the Karen voice so I’m pretty sure they just hate you” well it’s pretty clear that spectre just doesn’t care for these peoples bitchyness 

He continued talking still looking very disinterested "So I want to know, what are you actually doing? Because at this point there is no point in you being here"

Spectre seems to be accusing him of doing someone but it's obvious he doesn't know what 

"Well I'm tryna find the nearest subway station because Idk how to get home" Tommy tried to explain but the bitch hero just interrupted him "the train station is …" something must of caught his attention as spectres now scowling at someone " actually I'll just walk you there, I'm bad at directions anyway" he tried to find an excuse to why but Tommy knew why

Someone had been following him. Three rich looking men had been following him

Definitely not with good intentions but it's not like they tried to hide it. They had heavy footsteps and would regularly angrily whisper not so kind things amongst themselves

To give credit though they had tried to hide from Spectre but they must of come out of the side street they ducked into, probably to say he was a lier

Especially considering the whispering that once again filled the background

And because of that Tommy was stuck walking by the side of spectre

Luckily they didn't speak because Tommy doesn't  think he could handle talking to another person after all of this 

Then he luck turns, as it always does 

Spectre starts asking questions

More questions, just what he needed 

"Why are you in L'manburg if you don't have a reason or know the way home"

"I have a reason to be here" comes Tommy's response, he has just a bit too much defensiveness in his tone but the man next to him doesn't mention it. Instead though he waits a minute for him to elaborate but nothing comes

"Great reason, an inspiring story, really amazing stuff man" the sarcasm is immeasurable

"Yep, getting crushed by a building sure is great"

Probably not the best joke to make as Spectre just stops and stares at him like he's grown three heads

But Tommy keeps walking only giving him a look which makes the hero keep walking 

Spectre practically screams his sentence "SHOULDN'T YOU BE IN THE HOSPITAL???"

Tommy just shrugs saying "I just got out from the hero's tower hospital thing"

"Ok" He takes a deep breath like he's the most stressed person in the world "how long have to you been in the hospital wing because I haven't hear of any buildings falling lately"

Realising that he doesn't actually know he just asks "Uhhh what day is it?" 

"Tuesday?" Spectre looks very confused at his question

Tommy guesses the time frame "Well I got in there yesterday so a few hours, like half a day considering it's what like the afternoon, right after lunch"

The hero next to him stops walking again and looks at him with the same confused yet worried look as he did the first time he mentioned the building 

This time Tommy stops and turns around slightly annoying at the stopping and starting going on 

Spectre walks up to him though, instead spewing out his worries "why are you out so early? Did they use a healer? No they wouldn't considering you're a civilian not a hero. What injuries do you have? What are the injuries you get from a falling building… broken bones, internal bleeding, spinal cord injuries, head injuries, and other-" 

Tommy cuts off his rambling with a quick "I'm fine, they probably just gave me a shit load of painkillers"

Walking up and past him Spectre had his head in his hands but lifted his head up to worriedly pity the ‘big man’ next to him

“Did you not hear what I said broken bones, internal bleeding, spinal cord injuries and head injuries. None of that can be fixed with just painkillers and if a building fell then it definitely would be too serious for a few hours” he takes a breath from his rant and then keeps going “are you sure it hasn’t been a week or something??”

Tommy shakes his head “Niki wouldn’t sit there for hours everyday for a week, she’s got manlier- womenlier? Things to do and I couldn't have been out for an entire week” He speeds up seeing the subway entrance trying to end the conversation quickly 

Spectre notices this and just resigned himself to mumble into his hands for the remaining two blocks, something about that's not how those injuries work

Starting down the subway steps he heard a familiar voice calling from behind “Do you know how to get Home from here?” 

Tommy looked back up to the top of the steps and saw that Spectre had stopped walking with him 

“Yep, I know how to read a sign” He responds giving a grin and descending the steps 

————

Walking back from patrol all Wilbur thought about was the weird child who apparently had a building fall on him and was fine in a matter of damn hours

It’s not fucking possible 

So naturally he storms into the hero tower, aggressively presses the elevator buttons and ignores the awkward businessman that keeps shifting away from him in the wait to get to the hospital wing and mutters theories to himself all the way to the check in desk 

The lady at the desk just gives him a look and sighs 

 “What injuries did you get today Wilbur?” 

He deadpans her “None actually” she scoffs “I’m here to ask about a patient”

The lady gave him a look of distrust but turned to her computer nonetheless “name of patient please”

He turns into a goldfish 

“You didn’t get his name?” The desk lady is trying to stifle a laugh but ultimately failing 

“No but I know a building fell on him?” He phrases it like a question because at this point he just feels defeated 

She now sports a look of pity “We had I think 5 people in a fallen building yesterday 12:47pm, 3 of them were in bad condition so they were taken here” she types a few more things into her computer then hands him 1 folder “this is the only one who's left our care so far, all the information we have should be on that file, hopefully that’s your guy”

Wilbur says thanks and runs off back to the elevator with the file

He taps the 78 floor button and waits for the doors to shut, then he immediately opens the file and starts reading, he only just gets past the basic info pages before someone else jumps on the elevator, announced by his loud high pitched yell of “WILBUR, THERE YOU ARE!” 

He looks up face scrunched up in pain “Fundyyyyy, why do you always have to make my ears bled with your screeching?”

Walking into the elevator, Fundy starts up a conversation with a very unusual question “are your job openings still…open?”

Confused Wilbur answers with “yes” 

The other hero answers with a sheepish grin “Well I kinda need you to review someone for it, I uhhh launched a villian into the building they were in causing it to fall in on them…” 

This is not what Wilbur was expecting “does he happen to look like this?” He says pulling out the photo of building boy and holding it up 

“Yeah why…..ohhh” the last bit is said with a realisation “You know about that huh”

He just nods his head going back to reading the folder 

“Why do you have his folder though?”

Wilbur looks up at him “he was being followed by some rich bitches so I walked him to the station, know anything about why he’s out of the hospital?”

Instead of the answers he wants, Fundy just yells, very surprised in his tone “ he’s out of the hospital already? That shouldn’t be happening, not when he was that hurt! ”

Chapter Text

"If all other patients from the building fall are still in hospital- probably for another week to month- how is this kid out??" Fundy is pacing Infront of Wilbur who is currently sprawled out on the living room couch rereading the files for what must of been the hundredth time

They both had gone onto floor 78, SBI's floor
considering that was where the elevator was going to it's not that surprising

“Again he might have healing powers” Was all Wilbur has managed to say this entire conversation

Slamming his hands down on the table in front of him, Fundy stated that “no he couldn’t have.” As he talked he began to stumble on his words, not quite finding the meaning in the series of sentences “Wilbur you’re just trying to convince yourself about…well whatever it is but you know that’s not what happened!”

Head in his hands Fundy began mumbling theories, reasons the mystery child might be fine when someone else entered the room

“What are you talking about now?” It was the voice of someone who had dealt with this before, Phil number one hero and father of the currently moping Wilbur soot

Sad boy Wilbur spoke up “there’s this kid, a building fell on him but he was fine in a few hours and we don’t know how”

Phil just sighed and walked past them towards the kitchen “Why does it matter? He might just have some healing thing”

Fundy lifted his head “Then why didn’t he show any signs”

The others looked at him so he continued “I visited him in the hospital because I was the one to collapse the building, then he showed no signs of any healing”

Phil once again sighed, turned to Fundy and suggested that “Maybe a friend has healing powers, did anyone visit him?”

“Yes there was a lady who was there at the same time as me, his employer I think” He was confused why that mattered but his question was quickly answered with a “well that’s probably your perpetrator” from Phil who was now leaving the room with a container filled with what was probably his lunch

Fundy ran in front of him though so he couldn’t actually leave which earned him a deadpan from the old man

“Hold on I wasn’t actually here to talk about all this” He started to try get rid of the deadpans “actually it kinda is about it but not real-“

Before he could go on his all technicals Wilbur cut him off “the point isssss” and gestures for him to finish the sentence with his circling hands

“That I came to ask about your job offering as the patient - Tommy - lost his job and I was the cause of that so I wanted to fix it” Fundy finished

Phil walked over to the couch and leaned over it to share a look with Wilbur that Fundy couldn’t quite see

Looking back at him after a moment Phil told him that “We have the job open we’ll just need to see his resume” which he smiled at with pure enthusiasm but Phil continued with what Wilbur had dubbed the business look “what about the others though”

Pausing for a moment Fundy tried to think of his response, he had done research on the others but none of them really needed money as urgently and he hadn’t even given thought to the other workers or owners yet

So he chose to be honest “I’m working that out but Im starting with the most urgent case, both in sense of that fact that Tommy is awake and able to work now and that he needs the money the most currently”

Still with the business face Phil set down his food and went to the hallway, probably to go to his office considering that he went the opposite direction of the elevator

After a minute of staring Wilbur spoke up “He’ll be back…… hopefully, he might forget his lunch”

Not looking away from the hallway Fundy just said “Is that the only thing he might came back for”

Glancing towards the man on the couch he saw Wilbur give a half hearted smile

“So I can leave now” it was phrased less of a question and more of a I’m leaving now byeeee
but that didn’t stop couch boy from giving an answer, although Fundy was already in the elevator so he didn’t hear whatever he had to say. Probably just something about being bored on his break

Fundy was pretty certain that Phil went to sort out the hiring of the kid first considering that was the only concrete plan so he sent a mess to the old man saying that he would make plans for the rest and not to worry about it

Thank god he did most of his paperwork yesterday

——————————————————

“It is not our fault that these are some of the worst built buildings in the nation”

Standing in front of a mountain of rubble with yellow tape laid out like it’s a maze of caution stands Niki, others are already filling the streets back up eager to not lose another minute of the busy day ahead of them. The police have not declared it safe to travel yet but no one cares when they have family to feed back home, they cannot lose another minute for time is money, especially here

“Well it’s your problem now” Niki is arguing with a man who seems to not get that she is paying him to rebuild her broken bakery, and it’s not a fun fight “can you rebuild it or not?”

The man is from a ‘higher class’ as his clothes and accent state, it is a note that Niki hates about him. His wealth is blinding him here and it is getting on her nerves

“Yeah but it’ll cost a bit” he drags out the yeah and talks in a way that suggests a common thought amongst the higher class

She‘s trying to stay her usual kind self despite the challenges but it doesn’t stay for long “I gave you what I gave you, I know what it costs and I know I can cover it so you should just do your job”

The man just hums as another walks over to them “what’s happening here?” He’s a police officer and a terrible one by the way he stares at her with poison in his eyes

Niki smiles and responds with a sweet “I own the bakery that was here and I wanted to know how’ll you fix it”

The officer gives an eye roll that he barely tries to hide and asks “your bakery or the unstable builds”

“Both”

“Well we’ll deal with the buildings that we get to i-“ “you mean when they fall?” She interrupts him, her tone now reflects the poison that is now building in the man’s eyes

“Yes” he pauses, looking at Niki “Well what do you want us to do, evacuate the place and blow it up? That would just be a waste” his voice now holds the poison as well

Yet others catch the poison as well, a mother passing by even looks at him in disdain her scowl is practically a snarl

“So you want it to just fall, no matter if people might get hurt” Her face is one of daggers but that does not stop the officer from getting right in her face and shoving his finger a few millimeters from her eye, he stand there attempting to accuse her “Your twisting my words little miss” he growls but it does no use. Niki simply swats his hand away and keeps looking at the ever growing poison in him

He walks away grabbing someone’s clipboard and muttering something about who gives a damn if they get hurt before storming off

Niki signs off on the building and walks away, leaving for her mission

To get this place safe

Only this time it’s gonna involve something special

Chapter Text

The news is on in the background but it’s all in another language for some reason or maybe it’s just fuzzy, who knows?

Tommy had walked into his house, his trip had been shorter than his one this morning. Wait, no. That was a day ago, he had been in hospital for the day

But nevertheless the trip home had been much shorter than the trip to work due to the fact that the trains were running on times he could do 

The train this morning would’ve been a thirty minute wait while the bus was a two minute wait from when he usually left for work, yeah maybe it would have been faster to take the train anyway but he usually gets there right before he would be late just to get that little bit more sleep and Tommy did not want to change that 

However, no matter how much He complains about it public transport isn’t Tommys current issue, his issue was how much the world was spinning, it was like he was on a roller coaster, a really spiny roller coaster 

Maybe he shouldn’t stayed in the hospital a bit longer

There was also the yelling that he thought he heard, but it sounded like gibberish

Did Tubbo decide to finish learning a new language?

Nope he was blacking out, unfortunately it was a feeling he was all too familiar with but it took far too long to realise as it’s not really what he expected. The world was spinning, check, he was confused and couldn’t hear much, check

Tommy felt his legs turn to jelly and his head become both weightless and far too heavy at the same time 

The floor was coming to close now so he could put a check on the falling down

There was a final shout, it sounded rushed and panicked but that was all he could make out as the black dots took over his vision

                                ——————

The last thing that Purpled wanted was to be interrupted, he was on his last round on L’manburgs building tops and he was absolutely sure that no one would do anything now that he had been out for a few hours, it was almost sunrise too

(Who would have thought anyone would try to fight a vigilante at 4:00am? Lots of people actually)

But that didn’t stop this abnormally tall man from… appearing? yep that’s the best word for it

This didn’t stop this abnormally tall man from appearing right in front of him

Guess he has to deal with this, unless…

Looking around the building tops Purpled saw no one else, those damn heroes never appear when he needs them to

But there was also no one to witness

The tall man seems to have finally noticed him so there’s no running away now, no matter that it’s his job to help people

Except that it’s not his job since he doesn’t get paid so..

Just as he tried to turn away the tall man spoke “uh… hello?”

He sounded very anxious and kinda confused. Probably at the fact that some random person in a purple clad suit is attempting to run away from them 

Not to mention the whole being on a rooftop at like 4:00am

Purpled turned around to face the tall man expecting him to continue but he just stood there, so he had to start speaking how dare he make him do this “What are you doing on a rooftop”

Unexpectedly but not actually surprisingly the man started rambling about a friend being hurt, someone passing out (he thinks it’s the friend who passed out) and the building that fell yesterday

It wasn’t that clear or easy to follow so Purpled cut him off “Please stop” the tall man looked at the ground and whispered a “sorry”

Sighing Purpled started actually trying to help. “It’s fine just don’t start rambling, it’s hard to understand” the man nodded and he continued trying to do his job “So what are you doing on the roof of a building?”

The tall man had a sheepish smile as he explained “well I actually don’t know” 

Purpled whispered a wtf, prime help me please to himself that the other person definitely heard because they tried to explain a little more “I was sitting on my couch and I just accidentally teleported here….I think it was because of stress?”

“You don’t sound so sure about that”

Tall man just shrugged and smiled some more 

Purpled clapped his hands together “How did you get so stressed you teleported to a random ROOFTOP?” 

“My roommate was in the accident yesterday and when he got home a few hours ago he just collapsed and I think his heart stopped for a bit” He said it like it was a normal thing “also I’m Ranboo by the way” yep this is a totally normal conversation currently 

How is that person outside the hospital?? It’s been like a day since a building fell and he’s just fine?

Instead of asking how the fuck that person is even alive Purpled setted on trying to get this man home “Do you atleast live in the country?”

He looked thoughtful for a minute “I think I actually live around here actually, I remember that street” Looking around at his surroundings a bit more he said “I should be able to get home, let me just..” 

The tall man turned back into the purple mist and appeared on the street he had said looked familiar, he turned round to look back at Purpled and waved 

He disappeared again, this time out of view 

Purpled started jumping onto the buildings, not bothering to continue his last check over and just deciding to go home

This city can stand a few hours without him 

Doesn’t he know a Ranboo? 

Leaping onto a building ledge, he looks down at a open windowsill and jumps in

It’s his house so it isn’t like he’s breaking in

Purpled had jumped into his bedroom, it was messier than usual with some clothes strung all over the floor and his bed not having been done in the morning so he walked into his living room and fell onto his couch 

He pulled out his phone, checking news for a mention of any thing that could be interesting or helpful 

Something certainly was interesting, that something being that he was apparently out of a job 

The building that had fell yesterday was the bakery he was currently working at….. lucky he wasn’t on shift 

Wait That’s how he knew a Ranboo, his co-worker had talked about some tall bitch with that name and it’s not that common of a name so it must be him

Another mystery is opened though that is the co-worker, Tommy he thinks he names was, Purpled just called him loud, was completely fine after a day. He’d seen (more heard) him complain about a burn he had gotten from one of the machines for two entire weeks so he definitely couldn’t heal that fast himself

Also he doesn’t think that heroes would waste a healer to help some random person

Purpled was pulled out of his thoughts by his phone lighting up, burning his eyes 

His sleep schedule was terrible 

Unlocking his phone he realised it was a message….from the hero tower

Well this can’t be  good 

kinda panicked he read the message only to find that no the hero tower was full of idiots and he was still safe

he also apparently had a job?

Was this a trap, maybe the hero tower isn’t full of idiots 

there’s only one way to see

Chapter Text

Waking up on a bed you did not fall asleep in is worrying, even if it’s your own bed 

Which is exactly why Tommy screamed at the top his lungs

This didn’t do much apart from get a alarm clock thrown at his head just as he sat up, he caught it though and once again he screamed but this time he screamed words “THESE ARE FUCKING EXPENSIVE! ALSO I JUST BLACKED OUT”

Looking at the door way from which the clock was thrown there’s only one doorway in this room he saw Tubbo, he looked very stressed currently which definitely explains why he said these next words 

“You idiot, I thought you died or something! You know how worried we were?”

He was holding onto the doorway and to be honest it looked like he was about to rip the whole wall off

Getting up from the bed Tommy started asking his questions. Finally it’s his turn  “Sorry but I didn’t actually know that I was going to do that, also what the hell happened because I never actually got told what is going on”

He walked past Tubbo to get to the kitchen, he hadn’t eaten in forever but poor goat boy grabbed his shirt and pulled him back “a building fell on you, I don’t know how you got out of the hospital or how you’re not in extreme pain from various different injuries but I do know that you are staying in bed”

Trying to get out of tubbos hold and  once again leave the room Tommy protested “I’m fine, I don’t need bed rest” but the goat just put him in a headlock and dragged him back to the bed 

Well it’s not really a bed, just a mattress with sheets and pillows on the floor

Beds are expensive and they kinda want to eat good food

It works fine, mostly, if you weren’t freakishly tall like Ranboo is

“Did you not hear me, A BUILDING FELL ON YOU” Tubbo clapped his hands together with each word, especially on the building part

Smiling Tommy responded "Yeah and if I can heal from that in a day then I could definitely heal from blacking out by now" 

The goat hybrid held his head in his hands muttering something

Walking out of the room Tommy kept his eyes on Tubbo making sure he didn't look back up, he didn't though so he continued on to the kitchen

This time no one grabbed him when he looked away 

Entering the kitchen he wondered what he would eat, he wanted food but he didn't want to have to make anything

Deciding to just make something fast before Tubbo would inevitably drag him back into their bedroom Tommy rummaged through the cupboards for any thing he could put into a sandwich

When he moved onto searching the fridge he heard Tubbo enter the room "don't drag me back yet, I got a sandwich to make"

He heard a sigh from behind him "We have no bread" 

Thinking for a minute Tommy smiled and responded "Then I'll use lettuce or something"

Tubbo once again informed him of their lack of food "We also don't have lettuce" 

Giving up on making his food Tommy asked "Can we get some then?" 

Looking at his roommate through the doorway he saw him flop onto the couch and flick through tv channels  "We don't have the money to buy enough to justify going" he said when he found the right channel, one of the news channels 

Stomach rumbling Tommy was getting a bit desperate for food "Do we atleast have enough money to order something then?"

"Ehh depends" was the answer he got

He walked away from the kitchen to search for his phone, pulling clothes off the floor he yelled  "Are we getting separated or just one thing?" 

He moved onto the bedside table and rummaged through the draws finding his phone in the top draw 

he heard Tubbo call over the Tv "Uhhhh, separately?" He paused then Tommy heard him get up "Wait what are we having"

Walking over to join his roommate on the couch Tommy responded "burger and fries; if we're having it separately"

Sitting down he made Tubbo move his head, he complained about having just layed back down the restated his previous statement "Then sure we'll have it separately"

Tommy opened his phone to check if he missed anything "Is Ranboo coming or is he busy with work or whatever he’s doing?”

Tubbo sat there for a moment then Tommy watched his face turn to pure worry “He teleported away” was all he managed to say

Tommy, needless to say, was very confused. Although it wasn’t that odd for Ranboo to teleport, it was his power and a very unpredictable power at that, it was odd to see Tubbo very worried at the remembrance of a teleportation episode

Looking up from checking his emails or rather his confused staring at them he asked Tubbo, who was now pacing “Why are you so worried about him? He’s done this before”

Upon all his muttering and repeating footsteps Tubbo looks up at him and says “he teleports like this because of emotions” Tommy nods, he knew this already having been teleported with the tall bitch after he almost squeezed him to death during a nightmare “he was stressed and I mean STRESSED when you walked in and just fell” he emphasised the fell and stressed with his waving hands and a strained voice

Then Tommy understood “the more emotion, the further the jump” 

Jumping off the couch, he stuffed his phone into his pocket and ran for the door

Tubbo followed after him, stuffing three coats into his arms and speeding as fast as he goatish legs could take him

They sped down the old, rusted stairs that on the outside looked like it was a fat chimney on the side of an old apartment building but on the inside looked like a shithole

At one point Tubbo shouted through breaths to grab the check on the mailbox saying “Your last check should have come today, grab it and we can get dinner as well”

Rushing into the cold bitter air of the streets of L’ogstedshire Tommy turned to the side, on the wall of the building was a row of mailboxes

He slammed the opening of the box open, it was rustier than the stairs so it wasn’t all that hard to open. Luckily it was hard to notice though so the mail was safe from thieves 

He saw the pale letter that held cash, all finale paychecks held cash, it was tradition now even if it was still in part to people not wanting the law to mess with any last checks 

Too much time and effort 

Tubbo was now ahead of him, running onto the open street from the small alley that they had entered from their home, Tommy followed quickly his head whipping round trying to spot any freakishly tall figures in the shadows of the what he now realised was the morning 

The moon was about to leave the sky but the clouds were not 

That would be a problem. Even in the dark Tommy could tell that the clouds were dark with rain, good thing Tubbo had brought along their coats 

Ranboo was an enderman, they were burned by water so he couldn’t be out any longer

This made Tommy ask “how long has he been out here?” 

“I saw him like five minutes ag in the kitchen, right before I went to see if you were up yet” was the response, the tone was full of panic. It seemed Tubbo had noticed the rain clouds too 

Suddenly he saw something move, stopping in his tracks Tommy stared at the silhouette, it seemed to hiding underneath a thatched patio and it seemed to be… unusually tall 

He took his chance and ran towards the figure

This time the universe seemed to favour him, it was Ranboo 

He was looking up at the clouds holding his wrists and wearing a worried expression on his face, much like Tubbo and Tommy had 

Ranboo was caught up in his thoughts it seemed as he didn’t notice Tommy running at him until it was too late, he jumped at the tall man tackling him to the ground Tubbo soon piling on top of them 

Smiling Ranboo hugged them, pulling them upright with the help of Tubbo

 “Fancy seeing you here” The goat boy said laughing at his own joke 

Ranboo smile dropped with a bit of guilt “sorry about the disappearance” 

Jabbing him in the ribs Tommy just laughed “Yeah why’d you run off on us, and right before I woke up too” he joked as Tubbo stuffed the tallest coat he was carrying into the endermans arms 

Talking and joking amongst themselves about the teleportation they wrestle with their coats 

Tubbo leaned on the building that they were sheltering under “So we were gonna go to dinner, wanna come?” 

Tommy smirked “you talk like you’re inviting him on a date” 

Tubbo punched him in the side and answered his own question by dragging his two roommates towards the nearest diner as they choked on their laughter behind him saying that they should “hurry up, the rain will get here before you move an inch”

Continuing the laughter Tommy informed him that “Ranboo the American, not you”

After filling the early morning with laughter the three settled down at a breakfast diner they could never remember the name of, they called it the early morning though. It was always open extremely early so no matter when they could go get a cheap breakfast 

Talking about the accident and throwing round theories about it and Tommy’s miraculous recovery from it, considering that no information was to be found for either, they found out that a hero or villain threw the other into a building 

At one point Ranboo and Tubbo started going on about random dumb theory’s that make no sense so Tommy goes back to trying to see what he missed 

Pulling out his phone he noticed a notification, something about a job

Opening the notification he saw that it was a confirmation that he got a job… “at the Fucking hero tower” 

Is this what the Fox bitch meant by wait 

“What?”

Tommy looked at his roommates confused face “I said that aloud didn’t I?”

Chapter Text

Not being able to sleep sucks

Tommy knows this well

Even now he has trouble sleeping, 2 years after it happened it was still fresh on his mind

Especially after the whole building fell on him while he was actually trying to work

He was having a good day, the number of customers that came in was low and they didn't demand too much so he got to bake most of the day

But the Villain had to be thrown, the building had to fall and he had to sit through his thoughts and memories

The memories were the worst it had been in a few months 

And it was probably because of the Villian, Tommy reckons that he knows exactly who the villain was but the only real thing he had to base his theory on was that they had a fire power

Not that great for building a theory on

But that fact didn't help the memories of that bitch who had attacked him just because he was trying to help

Other buildings had already fallen leaving lots of people trapped or worse 

He had just wanted to get them out, to help them not end up like them 

Sometimes he thinks he still has the pain

He can feel it, the crushing weight keeping him down, keeping him from doing anything

He’s left helpless once again 

Or the burns, they weren’t the worst but they were bad, they had covered his arms for months after 

Tommy had tried to block the bastards attacks but all the little protection he had against the fire was gone by then, it probably wouldn’t have done anything anyway

But once again helpless, unable to touch anything without screaming in pain

He hates it, hates it

If he can’t help anyone anymore then what good is he?

Little know downside of placing your self worth entirely on your ability to help people

At Least he’s self aware

Sometimes Tommy wonders if the heroes feel the same way, they were there that day and some of them know what it feels like

Losing a loved one…. or three

At least one of those idiots has to know how it feels 

Maybe he should just be grateful that he’s alive but he can’t shake the feeling that he could have done more or that he has to still be that person 

Even if he can’t 

And Tommy doesn’t think he ever can be that again, it’s freaks him out, makes him feel worthless and it was a horrible realisation when he tried to….and he just couldn’t 

He hated it 

Luckily others rose to fill their spots, helping where they can’t 

Do those heroes have feelings other than hatred Maybe Tommy will get his answer today 

Opening his eyes he sees that his roommates are fast asleep, like any normal person should be at 3am 

They all lay on the mattress, it’s just big enough to fit them all comfortably, with all the blankets they own strewn above them 

He slips away from it, he thinks he doesn’t deserve it….or really need it considering he’s not doing much sleeping currently 

Tommy takes his time with his walk across the room, gathering of his clothes for the day he walks to the bathroom and decides to shower

He stinks and it’s been days since he’s had a proper shower 

Stepping away from the bathroom in his fresh clothes and surprisingly floral scented hair Tommy walks to the front door, stopping to get a bread slice of course 

If he’s going to leave at random times, he’s not going to do it on a empty stomach 

Work should start at 9:00 so he’s got 6 hours to kill, probably 5 if he actually wants to get there on time 

Who makes someone start working a day after their hired, is that normal or had he just been continuously denied working days,   specially after only taking the job because they had a building fall on them 

Nevertheless Tommys got quite a few hours to kill

So naturally he goes straight to where he’s been having nightmares about; western l’ogstedshire, also known as the rebuilt city 

It had tried to become a new city a while back because they were built different or something 

Especially now that they got completely rebuilt 

But most people say that “the city has the space to spare” mainly referring to the fact that l’ogstedshire, logistically, was (the entire)  outside of the greater smp itself 

The city itself was about thirty minutes away from Tommy's current apartment

Actually might be more considering he was gonna walk there 

Tommy headed towards the front door while simultaneously trying to stuff the bread into his mouth and walk as quietly as he could on the creaky old floors, yes the living room was carpet but it was carpet over old floorboards so still very creaky

Slipping on his shoes he paused as he heard footsteps coming from the bedroom 

Tommy stood still as he watched a figure walk through the doorways and listen as their footsteps were slow, unpredictable and most importantly moving toward him 

In the darkness of the lightless morning he made out a tall figure, it was Ranboo 

The boob boy didn’t move like he usually did though, he was usually awkward and hunched over in an attempt to not look threatening but now his hunch had a different purpose, Tommy could also see that he didn’t move like any normal person at all, not even who the tall man was usually

It was like he was stalking something and as the tall figure turned toward Tommy, the shorter one realised that the enderian was stalking him, only to be confirmed by a sudden bright purple light to start leaking from the boob boys now open eyes 

Scrambling to get out the door, Tommy practically threw himself down the stairs racing to get out of Ranboos sight and range before he was made into spaghetti

Seriously that tall bitch went feral when he was near spaghetti, loved the stuff far too much 

Getting out of the stairwell Tommy looked around and saw no purple sparkles, or whatever those thing were, around him and decided that Tubbo would be fine with a rabid Ranboo near him 

This had happened before after all 

It was probably just sleepwalking or whatever the enderian equivalent of that was

Starting his journey to trauma land he fixed his shoes trying to get them right without stopping, he hadn’t put them on properly in his panic and was now suffering 

The rain from yesterday had stopped around midday so the streets were still relatively full of puddles

Fortunately there were barely any cars around since they and their petrol were expensive as hell so there was no chance of getting splashed 

No matter that though since he did still have his legs soaked from almost falling over, shoes are hard to put on 

Walking in his now moist socks he made in way to the rebuilt city, ending up in the town square

There was a fountain in the middle with a statue of “luck and remembrance of the past” 

The statue was a car, it was the only thing that was not damaged

From the screaming and panic of the day Tommy remembered that at the kinda beginning of his battle with the fire bitch had yelled about the fact that was the car belonged to some Sarah lady who brought him food 

It was the last time he had laughed that day 

or even for a while 

And it was still here , the damn car was still standing 

Better than he ever was 

Looking like a true survivor, never feeling like a little kid

And the fucking cars still standing after all this time

There’s not much around the place apart from the fountain, it a concrete town square thing for “remembrance” except it’s not even a fucking square, it’s just roads that lead to a gaint empty space with a fountain in the middle 

The roads are like 50kms away, what is the point??

If it looks like anything it looks like a temporary athletes village, yes the ones at the Olympics 

Looks empty and like no one lives here 

Actually no one probably does since it reminds people of that day, must be cheap housing 

Money or not having to deal with sleepless nights, horrifying nightmares and staring at random spots he remembers him almost dying at 

Tommy decides that since he’s barely made a dent in his time till work starts he’ll just walk around aimlessly 

Spinning around in front of the car fountain he waits a minute then stops, he lands on a street and walks towards the street 

Looking around the empty, dark streets he notices that most of its those weird modern buildings, the ones with the damn squares and the general out of placeness 

None of the streets had any personalities that the old version of the city had, it used to be full of shops and packed streets even in the night 

There was lights filling the streets with those cheap 24 hour snack places and restaurants that he would always pop into because patrol was tiring as fuck and he needed some energy 

But now all of that was gone and now….it’s nothing, the rebuilt is just making the place lifeless 

Yes the whole doomsday thing but most people would’ve still tried to make things better not just leave things like this 

Tommy resigns to the fact that the rebuilt town is more just a remodel town and just decides to sit outside his new work until it opened 

Well he did decide that, up until he saw a figure on the top of the roof

Sure his mind was panicking because of course it is but 

Curiosity killed the cat 

Running down one of the few alleyways, actually it was more of just an opening between two apartments but it had balconies to nowhere and places he could use to parkour onto the roof 

Once Tommy was on the roof he looked around the unsurprising clean and absolutely emptyyyyyyy

Then he heard quick footsteps to his left, squinting to try see something in the moonless night he saw someone jump off the building 

Once again all he saw was a silhouette of the person 

So once again he had to go investigate 

Third times a charm after all 

A building is not going to fall on him 

Or so he thinks…

No there’s no building to crush him this time

Only a shaking hand that he had to try stabilise while jogging over to where he saw the figure 

Looking down at the kinda alley Tommy had expected the figure to have disappeared by now, no one wants to stick around a place like this in the autumn

It is very cold, 

also the fact that if you’re anyone but a hero you have a high chance of getting arrested if you stick around 

But instead of the empty alleyway he sees a person standing there just staring at him, the persons dressed in all purple so he’s probably a vigilante of some kind 

Also his face is covered but like Ranboo covers his face regularly so

More importantly the vigilante was staring directly at him

Tommy yelled at the bitch “why are you running on a building, it’s 3am and it’s really damn cold”

The purple bitch lifted his arm in a wtf motion and yelled back kinda agitated “I’m a vigilante, what the fuck are you doing?”

Tommy Hopped down the building so he didn’t have to yell then told him “visiting the source of all my problems….and following you” he mumbled out the last part but the vigilante seems to have heard it since Tommy can feel the death stare coming from the bitch 

Trying to defend himself Tommy says “I wanted to know what or who you were, I was curious and I’m good at parkour”

Ignoring the last few sentences the vigilante he had been following asked “were you here when doomsday happened”

“Unfortunately” Tommy scoffed “I was trapped under one for the buildings for a few hours, actually I’ve had a building fall on me recently as well” 

Purpled boy took a minute to process that and then finally said “I think I meet your roommate on a roof to yesterday”

“Purpled teleporting tall man?” Tommy clarified 

“Yep, can you teleport as well because you should probably go home”

“Nope” Tommy popped the p and started walking out of the kinda alley way waiting for the other to start following 

They all do this, how does he know this?

because he did it, it’s called caring, you people should try it sometime

Hearing the footsteps move towards him he starts walking asking questions about the vigilante 

He found out that he’s purpled, he might be a hired killer but if that gets the money then no judgement and that he’s kind of familiar to him

Chapter Text

Tommy did make it home but his roommates were sleeping quietly and he didn’t really want to stay home and disturb them so he waited till the Purpled dude left 

And then went to work, yes he had only been out for max 2 hours but it's not like he could just stay home, not like this

Luckily the trains ran early so he didn't have to walk the shadowy streets long, he wanted to walk but it would be far too tiring to walk all the way to the gaint shiny tower that he'd wasted his money on 

They used taxpayers money for this shit, can you believe it?

Plus he did actually have to do things for his work, Tommy did want to keep  this job 

Walking into the station he took one look at the barely visible chart and decided to just try read the train headers

Some asshole decided to spray paint the entire train map thing 

It's no big thing though he'd just have to try not to faceplant into a speeding machine, no way else to read the destinations 

Ignoring the gaint yellow line comprised of the words 'Do not step over this line' Tommy stuck his head out and waited for the distant rumble that signed the arrival of his maybe death 

Even though he got very close to dying, especially on the second attempt that was extremely close only about a meter between him and certain death 

Yes a meters kinda alot but at the speed of a train about to hit you that's barely anything, also consider that it didn't stop at this station just powered on through

The right train came on the 5th attempt, about 45ish minutes of waiting so not too bad

The train was also empty, it was the early morning so understandable

Everyone hates having to get up for whatever hell is awaiting their arrival or what some people call jobs 

Although there no people the floor was littered with stains, liquids and trash, so Tommy almost decided to crawl onto the roof of the train car and wait 

Unfortunately he did not get to do that as someone else ran through the half closed door they stopped and flared at him before strutting, literally fucking strutting to go and sit on the other side of the carriage 

Tommy chose to lean against a poll and face towards the carriage door all while ignoring the person who spent quite some time scowling at him 

He did make to the not quite sparkling tower (don't worry it will sparkle again when the sun shows up) after what felt like eternity on the train and a shorter than expected walk from the station

seriously how did it take him two hours and a whole hero just to find that train station 

The tower was at the end of one major road in the middle of the city, the road itself then went around the block. Actually the block was just entirely the hero tower

It's not actually much of a tower when you think about it

Just a group of buildings with one Skyscraper out the front, apparently it had a giant courtyard in the middle of all the buildings 

Apparently

Look he doesn't just go check that these rumours are true and it's not like anyone really talks about it. For the people who work or are just here most days it's not that important to mention so not many actually know what it really looks like

And the more well off people don't want to inform such wastes of a building like that, don't want them finding out about anything like that 

All the 'lower class' are just villains wanting their money afterall

Considering it's not morning yet Tommy didn't really expect the tower to even be open but crime (and Karens) stop for no one making that Tommy couldn't just take a nap Infront of the building till people came for their shifts 

Security stood at the front of the building, probably all around the block when you think about it

Unless he wanted to be banned from ever coming back, he does kinda look homeless considering the state of his clothes and no one wants that kind sleeping round here 

So he was forced to walk inside and even try talk to the front desk woman

Didn't want to look suspicious(ly poorer than others)

Walking into the glistening building of crime fighting he noticed that the ground floor actually had really high ceilings, the windows outside were liars 

In the middle of the roof there was even a fucking chandelier  

Looking down into the middle of the ground level itself he finds a woman waving him over to where she sits, the front desk. Made to look more like a sculpture with its spiraling wooden design encompassing the work area and stretching to try touch the chandelier above it 

With the amount of snobs here it's probably made of mahogany or something fancy like that 

Tommy walks over to the woman and leans on the wooden bit above the desk dividing it from the rest of the floor "hi there?" The sentence wasn't meant to be a question, or maybe it was, because he didn’t know what the fuck he was doing

The woman continues filling out the paperwork on her desk "what crime do you have to report?"

"Actually I'm here cuz my job starts today.." He trails off hoping she would say something

 Front desk lady looked up confused "this is the worst break in attempt I've ever seen, incase you try this again there are 2 hours till the next group of heroes clock in and 4 until everyone else does" she smiles and goes back to her paperwork, seemingly unworried at what the person breaking in might do next

Taking a moment Tommy responded "I came now because I had absolutely nothing else to do"

Both sounding like she might laugh and she was thoroughly confused the front desk lady "I don't believe you, what employee would come here 4 hours early, don't you need Sleep?"

"I physically can't at the moment"

Stopping her paperwork once again to look back up at Tommy, he could the grin on her face. This whole thing must have been hilarious to her

 she asked "go on a walk then, you don't have to be here 4 hours early"

"I actually went on one…for two hours" He was trying to smile while hoping that she didn't actually think he was trying to break in"it was quite eventful"

Front desk lady started laughing "by the time you start working you'll have been awake for 6 hours , I know no one who can do a full working day after being awake for that amount of time" 

she used her rolling chair to get to the other desk where she grabbed a bottle full of some lumpy stuff, she came back and held it up to him "take this so you don't get fired, it won't work now but use it tonight" he grabbed the bottle then heard her add "or we can arrest you if you aren't who you say you are, would be easy when you're stuck in a peaceful dream "

Grinning Tommy said "If you want to check then search big man Tommy" 

She gave him one last smile and then went back to her paperwork "I'm make sure to do that then, I'm Kristin by the way" 

Tommy went and sat down at one of the chairs that lined the walls, reading the bottle he realised that Kristin had just given him sleeping drugs, yes they were only melatonin but still 

Sitting sideways on the chair he waited through the 2 hours by mainly staring at the ceiling and getting lost in the chandelier swinging above 

It was fancy and bright ok

It did get boring to stare at after a while so Tommy decided to go back and talk to Kristin "is it always this boring during the night?"

Looking up she seemed very happy to not have to do anymore paperwork 

Must be much more boring than staring at a chandelier

"Not really, we usually have a lot more people reporting crimes" she seemed like she was going to say more but instead she looked over to the doors 

A man had entered the building looking quite annoyed and Kristin looked as if she was becoming annoyed at the sight of the man 

He strode towards the front desk where he practically pushed Tommy out of his way "are done the paperwork?" His voice was angry and gruf 

Who has the energy to be this mad at this time, it's 6 in the morning

Kristin replied with a simple "no"

The dude got even more angry at this " well why not? "

She remained completely calm "I'm on the last forms so I'll have it to you by the end of my shift" 

He practically stormed off muttering something about 'who pays you to slack off' 

Tommy went back to where he was pushed away from, still staring at the elevator the man had got in "why was he so angry, it's 6 in the morning"

Turning back to finish her work like she had promised Kristin explained "that's Schlatt  he is always mad and bossing everyone around, he's just a bitter man but he's the one whos filling the paychecks around here so never say anything like that to his face"

"Sounds like an ass, I don't think I want to meet him again" Tommy finally managed pulled his eyes away from the elevator 

She laughed "Well considering you're basically an assistant for a hero team you'll have to sit through his meetings" 

He tried to pretend to be offended at the thought of being in the same room as him but a grin creeped onto his face as he exclaimed a little to loudly "you did look me up" 

Both of them spent the next 30 minutes laughing with each other up until Tommy was taken away 

While Tommy was saying something he noticed that Kristin seemed to be glancing off elsewhere, lining up where she was looking he turned his head to see 

He saw nothing and when he turned back to ask what she had been looking at he jumped as someone put his hands on his shoulder and a little too jollyfully said "Tommy!"

Shrieking and taking a few steps back he looked at the bitch who had scared him and saw he was a lanky,  rich looking bitch 

Definitely not someone he knows 

Tommy leaned over Kristins desk and whispered "do you know this man???" 

She introduced the man "This is Wilbur, he's one of your bosses"

Glaring at the 'Wilbur' bitch he declared that "he's a cunt" 

'Wilbur' was agape and Kristin was in another laughing fit "well you two get along then" she got out through laughs trying to usher them over to the elevators 

She did stop to hand Wilbur her completed paperwork telling him to give it in for her but then once again tried to get them away before she could start laughing again 

Tommy walked off first and called an elevator while 'Wilbur' said something else to Kristin before half jogging over so to not miss the elevator 

He got in just in time

The two stood there and glanced at each other for a minute before Tommy remarked "Wilbur huh, terrible name, who gave you that?"

'Wilbur' sighed and responded with "are you gonna push the button?"

Tommy deadpanned "I don't know what floor we're going to" 

Lanky bitch grumbled "file says 19, more like 12” but he still pressed the button, the top floor button

A man named Wilbur definitely wouldn’t work on the top floor of any building 

Noticing the confusion on Tommys face Wilbur explains that “I’ve got to deliver this” He gestured towards the paperwork  “so you’re gonna come with me”

Tommy groaned “Why do I have to go with you on your chores?”

“Because you simply must meet the person at the top of all of it, don’t you want to meet the man who signs your paychecks?” He was stifling a laugh while the younger let out a length “nooooooooooooo”

“Don’t worry child it won’t be too bad” Wilbur sneered 

Sinking to the floor Tommy pleaded “I’ve already met him, let me leave” 

“He isn’t that bad, he’s just angry all the time” 

The joy Wilbur is taking from this is more painful than actually having to meet the payroll man 

Getting back up as they approached the top floor the younger got his last complaint in “He shoved me out the way and was horrible to Kristin and her paperwork this morning”

The doors opened as Wilbur took a breath and walked out into what was essentially a Lord Business / President Business office remake

It wasn’t the same as it didn’t have the same amount tall factor or the general feel of it but it was as terrible to walk into 

It was bare walls with a desk in the middle of a pretty large space with a large carpet rolled from the elevator to the front of the desk 

There did seem to be something beyond the wall behind but it wasn’t visible from where the two were walking in from 

It looked nothing like the fancy and highly expensive decorations that normal rich people had in any space 

Wilbur quickly covered the space between the elevator and the desk while Tommy hovered at the door not daring to go any further 

Placing the files at the edge of the desk the older tried to run back but he also tried to make it look like a walk, all with a strained smile and rivers of sweat on his face

It was a good thing that the man at the desk didn’t spare them a glance

Getting back into the elevator Wilbur started spamming the 74th button, his smile seeming even more strained 

As the doors shut he kept spamming, only stopping when the elevator started moving downwards 

Wilbur grabbed the bars on the side, trying to stabilise his admittedly very shallow and quick breaths 

All while Tommy held the same strained smile, only this time he was trying not burst out laughing

He failed of course, barely holding it in for 10 seconds of the elevator moving again 

His laughter was even louder than expected as it echoed and bounced on the steel shell of the elevator

Wilbur must have been glaring at him the entire time but he only saw glimpses between his bellowing, a split second of a sour face that sent him into another fit of laughter

The laughter did not subside when the doors opened to the 74th floor, Tommy only stumbled out a few steps before having to stop and lean on the wall 

Wilbur stood in a door not far off, going between talking to someone in another room and still glaring at the younger 

Only once his shrieking turned to giggles did he finally managed to look at Wilbur properly

his face looked as if he ate a lemon 

Wilbur was talking to someone, well actually he was shouting

Something about "He'll get it, it's not that hard" 

Then he turned back to continue his glare and ignore the response he got, and that 'glare' caused Tommy to burst out into another fit 

Needless to say Wilbur did not like that 

Tommy was grabbed by the back of shirt and dragged down a hallway all while he was just trying to catch his breath

Wasn't his fault that Wilbur's face was so stupid

He was dropped onto floor still cackling while he heard Wilbur unlocked a door 

Getting up and trying to stop his laughter Tommy saw that he had opened a office, once which Wilbur had then flung him into 

Tommy was told that "Kitchen and break room is down there" had a key thrown at him, and a door slammed before he was left alone at what he assumed was his own office 

He heard Wilbur's stomps and someone's shouting

But none of that mattered 

He was left alone in a room that was all his own

Chapter Text

There was a clock on the wall

How did Tommy know this?

He has working eyes, more specifically he was using those such eyes to stare at it for about thirty minutes 

There’s not much to do in a small badly thrown together office, especially when it was upside down

Almost literally

The desk was flipped the wrong way, and the chair

And practically everything, except the computer 

He left that the right way up, just in the middle of the room, with the cords left in a triprope situation 

He had also gone through every paper that some idiot had left behind, it was mainly normal paperwork with some passwords and stuff 

But in that paperwork Tommy had found out that his job includes doing more of said paperwork

And, there’s an and, there’s some papers from patrol that specifically mentioned him

Him meaning himself 

They were from years back but it still showed how apparently annoying he was

there was tears in one of the paper and a change in handwriting halfway through the writing, the second handwriting included a lot more passive aggressive stuff 

Not very aggressive because whoever wrote it probably had to hold back to still have a job but it was very annoyed at him 

Unfortunately Tommy does not know who he could bully because the first handwriting is fucking cursive 

WHO WRITES IN CURSIVE 

He can’t bully people now, what’s the point of knowing you’ve been pissing someone off for years yet they don’t know it’s you if you can’t use that 

After a few minutes of annoyed grumbling and paper shuffling his annoyance at the very creation of cursive subsidising, Tommy realised something 

He probably couldn’t anyway considering he’s dead, probably shouldn’t use a dead man to bully someone, even if it’s yourself that’s dead 

Can’t bring any of that up anyway 

Still he had successfully annoyed someone 

And now he was going to do it again, this time though he was gonna do it as Tommy 

Strolling into the hall he tried to look inconspicuous however he couldn’t help but smile when he saw Wilbur sitting on the couch

This was gonna be fun

Tommy flopped down onto the couch with his legs hanging over the arms in case he needed a quick get away

Tommy pretended to stare at the roof and asked “What ‘ya doing”

Wilbur didn’t look like up from his phone but he did answer “tryna to figure out what people are talking about” he sounded very frustrated already 

“why?”

This time he did look at him but only to give him a ‘are you stupid’ look “Because I want to know what they’re saying?” 

Tommy mirrored the look he was given “I mean why can’t you just read what they’re saying, that would solve all your problems”

Throwing his phone onto the coffee table in front of him Wilbur complained that “I can read what people say but I can’t figure out what half of it means”

“Well, tell me what it says when you figure it out” that would normally be where Tommy leaves but it’s not like he had anything to do

After a while of Wilbur scowling at his phone he turned to Tommy asking in a very rude tone "don't you have work to do?"

Smiling Tommy responded "you didn't give me any to do, also I start work in around 13 minutes"

Wilbur started yelling about why did you come in so early, what have you been doing or something like that, Tommy tuned him out as soon as Wilbur stood up off the couch 

Instead he listened to the sound of footsteps approaching from the elevator 

The steps stopped at the entrance to the room and Tommy still looking at an upside down Wilbur and just grinned

The tantrum stopped when he noticed the grin

He completely stopped when he looked up at whoever showed up 

"Hi.." the mystery person said

 Wilbur didn't move for a while but he did say two things "Hi Phil…you bastard" 

The second was aggressively whispered at Tommy 

Though the first thing he said was helpful, kind of 

Ok not at all

Who is this man

Tommy turned to look at the door way and saw an old blond man (no wonder his name is Phil) 

The old man turned to him and seemed to study him for a bit 

"you must be Tommy"

That's all he has to say? after looking at the big man himself

Wow

He was going to say something but Wilbur beat him to it "No, he's a gremlin who's not meant to be here"

Tommy turned around to face the bastard again and stuck out his tongue

Phil sighed "he's our employee so he is meant to be here, also you are the one to want him here"

Wilbur threw his arms up "Yeah before I met him in person AND Fundy was the one who wanted him here, was guilty about something"

"He was guilty about making a building fall on me" Tommy chimed in "he should be scared though considering it was Niki's bakery"

Laughing the bastard had the audacity to ask "What is the child scared of a nice lady"

"No" he denied, y'know like a lier "he should be scared of me, he brought down her hard work"

"What are you gonn-" Wilbur was sneering

Was

Up until he was interrupted by a old man's ahem 

"Both of you go back to work before I get a headache"

Both of them turned to said old man, looked at each other and started walking off, neither of them wanted stay anywhere near each other anyway

Before Tommy could exit though he realized that he didn't actually know what work he was meant to be doin

So he turned around and asked that "The fuck am I meant to be doing?"  

Staring at him from across the room the man deadpanned "So Wilbur did explain everything, like he said he did"

What a lying bastard, you wouldn't catch Tommy lying about anything to anyone

Phil, the old man walked past him motioning him to follow "You basically just help fill out paperwork, answer emails and monitor the media, see what they're saying and all that"

They walked down halls as he explained the basic premise of his job, it seemed normal enough work for a hero tower

They got to his office with Phil opening the door and not looking inside "after any missions or patrols is when you'll mainly do your job but for now you'll just have to fix people's terrible paperwork"

Last part was definitely targeted towards Wilbur considering the distance "Hey" from his office 

Man's can't read and can't do paperwork 

Glaring at the direction of Wilbur's office Phil sighed for what felt like the hundredth time and muttered something about a stroke before turning to face Tommys office

The old man was about to say something but he just stopped 

He was staring at the office like a gaping fish 

He seemed to pale "I'm definitely going to have a Stroke"  

Chapter Text

Truth to be told there wasn’t anything to do 

Sure Tommy had been told what his job was and what to do but other than reading articles on heroes currently he had no work

He just had to wait for someone to either get back from patrol or whatever else they do 

So that waiting lead to now

Tommy had fallen asleep on his desk, he had (mostly) fixed the room since he thought that he had forever to do his work since there was barely any, he also wouldn't really want to do any paperwork in the mess 

He definitely had some time on his hands since he made up for the sleep he lost this morning and the terrible paperwork someone had done yesterday 

But the world did not let him rest any longer 

Sirens filled a dreamless sleep, startling Tommy awake

Groaning he tried to figure out what had damned his sleep but his eyes didn't focus 

Light was pouring in from the window beside him, it was bright as hell 

He could tell it was late afternoon, he could probably go home soon, maybe 2-3 hours to go 

Even though he had already been blinded by the sun the world had decided that his ears must go too

There sirens were piercing his ears, it felt like they were about to bleed 

Tommy got up to find and hopefully turn off the damn siren, he doesn't want to lose his hearing 

Walking carefully around his desk his vision slowly came back to him, when he had it fully back he sped up

The faster he got that siren off the better 

That old man was wrong, Tommy was the one who was gonna get a headache 

Maybe a stroke if his old job told him anything, those kids, their two dollar megaphones and the bloody Karen mother's are the bane of his existence

Maybe it's for the best that he got a different job, he would temporarily not be one word or movement from having an aneurysm 

When he opened the door his eyes once again unfocused, more blinding light

This time red 

The world hated him

Tommy stumbled along the wall trying to get to the break, living room thing and trying to blink his eyes into working properly

The closer to the room he got the more he could hear a news broadcast, due to the siren he could only hear loud muffled voices 

He could make out some of the words though, it was something about bombs, the Villian Nihachu and something being unknown

Probably people not knowing what's going on, Tommy sure as hell didn't 

It didn't help when he entered the room as the only person there was a panicking bastard, he was probably trying to respond to it but he looked like he was just freaking out

However the bastard did finally do something good, he turned off the damn sirens and lights

Tommy's hearing and sight would be fine for now

But the bastard simply pulled a book on a shelf and that turned it off, he didn't even look at the bookshelf

He acted like he had done this alot

How many times has this happened? HOW MANY TIMES WILL THIS HAPPEN?

Now that the sirens were gone Tommy could finally hear himself, so he tried to get answers "The fuck is happening?" 

The bastard just pointed to the Tv and ran out the room

Tommy glared at the doorway he had left through

Realizing he had to watch the news for information Tommy groaned before flinging himself over the couch to watch what was possibly the worst show on tv

Sure he needed information but that doesn't mean he has to like listening to that information so there he stayed 

Halfway flopped over a couch 

Finally being able to listen properly the reporter spoke "for those just tuning in currently we don't know what Nemesis wants, but what we do know is that the villain has placed bombs under buildings near the bakery that fell only a few days ago. We now take you to the live footage were evacuations are the main focus with heroes rushing in to help"

Tommy didn't expect anything less, sure he hadn't really thought about it but in the back of his mind he knew that this would happen. Maybe not this event but it would've happened sometime, it always did. 

 years ago when he was still a vigilante he would always watch after any event, major or minor for another Villain pop up

They like their revenge and big statements

Especially after something like a building falling down from a fight

A lot of the time it was some boring unoriginal statement but this time it was only unoriginal

Yes the statement was important but still it's the same thing

why do you ignore and belittle the poorer areas

The news reporters don't know that this is the statement though, they don't know because they report not experience

None of the people in this area know anything about what statement or demands are being said, they don't know anything but their own little bubbles, none of them can read in between the lines of something like this

Even with big loud statements things probably wouldn't change, people just don't care about what doesn't affect them 

And this isn't much better, sure there's a motive but only Nihachu truly knows all that is happening

She knows the what, why and where

Tommy having what he wanted tuned out, he won't listen to the news when he doesn't have to, especially when they aren't saying much 

In fact he won't listen to anything around him if he doesn't have to

Which is why he didn't hear anyone enter the room 

A voice jump scared him into listening again "Scary stuff ain't it?" 

Looking up he saw someone stood at the end of a couch, they didn't look fancy but they was definitely from the area 

Their tone wasn't condescending, instead was entirely genuine concern 

The mystery person smiled at him "I'm Aimsey"

They sat down on the couch arm, their gaze was fixed on the tv "I used to live near there, my uncle ran one of those shops years ago"

Well that was surprising, "I'm Tommy" He tried to analyse her "You're from there?" 

Their gaze still on the clips of people running from the area they answered "Yeah, moved away when I was 5 or 6 so I don't have very many memories of the place, but yeah"

Tommy turned to look at the news, their voices were still tuned out but they were there "I actually used work at the bakery there" 

"No you didn't" they sounded like they didn't believe him at all 

Tommy stifled a laugh "Yeah I was even in the building when it fell" 

"No way" they disagreed again, she sounded more amused than anything "you'd still be in the hospital if that were true"

Smiling he looked back over at where they sat, this time they were looking at each other "I know, I'm kinda surprised I'm was of the hospital in a day but mostly I'm just grateful for whatever they did"

They looked shocked but the tone they used showed that they were still skeptical "They didn't tell you how you were healed? They just said 'welp you're good now, off you go'"

Tommy laughed "No, I assume it was a healer or something since I was in the hero tower for my healing"

Aimseys mouth was wide open in shock "wait they actua-"

The sound of an explosion tore them away from their conversation

They both immediately turned to tune back into the news that they had forgotten about 

They only thing that could be heard now was the frantic speech of a news reporter who was desperately trying to keep it together 

"The Villian Nemesis has just set off the bombs, we can not provide any details yet as all anyone can see dust so nothing is confirmed….all we can do now is hope everything is ok over there"

Even though there was practically nothing playing, Tommy couldn't take his eyes away from the tv

He was sure that they were wide in shock as well

He knew that they had bombs but it still surprised him nonetheless 

Aimsey sounded like she was about to cry "I hope everything is ok"

Chapter Text

Amidst all the smoke and dust a voice spoke clear “I’ll save you the time, there are only 2 casualties”

She sounded kind and sweet, seemingly oblivious to the destruction that she had just rained on a city

“Don’t worry though, they did not die in vain” She continued still oblivious to everything “thanks to them I know the buildings were poorly built, made to fall but now you can rebuild, this time with safe infrastructure to make sure none of this happens again”

The dust parted, seemingly for her

Everyone had a clear view of the so called villain and she had a view of them, a clean shot if she moved fast enough 

She had already had her revenge though

The two casualties and the buildings were her only target today and this time they would the only thing she got rid of, no ‘heroes’ to get in the way 

Except they just had to show their faces “You only speak of the buildings you brought down! What about the human life you took?”

He had sputtered at the start, seemingly fumbling to get her reasoning off the minds of any onlookers 

But she had reasoning for that too 

“They were poisoned!” She was yelling at them, straining her voice

Many were confused and some brave soul yelled out “how?” 

A silence followed as eyes bore into them, they too sputtered “How were they poisoned?” 

Underneath the mask she smiled, this was nice

someone asking her questions, trying to know the why instead of just trying to get rid of her because they couldn’t handle anything but their own way of thinking 

“They were full of hatred!” raising her voice she yelled so no one could mistake her next words “They wished for the buildings to fall, saying they would make things better when the things they terribly built have finished falling down on innocent people”

People started talking about that, she doubted that they would say anything she said or even mention it on the news but at least she had people hearing her words 

While people talked she turned and started walking away, pondering while she did

The civilians themselves were all on the end of the street huddling round the tape that blocked the from the rubble, they had been saved by someone, probably multiple people due to the amount of civilians gathered so where were they 

They would always attack in some big act of ‘justice’ for the people that were affected

This time they left her alone

—---------

The news didn't give any sound, they said the explosions had messed up the cameras audio quality

Only idiots would buy that though and Tommy definitely wasn't one 

Nemesis had been speaking and whatever she said was definitely important, important enough that it had to be censored 

If it wasn't actually important it was her shitting on the heroes or the company they worked for 

The news probably wanted to spin it someway that would make her seem like there worst person on earth, that her only motive was seeing how horrible she could be and how loud she could made children cry

They did that alot, hell they had even done it to him and his friends, Tommy has forgotten what they said about him but he does remember that people were warned to stay away 

There was probably a big hero speech about being careful around them, they were a group of vigilantes so they pulled out every stop to make them seem as bad as villains. They always wanted to make people think that anyone that wasn’t one of their puppets were evil monsters tryna steal your children  

Wanting to know what Nemesis actually said not just some tv host opinions on the situation Tommy went to the internet 

Sure it was a hellscape but sometimes it would give you something of value

And an event like this would get alot of coverage even just a few minutes after 

So after having to pretend to be in shock for two minutes because someone else was in the room with him and he had to pretend he hadn't got used to extreme violence and explosions 

 Tommys expectations were met

Going through sites to find a what he wanted he found his holy grail on twitter 

The first thing he saw was a trending thread

Someone had asked ‘what the hell is Nemesis saying? The news says they had audio troubles due to the explosions but I really wanna know’

They had gotten a response telling them ‘she was yelling about the men having been poisoned (Idk it's a metaphor or something) and then she said that the buildings were unstable and those men knew that and were gonna let them fall’

That person had gotten a lot of responses, many were telling him that none of them knew what they were talking about and that those men wouldn’t do anything like that, they were good men

Probably none of you have met these men so why are you defending them so vehemently 

Luckily people were calling bullshit on those who called them good because thankfully some people aren't entirely delusional 

No one wants to be in a building that was bound to fall 

People were also trying to figure out everything else, like everything about the building for some reason

But more importantly 

Who exactly were the men and why were unstable buildings apparently left to fall 

No one could answer these questions 

But someone can interrupt another person's thoughts  

"What are you doing?"

Getting over the surprise of being brought back into the physical world

Tommy turned his head over to where Amisey was, they still looked shaken but as the seconds passed he noticed that she visibly got more numb to it 

Noticing that he had just been sitting there looking at her Tommy answered her question "I wanted to know why this was happening and I thought that Nemesis's speech would explain that" 

"Did you find what she said?" They had asked this with an emotion that Tommy couldn't figure out

"Yeah, give me a second" scrolling back up to the original response "according to some rando on the internet '‘she was yelling about the men having been poisoned and then she said that the buildings were unstable and those men knew that and were gonna let them fall’"

Amisey sounding confused tried to clarify "The men?"

Pausing Tommy realised that he did not in fact know anything about these men apart from that they knew that a lot of buildings were unstable   

This time his prolonged silence was interrupted "they were probably builders or something that works with buildings considering what they knew" Amisey paused looking intently at the wall before turning to him "that or they're just assholes who made a bad joke to the wrong person"

"Who are we to know" Tommy returned to the thread that was open on his phone 

Amisey looked back to the wall "If we watch the news in the next few days we'll probably see a report on them"

Tommy griminced at the thought of continuing watch the news just for one piece of information on two people he could not give less of a shit about

Both of them were interrupted by a tired voice at the entrance of the room "time to do your jobs"

Looking up he could see Wilbur in his specter outfit, his mask in his hand and two people walking behind him

It wasn't hard to guess who they were especially when one patted wilburs shoulder and looked at him before he left view

Amisey and Tommy both got up and started walking over to their offices passing siren who they heard lay down on the couch and immediately fall asleep

Amisey office was further down the hall than his but they stopped at his office, she didn't move for a solid thirty seconds but they did look like they were trying hard to remember something

Tommy stopped, his door halfway open while he stared at her confused

Finally she moved, looking at him they asked "are you new?, I don't remember seeing you here and you said something about the falling building earlier"

Slowly and very confused Tommy answered "Yeah it's my first day"

"Did they tell you how to do the paperwork?"

Realising that he didn't know how to do his job he muttered "No"

And Aimsey pushed his door open while whispering an annoyed "knew it"

They gestured for Tommy to come in "I'll show you how"

Chapter Text

“So I just have to do everything but the actual what happened”

Tommy knows he can do that, but not over years of time

Seems boring, too boring 

He heard a yes in the form of a hum from behind his desk

Amisey had laid down out of site, she said she was tired of standing just two minutes into directing him threw his work so she went around his desk, laid down and stayed there for what felt like hours

Although it wasn't far off as it had been two hours 

Tommy leaned over his desk to see Amisey, she looked to be falling asleep so he sat back down and pretended to be dead

Look sometimes being a corpse is fun, if anyone decides that they need something then they'll just see a dead person and panic 

Just trust me it's hilarious  

After a few minutes of pretending to be a corpse Tommy actually checked the time

He wished to go home and at this point was prepared to sneak out, he had been here very early, too early now that he thinks about it

He really should have slept 

But now he still had 1 and a half hours that he had to be awake for

He did not want to be fired for sleeping again 

That sucked 

It would probably suck more considering it was his first day

He's probably overthinking this

Why would he be fired on the first day 

Tommy got up from his desk

He was pretty sure he wouldn't be fired for sleeping but the thought was still causing him anxiety 

So to prevent sleeping he had to get off his surprisingly comfy chair 

 Checking on Amisey he found out that they were in fact fully asleep, no he did not poke her with his shoe to check 

Trusting that if xem were to wake up they wouldn't wreck his room more than he could Tommy left hoping to find something that could keep him awake

Even though the Universe mostly hates Tommy it decided to grant him this wish 

In one moment his sleepiness was almost entirely replaced with confusion and whatever the emotion for trying to remember if you know someone

Look he didn't know the word and he's pretty sure he didn't know who the fuck was standing in the hallway right now 

The dude looked familiar but Tommy isn't the best at remembering people who either have tried to kill him or have tried to save his life 

Anyone else just isn't that important

So basically Tommy had no idea who he was

It unfortunately did not stop him from staring at the dude and trying to remember him

The man was having a conversation, Tommy didn't know about what or with who because all his energy was just on making his memory do something helpful for once

The dude had an annoyed expression, like he knew someone was staring at him but he looked like he was trying to professional and finish his conversation

But he seemed to not be so patient

Cutting himself off he turned to Tommy "are yo-" he starts before again cutting himself off mid sentence

His face turned from annoyance to one of recognition and then barely covered up panic  

This time Tommy heard what was said and it made him mildly panic

"excuse me for a moment" 

dude practically stomped towards and past him, grabbing his shirt and dragging him towards the offices 

Tommy heard Phil ask "shouldn't we do something about that"

And a at this point distant voice say in a very uncaring voice "I'm sure it'll be fine'

He frowned at that, it was honestly concerning how much he could frown. He had been basically been doing it all day but that was normal levels of frowning but now he was practically cutting into his face 

His face might get stuck like that 

He might also get stuck in the bottom of a lake

And with the way purple hoodie was scowling that might happen very soon 

However before that he would have a stroke of luck

The man, he says man but he looked no older than Tommy did, dragged him into an office, his office and pushed him towards his desk 

He hissed "What are you doing here?" 

Hopefully this wasn't torture, he couldn't be that stupid could he? That would leave marks and in the hero tower that would be noticed…..

But then again they did not seem to care when he was yanked by this random 

Bloody heroes

A low and thin voice interrupted Tommy's thoughts "I'll ask you only once more. What. Are. You. Doing. Here."

It was not a question anymore 

Standing as tall as he could, Tommy tried to match the dudes energy "I work here."

He looked even madder at that "Then you need to leave"

The fucking audacity "what"

"Leave" he repeated, just as annoyed as last time 

"get a new job, one far away from here" he added, far too quickly for anything normal to be happening

"You want me to leave my job because you just want me to" Tommy flung his arms out in a grand gesture of what the fuck 

He staked closer

"Yes"

Somehow his voice got lower, more quiet

He doesn't want anyone to know about this

Tommy laughed 

"Mind telling me why I should give up my job, the thing giving me a roof over my head, keeping me fed, making sure I live"

He leaned in wanting to hear what this ass would say next 

"You know me" was what he stated, what he so confidently stated 

Tommy had no idea who this was, sure he was familiar what he didn't know anything about this man 

So he said just that 

"You do" 

Tommy scoffed 

Purple man looked dumb-founded for a second then went back to his normal stony face "I am familiar to you, that is enough for me to need you out of here"

Tommy choose to double down "Where are you from? How do I know you?"

The cunt growled "I worked with you, Daniel Barlow, at the cafe"

Tommy raked his brain for something then finally recalled something "Oh, you're the one who hated people! Why'd you even work at a cafe"

Daniel mumbled something about benefits and repeated the whole you need to leave 

Tommy shrugged, he wasn't very scared now that he remembered something of who this mystery man was "Why" 

Looking like he was about to strangle someone, someone being Tommy he repeated again "You know me, YOU HAVE TO LEAVE"

Tommy sticks his tongue out "that doesn't answer my question" 

Tearing out some of his hair Daniel once again dodges the question "You can't say I worked with you or at the cafe EVER" 

Already tired of this conversation Tommy just decided to nod

Finally done with this, at least in his eyes Tommy walked around Daniel and left his office

Walking back to the break room or whatever it was, he still did not know, he noticed that he was followed out

Carpets can mask footsteps well but you do have try still, stomping gets rid of any help the soft floor would give you

He let him follow through, it was unlikely that he would hurt him let alone be mad near heros, Daniel wanted to hide alot so there would be no point 

Plus Tommy was just about starving at this point, having missed breakfast and all

Going straight past whoever was currently on the couch, one or two people he thinks, he opens the fridge grabbing a random container and chucking it in the microwave which he then stares at 

He usually makes Ranboo or Tubbo press the buttons, but they aren't here now 

Unfortunately Daniel is here,

He pushes Tommy aside opens the microwave and looks at the container, reads the name on the front and looks over the counter at the couch all while considering something 

Seeing his chance Tommy shoots his hand out and pulls the container from him

He decides to just put it on for a minute and see how it is 

He smirks at Daniel, he's won therefore he is the best and knows all including how to use a microwave

However Daniel decides that he's not done as his monotone voice reveals something Tommy does not understand "There was a fork in that"

His face must have shown his incompetence at the hands of microwave as the churlish fly-bitten wagtail sighs, grumbles and decides to mess with his lunch 

… He really should stop staying up late for no reason 

Actually that Shakespeare insult website should be banned, running his sleep schedule

Scowling at Daniel he watched as he removed the fork and place the lunch back in the warm up box

"Metal and a microwave equal fires idiot" 

Tommy stuck his tongue out again

Purple boy glared at him 

Cutting the tension was the voice of an old man "are you two ok?" 

Both jump up and look over the counter to see Phil leaning on the counter 

"Yes" "Totally" 

Needless to say they are both startled which probably leads to how little Phil believes these statements 

However he continues to ask his questions "Do you two know each other?"

Tommy looks over to Daniel who seems to be nervous at the prospect of Tommy potentially answering 

Also the fact that he was caught out of his lie before so whatever bullshit was prepared this time, they have never seen each other in their lives, probably wasn't going to cut it

AT ALL

So why not have fun with this, his job is boring, this place is boring but this THIS he can make into something amazing

"We're married"

 Is what he comes up with

Tommy could say anything, he could get him arrested but he chooses this 

I mean if he can fake the paperwork he could get a break on his taxes 

Well he means 

he could work with this, probably, it's not boring, like at all, and it seems to catch everyone in the room by surprise

Amazing

Perfect

HE CAN WORK WITH THIS

It'll be great, it might actually get him murdered but it's great anyway 

The universe must think this too as the microwave yells that it's done and Tommy takes that as his cue to leave 

Ignoring Daniels absolutely Dumbfounded look and Phil's rambling Tommy grabs his lunch, including the fork and leaves for his office 

He does make sure to display the name on the container, Wilburs name 

The look on that bitches face just might be better than what he said  

Chapter Text

People say that anonymity is meant to make you a completely different version of yourself one more cruel or confident or just more 

At no point has anyone said that it's meant to make you more worried, more scared 

However here Tommy stands, his voice not wanting to budge from his throat, his hands shaking 

Standing on a rooftop in his mask for what isn't the first time. He's doing his job, well his volunteer job he's not being paid for any of this.

 But nevertheless he's done.... most of this before, I mean he's fought people, on a rooftop and in his mask 

Tommy's just never fought any hero's 

Ever 

So it's a wonder that his hands are shaking so little 

He did not want to be here

He wanted to do this job yes but fighting a hero because he was announced a enemy of the nation and therefore needed to be brought to justice with whatever force necessary 

That was an absolute no 

But his silent pleas to the universe were of course not heard, they will never be 

The hero decided to launch a chunk of concrete at him 

He ducked down of course but he didn't get back up, his legs wouldn't allow it 

Almost entirely sure that someone was running at him he stayed there, his legs wanting to keep entirely still and yet shaking like he was in the middle of Antarctica 

His quick and heavy breathing though that became all that he could hear 

Tommy was sure the brightly coloured blur in his vision was the hero taking a swing so he forced himself to the floor 

The blue moved above him 

He braces for the inevitable pain 

But 

The universe must have decided that his death would not happen yet as he was yanked INTO THE AIR FAR ABOVE THE ROOFTOP 

If which he could now see that the hero he was fighting was a centimetre off punching him in the head 

All while he was just trying to breath 

"Sorry for sending you out today" 

His hair completely covered his eyes thanks to the force of the wind but he knew that voice

 his friends hadn't left him afterall 

Thank prime

However he would argue what they did next was worse 

Once again he could barely let out a sound before all air was forced away from him 

Just like he was forced further than the earth 

He means that he was thrown up into the air 

It's not that nice 

Atleast his friend had the decency to yank and pull him along once again 

This time barreling and weaving around city blocks trying to get them home without people (hero's) following them 

All while he was finally about to speak, his chosen words "AHHHHHHHHHHHH"

—-------- 

The world's blurry and far too loud

But Tommy has to get up, can't get fired on the second day of work 

Still sluggish he dragged himself almost out of his scratchy blankets, one won't get off his back, and heads into the disaster that is the kitchen 

Usually it's just messy but today for a reason that Tommy doesn't care to know it's a fucking dump 

Deciding that he could live without breakfast for a day he went to the front door and checked the sticky notes that are left on his raggedy ass coat 

They remind him of the tragedies of being alive  

There's his chores for the day, he thanks nothing that he doesn't have to clean the kitchen 

But then he realizes 

He has the collect the fucking mail

Grabbing the top edges of his blanket he fully pulls it around him and then proceeds to leave the apartment

A icy wisp of wind slaps him in the face immediately

He decides that whatever shitty pieces of mail are in that tin cup the bitch of a landlord calls a letterbox aren't actually that important and immediately walks back to his bed 

Tommy is done for the day

Except the universe hates him 

And so does his phone and it's high pitched screams 

Reading it he realises he has five minutes to catch his most definitely canceled bus  

He rushes

His jumper is on backwards, one of his arms won't go through the arm hole of his coat and instead tries to make a new one and his other arm is crushed by the front door because he reached in for his keys which he barely remembered

He got the fucking keys but the not the bus 

Surprisingly it was working today and was on time

Meaning Tommy was actually five minutes late and not on time 

The universe must hate him

He decided to just run to the station 

It wasn't far and taking the train wasn't actually any worse than the bus, not saying it's better but it just wasn't worse 

The train he means, the stations are absolutely worse there's a 90% chance you'll get mugged or worse just by being in 5 block radius

Sucks but it's not like he has much money or really anything valuable on him 

So off he goes 

He passes a few streets not trying to look like he's rushing but most definitely failing at it 

Getting closer and closer Tommy begins to think he got lucky

Turning a corner he sees the station, the sign and stairs downwards, it might be an entrance to the underworld but Tommy still finds himself thanking the stairs for being here 

A few steps away from the station entrance he notices something move in the corner of his eye 

All thoughts of how lucky he is dissolves in a second

He tries to get away, even breaking out into a run 

He only gets two steps before a hand drags him back 

A cold pain appears at his neck 

And a grim voice speaks 

"Empty your pockets" 

Matching the tone Tommy grumbles "I thought I got lucky today" 

His attacker laughs and grimly states "No one gets lucky out here boy" 

The cold retreats from his throat as he hands over the little he has in his pockets

The man grumbles and Tommy repeats the nice sentiment the man had shared "no one gets lucky out here"

Finally making it to the train station he finds the schedule, the train he needs is in 10 minutes

The question is now can he make it?

He's at the station, he's waiting for the train and yet he may not make it

The man leaning on the wall certainly thinks he won't 

Bastard better not come near, he's come too far to be stopped by a man in a shitty hoodie

But Tommy sees a shine all too familiar, it leaves a metallic taste in his mouth and a dread in his heart

The universe is certainly laughing at him

The man stands there, he doesn't move and neither does Tommy

Leaning on an opposing wall they stare, both watching the movements the other makes 

It feels almost like years but the train finally arrives 

It's speed pushes Tommy away and the crackly announcement laughs at him, warning the empty train station to stay behind the line 

He scowls at the train as he flails his arms and stands up

His scowl quickly turns to panic as he looks back at where he had been staring

The man is a lot closer than needed

In Fact he's still getting closer..

oh shit he's running

Fucking go

Scrambling back onto a floor Tommy jumps into the train 

and then proceeds to continue his desperate clamber when he realises the doors on trains, much like the universe, don't do what you want 

Don't trust movies kids 

Bolting to through the next carriages he doesn't look back, running till the trains starts up again he hopes he runs too far to be worth it

Whether it was the train or universe itself, something decides this 'chase' is pathetic and boring 

The train finally moves forward

Too busy running Tommy doesn't notice and therefore he doesn't let the train have it's turn

Getting his leg pulled back by the sudden movement Tommy immediately face plants on the floor

A gush of red spurts over the floor from the impact, covering the place in pain 

Groaning Tommy doesn't try g

et up, too much effort to do a third time 

So there he lays, his blood dripping from his nose 

The hooded man does not appear, not one person does actually

No one wants to go near that mess