Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy takes a deep breath. This was all well planned, it wasn't going to go wrong. He had been patrolling as a vigilante for a year and a half now, some called him a villain, they definitely would after this. He is going to murder mayor of Manburg, J. Schlatt. They had been planning this since his villainism started, he has been working at the hero tower (where Schlatt has an office and often works, the city claims It's for his safety. Tommy thinks it's to make sure he doesn't make a fool of himself) for months under a false identity entirely.

Everyone is born with a power, some more than one. Tommy has two, one of them is shapeshifting which is fucking epic! He thinks it's the 3rd best power in all of Essempi. His power has limits, but he was able to morph his face into something not of his own, he worked as an unpaid intern for months to learn the layout and scheduling.

Luckily since he's incredibly charismatic (and always got their coffee orders right) many of the heroes and other employees there took a liking to him, he quickly learned many details of the building. It's a crazy environment. It's no wonder they ‘hired’ Tommy without so much as a background check, although Tubbo did have some fake shit set up just in case they did.

Tommy walked into the building disguised as the intern. Oh god, he's nervous as hell. He is not scheduled to work the night shift but no one would question him, everyone is too busy with their own shit. There's a syndicate attack going on in Kinoko currently, so many of the heroes and employees alike will be occupied but mayor Schlatt won't have anyone guarding him since the attack is far enough away from the tower.

He walks into the elevator and presses the button for the 54th floor and the box of death shoots up with such a speed it scares Tommy every time he takes it. The doors open in no time he is staring down the office door of J. Schlatt. This feels too easy, no sneaking around or giant guns, just some insider knowledge and a good power. He brings his keycard up to a small slit in the door handle and the door easily clicks open.

Tommy walks in confidently, lies ready on his tongue. He doesn't even have to talk though, Schlatt, mayor of Manburg, is snoring loudly, he's asleep in his chair with his head lying lazily back. The room is fairly large, the walls are lined with bookcases and cabinets with the mayor's desk in the middle, dramatic big windows covered with giant curtains behind him shine a sliver of light through them. Tommy has the urge to look for any useful documents or files, but he can't, this needs to be in and out.

He watches Schlatt carefully as he walks towards him, he shows no signs of waking up. Upon closer inspection he's holding a half empty whiskey bottle in one hand with another bottle at his feet.

This will be easy as fuck.

Tommy walks up to the window and pulls the curtains open, Schlatt jolts at the noise but quickly settles his head on the desk mumbling something about the light. Tommy takes a second to look out the window, the sky is dark, but no stars shine, the city lights dim them enough that only the brightest are visible, even those are hard to spot. He finds that the city has the same effect on the people that live in it.

The cameras in this room should be disabled, and he's perfectly undercover, but he's still anxious about his face being so exposed. Tommy pulls one of the windows open in preparation. He slowly slips a small knife out of his pants pockets, it's a normal hunting knife that he had just sharpened before leaving his apartment.

He lazily throws a note on the floor, then in one swift movement Tommy lifts the mayor's head and slits Schlatt’s throat. He does so as quickly as his body can. Schlatt tries to fight back, and to his credit, does pretty good for a drunken mess. But it's not enough. By the time Schlatt hits the floor Tommy is out the window and flying above Manburg.

It's more fun than it should be, Tommy thinks as blood rushes through his ears. He just took a man's life and he's happy about it. Then again it wasn't an innocent man. Schlatt wasn't a great mayor, or even a good one.

He didn't care for the city, he was smart but greedy and had an ego. Tommy doesn't think he even ever wanted to be mayor, but none of that matters much, what matter is that Schlatt was a rich fuck torturing the working class, and is the first of many Tommy plans to murder.

He touches the device in his ear lightly and hears a small beep a second later.

“It's done.” Tommy states as he lands in a grassy field.

He hears a laugh erupt from the earpiece, “why are you laughing Atom?” he frowns.

“I told you not to call me that! It sounds like you're calling me Adam, like the name, and that's lame.” Tommy can hear the eye roll in his voice. “And I was laughing ‘cause you sounded so serious!-” he pauses to giggle some more “-it's done” he mocks Tommy, lowering his voice in an attempt to reach the unnatural tone Tommy's voice changer reaches.

“Dickhead, Forgive me if I'm in a bit of a dramatic mood right now” he scoffs. “I kind of just did the most serious thing a man can do!” he swings the door open to the abandoned church he uses as a hideout of sorts. It was once a lively church of Prime but worshiping Prime has long since been shunned.

“Fair I suppose. When are you coming home?” Tommy hears shuffling as Tubbo probably looks through blueprints. Tubbo is the smartest person Tommy knows, Tommy doesn't know that many people, but he's sure that Tubbo is the smartest in all of Manburg, maybe Essempi. Tubbo is the only reason Tommy pulled off what he just did.

“I'm coming home soon I just wanted to change clothes, these ones are bloody” he'll probably burn this whole outfit later, it was just for looking professional while at the tower anyway. He won't be needing it anymore.

“Do you mind picking up some ink on the way home? My printer ran out.." Tommy takes it all back Tubbo is stupid. Tommy hangs up before Tubbo can say any more dumb shit, he is NOT going to the store. He should get a break from chores; he just killed the mayor of Manburg.

He takes the earpiece out carefully, puts it in its case and sets it in his bag. If Tubbo requires him he can just call like a normal person.

He changes quickly into a plain hoodie and jeans leaving the bloody clothes in an old crate. He decides to walk home not wanting to catch any unwanted attention from flying. They live on the south outskirts of Manburg, not the worst side of the city but not the best.

There's nothing but forest and farms past the south border so it's nice. Their apartment is rundown but mildly expensive due to being in a less crowded place.

The closer you get to Las Nevadas the more dangerous the streets get. Las Nevadas is a city on the west side of Essempi, Tommy avoids going to Las Nevadas but it's not uncommon for him to patrol west Manburg.

Tommy makes it home without trouble. He trudges up the steps and jams his key into the door. “Tubbo, I'm home!” he announces before promptly collapsing on the couch, turns out murder takes a lot out of a man.

“What is the syndicate doing?” he asks Tubbo while burying his face in a pillow. “I dunno” Tubbo seemingly appears beside Tommy and picks up the remote to turn on the news. Nothing about Schlatt’s murder yet, It's been about an hour since Tommy slit his throat.. Holy shit Tommy killed the mayor. He fucking killed the mayor. “Tubso I fucking did it” Tommy sits up and looks at his friend “I killed him! Bang on! No mistakes!”

Tubbo smiles wide “you did Tommy! You just started so much shit! Think of how mental everyone is gonna go” Tommy is scared shitless for the future but at the same time he can't wait to kill some other rich asshole. He's going to right all those fuckers wrongs.

Chapter Text

Tommy pulls his laptop onto his lap to start drafting an email. He reports that there are “rumors” of the mayor of Manburg being murdered and of a note left at the scene, a threat. There aren't any rumors yet, but that's why he gets paid for this info. It's a weird system, reporting on such sensitive info through email, but Tommy doesn't care all that much. 

Apparently the guy who buys the info reports it to King of hearts. King of hearts or just hearts, is a super villain. Most super villains around these parts are a part of the Syndicate or are just minor villains but Hearts has done nothing but grow since he debuted. 

There's rumors about him being an undercover hero, part of the syndicate, a secret politician. He's most known for being a middle man of sorts. He's rich and it's obvious, some say he gets the riches from selling drugs, criminal gambling, money laundering, basically anything that's illegal. 

Once again Tommy doesn't care, it's none of his business. But he wouldn't be surprised if any of it was true. 

“They started in Kinoko, got to Las Nevadas and stole some shit that was being imported” Tommy hums about to ask a question before Tubbo continues  “the news is being vague, I'd guess potions, there's supposed to be an import of unique potions from some foreign market. Or that's what slime said.” Tubbo answers Tommy's thoughts.

Slime is who they sell the info to, Tubbo is the one who really knows about all that shit Tommy just fights crime and drafts the emails. “Any death or injuries?” Tommy looks up at the TV the reporter drones on about how Speedrunner and Flamespitter saved the day but on the bottom of the screen text rolls across “fourteen injured officers, two civilians” Tommy reads out answering his own question.  

“I'm gonna make some dinner” Tubbo stands up walking towards the kitchen. Their apartment is small but not horrid. It has two bedrooms and one bath. The living room and kitchen is just one room really and there isn't any space for a dining room.  

Tommy hums out an acknowledgement and turns his head back to the TV. The heroes are done fighting; they're bound to get back to the tower and notice soon.

He decides he should probably shower. He groans dramatically as he pulls himself off the couch.

“Tommy!!” 

He shoots up from his place on the couch “i finished making dinner” Tubbo smiles holding out a bowl of mac and cheese. Tommy scowled at Tubbo “i was trying to get my beauty sleep” Tubbo shoves the bowl onto his lap 

“oh yea and they found Schlatt” Tubbo mentioned nonchalantly. Tommys head snaps his head towards Tubbo, “What!?” the fucker just giggles. 

Tommy looks down at the mac and cheese then out the window “Tubbo this is breakfast, its morning.”  He had only been asleep for an hour or so, it's been about three hours since he killed Schlatt.

“BREAKING NEWS Mayor J. Schlatt found dead in his office, Syndicate suspected” is in bright text below a reporter. “Sir, are there any leads on the culprit?” The camera cuts to an old man in a suit “well SBI was in west Las Nevadas but other Syndicate members are unaccounted for” he answers. The reporter asks another question but Tommy switches the channel.

“Heroes and politicians are in a frenzy as Mayor Schlatt gets assassinated” Tommy is surprised that it's out to the public so soon, he expected them to cover it up until they had a plan. “Schools are canceled due to the chaos that is happening on the streets. Stay off the roads and keep indoors.”

Tubbo pipes up “there's protests already. And they're looking everywhere for you, or the face you used” Tommy grins “they're not going to find him” Tubbo nods sitting on the couch next to Tommy, “what do we do now big man?” 

Tubbo asks as he tugs the blanket Tommy was using. Tommy laughs, maybe they should've thought about that before killing the mayor. “I think I should lay low for a while, I guess,” Tommy shrugs. “I won't go out for a bit” he probably will be going out tomorrow.

Tubbo hums and Tommy turns back to the TV.

 “Some people are happy, most don't care. The protests are less protests and more celebrations.” Tubbo opens his phone and clicks for a few seconds before shoving it in Tommys face “some people are drinking, its really fucking funny” on Tubbos phone a video plays of a crowd of people some holding signs mocking Schlatts death.

 “rumors have already started! Some fucks are saying Schlatt tripped and it wasnt even a fucking murder” Tubbos cackles evilly, Tommy isn't surprised, its not like Schlatt was a sober man.

The news will probably keep pushing the idea that the syndicate did it, Tommy hopes they dont mind too much..  Ok maybe he needs to do something about that.. 

“Do you think the Syndicate will be angry?” Tommy asks. “It’ll make the next part of our master plan a bit fuckin hard”

Tubbo thinks for a moment before shrugging “I guess that means we have to enact the next step early, before any real pressure is put on them” Tommy smiles, they might be getting too confident but honestly Tommy has been bored recently. What's the worst that could happen?

-

Its been 24 hours since Schlatt ate fucking shit and Tommy’s note has been leaked to the public. It seems that there's a lot of snitches and shitheads in the ranks. 

Tommy’s note is simple and in his opinion perfect. “Tubbo! Someone on twitter posted a picture of our threat” Tubbo appears from his room “what the fuck? Twitter? How the fuck-” 

The note was short and sweet 

“We need a better mayor. Hope hell has drinks. Who will be next?”                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

They had written many drafts trying to get the perfect balance of funny and threatening. 

The post was just a photo of the note with the caption “found at the crime scene” he read it out to Tubbo while showing him the photo. “Fucking sick innit? It's a bit ominous and makes me look cool!” Tommy says giddy “the public gets to see my shit”

Tubbo grins “we have other shit to do before they know it's you boss man.” Tommy groans. He should get to figuring out how the hell to tell the Syndicate that he wants to join them.

He might use the same bird doodle as a type of sign off, so they know he's the same person who killed Schlatt. He thinks it's funny for a guy that murdered one of the most influential men. But he needs some way of telling SBI that he's also a vigilante in the south.. He doesn't have a vigilante name which makes that really hard.

Maybe another drawing? His vigilante get up is a bit plain, he wears a deep red hoodie with black cargo pants. But his mask is sick, it's the same red as his hoodie but a hard plastic material, it covers the upper half of his face with eye holes covered in a dark glass which makes his eyes appear fully black. The best part is demon horns sticking out the top! They were sharp so Tommy used them as headbutting tools occasionally. He could do a drawing of his mask but that doesnt feel like enough.

They'll probably have cameras and see him while he's in costume right? Maybe he’ll do the drawing of the horns just in case they don't have cameras. He quickly wrote up the note jabbing Tubbo in the side to get his opinion, Tubbo suggested a few things but wasn't much help when figuring out how to spell “Tithonus”.

Tomorrow Tommy will deliver the message.

Chapter Text

Ok he knows he said he'd do it tomorrow, but he didn't think he'd be doing this so soon! Tubbo told him the address and shit and gave him the now enveloped letter. Tommy has started to have doubts about this method but Tubbo seems pretty sure soo..

Here he is, Tithonus’ house. It's pretty big but not obnoxiously so. The flowerbeds in front have dark roses and the yard has a single weeping willow. Feels a bit on the nose to be a villain's house. It's Kinoko, still a rich spot but south-east closer to Manburg.

The postboxes in the rich neighborhoods were at the end of the driveway so he decided that was the most respectful and classy place to propose a crime to a crime lord (he is NOT scared of getting closer to the house)

Tommy wanted more info on Tithonus, but Tubbo’s info guy said they only had his address.. Seems like a lie, but he shouldn't be complaining he has the biggest villain's address. 

Okay wait, how the fuck did Tubbo get this information.

He realizes he is standing in front of Tithonus’ house So he quickly shoves the note in the postbox, waves towards Tithonus’ house (in case of security cameras) and dashes off into the night. 

Easy-peasy.  

Now was time to normally patrol and grab some sugar, Tubbo said something about making cookies. 

—

Phil had just watched some weird demon hero put something in his postbox. He does not trust that. He didn't recognize the hero but no normal vigilantes came to this part of Kinoko..

Could there be a bomb in his post? Surely not it seemed like just a piece of paper not a whole fucking bomb.

 Eh, if anyone could survive a bomb it's him. He carefully opened the box awaiting the worst, when it didn't immediately explode he let out a small sigh of relief.

The entire box was full of rubbish mail, when was the last time he checked this?

He spotted the bright red envelope the person had left. It's thin there's no way they could fit a bomb in there.. Poison? Who is he kidding, poison can't kill him. He 

Confidently opens it, it's just a letter. Okay. 

Dear Tithonus,

Hello! I would love to strike a deal, I believe our views align very nicely. 

I want more than just the mayor dead, and I plan to make that happen.

Although this would be much easier with the syndicate's help, I am just one man.

If you'd like to reach out to discuss this further you can find me in lower Manburg

I don't stay hidden much so it should be easy.

Ps can we keep this between your partners and i? It would suck for both of us if this got out.

Ok… so this is annoying. The admirable shithead who killed the mayor without so much as a trace, has his address. And by proxy could have his full name and his son's names. This was more than annoying. Is this a threat? “Suck for both of us” is a bit threatening, but the rest of it seems fine, if not a bit cocky. 

He would talk to his boys about this later, first he was going to try to follow this guy. 

Turns out that was harder said than done. Phil was incredibly fast, but demon man was so unpredictable, it doesn't help that he has wings, they don't seem super strong as he mostly glides only occasionally flapping them.

Phil keeps his distance not wanting to be noticed. Demon man was currently watching a drunk man yell at some women, the man was getting increasingly aggressive. Phil could see Demon man talking but no one was around. 

Once the drunken man had stepped a little too close to the women Demon man jumped down from the building and knocked him to the ground. There was some yelling from the drunk but Demon man seemed mostly quiet. He turned to the woman and seemingly asked her to leave. Demon man continued to rob this man… karma Phil supposes.

 Is this really the same guy who killed the mayor? There's no way someone so powerful is stealing a couple of fivers from an intoxicated man. But how would some lowly vigilante get his address? Is there a rat somewhere in the syndicate? 

-

“Boys! Get down here!” Phil yells as soon as he enters the house. He hears a door open and loud steps down the stairs and a thud as Wil turns the corner a bit too fast and slips. “Record time” Wilbur says his tone very serious. They both look at Phil waiting for whatever it was he called them for.

Phil sighs lightly moving towards the kitchen as he speaks. “I got this-” he throws the letter onto the kitchen island “-letter in the mail. It's supposedly from the assassin” Techno picks up the letter while Wil leans over trying to read. 

“Like the guy who killed the mayor?” Wil asks incredulously. Phil nods and starts the kettle for some tea.

 “I watched him put it in our postbox and followed him. He's also a vigilante in Manburg.”  Techno hums “how do we know that he's actually the assassin?” 

Wilbur nods “and why don't we just kill him, or better yet rat him out and let the heroes deal with him?” Techno elbows Wil in the side “we can't do that idiot. The guy knows our address” Wil crosses his arms “we can just move? We do it like once a year anyways” Techno dramatically facepalms shaking his head in disappointment. 

Phil ignores Wilbur's questions in favor of answering Techno “he had some pretty fuckin’ high-tech tools, and he knows I live here. There's no way some regular hero wannabe has our address.”

“The handwriting matches,” Wilbur says while looking back and forth between his phone and the note. “I say it's the guy, what point is there in pretending anyway?”

 Techno frowns “gaining our trust?”

 Wil shrugs “shitty way of gaining our trust”

Phil sets three mugs down onto the counter “ok it's him, but, what do we do?” Techno asks, grabbing the tea Phil sat down. “Well we don't know his intentions so.. We could just try to talk to him?” Wilbur suggests. 

“That's dangerous, I say we just kidnap and interrogate him” Techno proposes before sipping his tea. “No-” Phil gives him a pointed look “-that's also dangerous” 

“He killed the mayor! We don't know if he has allies or some shit” Wilbur counters. “Bro we are literally supervillains what is some rando gonna do?” Techno says while he riffles through the fridge. 

“I say we just intimidate him,” Techno continues “we have something over him so it's not like he'll go around spillin’ our details” he pulls out a cheese stick.

“Techno, mate, you don't even want to consider his deal? He seems clever”. 

Techno shrugs “i don't really love the idea of inviting a stranger to join us Phil”

They eventually decide to just try to talk to him. Techno thinks it's a waste of his valuable time that he could be spending reading, but there's no way he's letting those two go alone.

Chapter Text

So the worst part of this whole place is that we don't have a proper president. We have all these mayors but above them is a president that is a coward. He hides his identity. And although he's called a president it's more something akin to royalty, no one voted for him.

His name isn't even given out to the public; he's just known as the president. Its claimed that his bloodline is blessed by the gods to rule Essempi or some odd shit. Tommy was taught it all in school long ago but has since forgotten the details.

Tommy's ultimate goal is to kill him. Maybe he should have better goals than murder, but he thinks killing the president would solve all his problems.

His other goal is to get this weird ass motherfucker off his ass. A mid-tier hero called “Siamese” has been trying to arrest him since he punched some low level hero two days ago.

So now he's in the Manburg streets fighting this hero.

“Maybe if he wasn't an asshole I wouldn't have kicked him.” Tommy argued as Siamese tried to get the upper hand in the fight. Tommy would barely call it a fight, Siamese was just trying to put cuffs on him.

“You're an asshole” Siamese responded plainly. They were in the open and Tommy hated it, but Siamese has more of an advantage in closed spaces.

“Says the pussy” Tommy spits back.

Siamese does not have a specific power, rather a set of powers. His legs were made for jumping and absorbing the shock of landing. He has excellent hearing and increased vision in darkness. Oh, yea and he's a fucking cat person.

“What's your name?” Siamese wasn't trying to hurt Tommy as of right now so Tommy wasn't going to either.

“I dunno” this is a waste of time for both of them.

“Seriously? You don't even have like a nickname or something?” If Tommy runs, Siamese might catch him, but if he stays here he'll be basically sparing with this guy forever.

“Nope, I really just save cats from trees and shit. Don't need a name” Tommy shrugs casually. Tommy’s most valuable asset is surprise, he's excellent at being surprising.

“I punched him ‘cause he kicked a cat!” Tommy exclaims, it works enough, Siamese freezes. Tommy makes a run for it.

He dashes to the nearest fire escape, Siamese is close behind. The stairs are old and shake with each step Tommy takes up them. The building is only five stories so he makes it to the top relatively fast.

If he had the time he'd climb onto the roof, but he doesn't have time. He forms wings on his back in an instant and springs off the fire escape, he swoops down towards the street to gain momentum before angling himself upwards.

Siamese is following behind him closely from the road. Tommy gains enough speed to land on top of a building. Siamese stands on the street below watching him. Tommy childishly sticks his tongue out, he doesn't notice the way Siamese skitters away in fear.

Tommy turns around planning to run to the next building but instead comes face to face with Ares.

Okay, sure, maybe he was the one to invite the Syndicate to find him but Jesus fucking Christ, why the hell is Ares standing right in front of him.

“Hi” Tommy squeaks out while slowly backing up. Then, because the universe is evil, Tithonus swoops down from the sky holding Erebus. Fuck this all.

“Hey fellas.. This feels a bit overkill huh? All three of you…” Tommy has never felt more exposed. He reaches up to his ear making sure Tubbo can hear this whole conversation.

“Don't mind them mate, they just wanted to tag along.” Yea, Ares, a really easy guy to ignore. “Anyways, if you are as important as you say you are i want my colleagues with me to discuss” Tithonus’ voice is obviously distorted by a voice changer but the deep echoey voice is unsettling nonetheless.

Ok this is fine “so what do you guys need..?” He hears Tubbo say something over comms but cant pay attention.

“We just want to ask a few questions” Ares states, stepping forwards. His voice is also hidden but his odd accent is obvious.

Tommy had never seen SBI so closely before, Ares is wearing a white poet's top, black pants, and a dramatic red cape. Covering his face is a pig mask, it almost looks like something you'd see a kid wearing on Halloween, Its the same pink as his hair, it covers his nose but leaves his mouth uncovered. A golden crown covered in rubies sits on his head.

Tommy steps back as Ares steps forwards. “Ok king i love questions” Tommy notices how many weapons Ares has on him. “What's your name?” Erebus asks simply, for a second all the stress in Tommy's body is gone and is refilled with annoyance, “i dont have one- unless you're asking for my legal name which would be quite rude”

Erebus is wearing a long leather trench coat, it's a deep purple. Under the trench coat is a simple white collared shirt. His pants are black and all over are a ton of pockets, buckles and chains. Covering his face is an elegant masquerade mask, a similar color to his coat. inky black eyes stare through the mask.

Erebus just shrugs. Tommy really wishes that this would have at least happened on a taller building. Its the dead of night and they're in a part of Manburg that's mostly empty. But Siamese was just here and seemingly saw SBI, will the heroes be here soon?

Somehow that's more terrifying than being alone with SBI.

“Did you really ki-” Tithonus elbows Erebus “-how do we know you’re telling the truth?” Erebus corrects himself.

Tommy thinks for a moment “I have these,” stretches his wings out, wings weren't all that common “they're why the window was found open. I have more evidence but..” he trails off while gesturing to the open air. “I don't think here is the best place”

Tithonus nods, seeming satisfied. Tithonus is wearing a dark green cape, its seems lighter then Ares’ as its flowing dramatically in the wind, Tommy wonders how he flies with a cape. He has an altered plague doctor mask on his face, it covers his mouth slightly but the bottom is open making his mouth visible occasionally. He has a dark collared shirt under a green vest.

Ares huffs, “how did you get Tithouns’ address.” Tithonus looks annoyed at Ares.

“Uh, i can't answer that..” okay this isn't really how Tommy planned this to go.

“It would be really useful if you did,” Ares responds plainly.

“I got it from the same place I got the mayor's details.” Tommy tries to keep his composure. “They gave me his address under an oath of sorts that I wouldn't use it against him or leak it to the public.” He tries his best to diffuse the situation.

Ares eyes him before turning to Tithonus seemingly having a silent conversation. He sees Ares cross his arms as Tithonus shakes his head.

“I don't believe that” Erebus pipes up and Ares nods. “We don't want anyone to know his address no matter what they promise.” That seemed like a fair boundary to Tommy, unfortunately he has already crossed that line.

“Ok men, i hear you, but there are gonna be heroes arriving any minute and i don't really feel like telling on my ally..” he slowly backs towards the edge of the building. “It really has been lovely to meet you three” and he dives off the building.

He hears Tithonus yelp and Ares yell something but he focuses on flying the fuck away.
“Hey boss man, any way I can help you?” Tubbo asks quietly in his ear, Tommy had forgotten about him entirely.

“I don't know.”
SBI are incredible at tracking, Ares power is literally tracking, there isn't much known about the specifics of his powers but it's commonly believed that Ares knows the layout of the whole city and can sniff out anyone.

Tithonus has giant jet black wings, he can fly much faster and for longer than the average person can run, a perfect eye in the sky.

And Erebus can walk through walls, he's called his power “phasing” before, not only can he effortlessly phase through walls, but bullets, swords and fists alike fly right through him. This of course isn't always true, it seems to be something he controls and not a predictive power.

Tommy isn't sure running is even an option but he really doesn't want to answer these guys’ questions right now, he'd be happy to peacefully talk it over, but discussing it on a roof top while heroes could show up at any time and the three most powerful villains listen impatiently? No thank you.

Okay maybe running was a bad idea, but it's too late to turn back.

He flaps his wings as hard as he can but he's been straining his wings all day and isn't very fast at all.

Tithonus would surely catch up to him in no time. Running it is. He pulls his wings in and dives into the nearest alley. His landing isn't clean but it works, he stumbles into a run. He knows these alleys well but so does Ares.

He just has to run until the heroes come to distract them. He hates relying on heroes.

Tommy hears Tithonus above him, the alley is too thin for him to be able to fly in it so he hovers above keeping Tommy from flying out himself.

Around them were mostly apartment buildings meaning the buildings were quite tall. He could hear thundering steps behind him as Ares tailed him. Every breath Tommy took tasted of trash and mildew, the walls around them were covered in spray paint and mold.

There is only so much alleyway he could run in, eventually he'd hit a road and then Tithonus could get him.

Tommy knocks down garbage cans as he's running past hoping to slow Ares. he takes turns as sharp as possible using his wings to push him forwards. How the fuck does he get out of this situation?

A ghostly Erebus suddenly jumps out the wall of a building and just stands a few meters in front of Tommy, Tommy risks it and keeps running full speed at him. Erebus clearly didn't expect Tommy to keep running and looked very scared as Tommy ran right through him. Ares heavy steps fall back a bit as Tommy gains some ground.

“Tommy..” Tubbo starts suddenly “there's no heroes coming yet, it's been 30 minutes since Siamese ran off. I'm not sure if they'll show up” Tommy curses loudly. He needs to catch them by surprise. Luckily Tommy is stupid, therefore impossible to predict, and he can shapeshift.

Tommy doesn't think they even know he can shapeshift so it shouldn't be too hard to get them. He jumps into an abandoned building and drops his mask to hang around his neck as he morphs his face to look like Tithonus’ mask. It's grotesque to think about for sure but to him it felt natural and to others it should look like Tithonus.. If you don't look too closely.

Ares hops through the same window Tommy did to get in and pauses when he sees Tommy. “Tithonus?” Tommy cringes, there's no way he can mock Tithonus’ voice changer.

So he decides to go for the traumatize route. He morphs his face into Ares’. He sees Ares freeze and decides to run before Ares can process whatever that was.

Tommy jumps out a different window hoping he lost Tithonus during that as well. Sure enough he didn't see any giant shadow in the sky.

Tommy continues to run and twist and turn down alleys and streets for 5 more minutes. The whole time he heard no one behind him so he carefully scales a building to scan his surroundings. No villains, no heroes. Where the fuck did SBI go? Would the syndicate be on his ass after this?

“Atomic, I… I think I got away?” he says, spinning looking for any sign of the villains “or maybe they just gave up. That was way too easy” Tubbo laughs lightly “yea I'm glad for that, I was ready to come out there myself to save you” Tommy stays quiet. “You should come home now Tommy.” Tubbo says through a yawn.

“Yea, I'm tired”. How the fuck is he gonna ally with the Syndicate now?

Chapter Text

Tubbo works at a scrapyard, it's a shitty job, but it gives them access to a bunch of old useful rubbish. Scrap metal and old phones are useful for building weird shit.

When Tommy called Tubbo smart he was being serious. Tubbo built all the tools Tommy has, their comms and earpiece, his shock absorbing boots, his weapons. 

Tommy's favorite weapon is his pokey staff, it's a collapsible strong ass stick with a blade on the end. Kind of like a spear but it's made for hitting and slashing less stabbing. 

Anyway, Tubbo, he's at work. Tommy is bored. But it's midday so he can't go out on patrol. 

He searches the fridge for something to make for lunch, he also has to make dinner today. There's some milk.. Pasta sauce.. Cheese… nothing good. Guess that's what he's doing today. 

He slams the fridges door shut and walks into the bathroom to shower quickly.

He eyes himself in the mirror, he often doesn't feel right in his skin, when he can morph himself into anything in the blink of an eye, sometimes he thinks he forgets what his face looks like.  

Whatever. He quickly showers.

Restrictions on powers have tightened since the assassination. There were already laws in place controlling people's powers, a few years after Tommy was born they made it a requirement to test all children for powers. It was encouraged to get your powers tested and documented if you weren't a child. Now they've made it entirely illegal to have an undocumented power.

Tommy's powers were not properly documented, but they are known by the government.

He picks out a T-shirt, its black with a small purple flower on the pocket, Tubbo got it for him awhile back.

Being able to fully morph one's body is rare, many can change the size of their body or morph certain body parts, but Tommy can form things that weren't there to begin with.

He has his limits of course, his clothes don't change with him, aside from normal stretching, that really sucks. He can't make himself much bigger than he is. And to morph as something he has to have a full understanding of it. 

He ruffles his blond curls with his fingers, too impatient to wait for them to dry fully.

He had to do research on Avains and bird wings to form them on his back, before when he tried to form wings he had almost broken his own spine. He's much more responsible with his morphing now. 

For him transforming is like flexing a muscle, it's easy to do but hurts after a while. And it's easy to tell when he is and isn't doing it, once he doesn't want to be morphed he just stops flexing and his body reconstructs itself.  

He strolls down the street towards the shops. Most supermarkets are owned by the governments as food is heavily regulated. Citizens aren't supposed to have edible plants or own farm animals without licenses. He thinks that must suck for people with plant related powers.  

The shop is close enough that he's fine to walk, it'll be a pain to carry the goods all the way home but buses are expensive and he sure as hell doesn't have a car.

He entertains himself on the way by thinking about the people he passes. 

This part of town is nice, there's plenty of people out.

There's a middle-aged man sweeping dirt out of a bookshop. Tommy wonders how many people buy books from him, he doesn't know the last time he picked up a book or even saw someone reading one.

He sees a boy wearing the same shirt as him, he looks Tommy's age, his ears and teeth are pointed. He smiles widely at a woman, she's handing a small box to him. He wonders if it's a gift, and what's in it.

Again, a young girl who has pointy ears. She ties a small blanket around her neck to act as a cape and fly behind her as she runs around father.

Pointy ears are common amongst people with certain powers, Tommy doesn't know why but if someone has a power that's prevalent visually or unable to “turn off" they'll probably have misshapen ears. It happens with other features of course, hair, nails, skin, eyes, something about magic changes features.

Tommy sees it more in kids, he wonders if genes are being mutated with new generations.

He has always been curious about Ares' ears, His power is tracking, he always imagined that he could sense where the people he wants to find are. 

but it's obvious he has a large amount of magic in his body so it could be more of an intrusive power. or maybe he has a different power that isn't known.

When he finally reaches the shops, he goes to his favorite one first. It's pretty cramped, and the food is a bit more expensive than other shops, but it's owned by an older lady who buys from independent farms, their produce always tastes better so he buys fruits and veggies here.

He strolls up the small aisles picking up a few tomatoes, a bulb of garlic, a head of lettuce, a bunch of bananas, and a single apple to eat on the way home. He walks up to the single counter, the owner's daughter sits behind it.

“Hello! Did you find everything you were looking for?”  Tommy nods politely, putting his basket on the counter. She taps a couple buttons on the screen above the register “your total is 35.95” he pulls out a couple of bills from his pocket and hands her the appropriate amount. 

Tommy takes a reusable bag from his backpack and stuffs the produce in. “Have a good day!” She says cheerily with a similar accent to Ares “you to” he responds with a small wave and he exits the building. 

He puts the bag of fruit back into his backpack, but before he continues off into the next shop he visits the bookstore, he has plenty of extra coins and it just looks cozy.

The door to the bookstore is propped open very invitingly, above the door is a sign that reads “Theseus’ ship”. Tommy doesn't know much about mythology, he knows Theseus killed the minotaur. He doesn't remember a ship.

There was a small cart outside the shop labeled “free” that had a few old books stacked on it. Tommy is incredibly surprised that the cart hadn't been stolen entirely. 

He steps inside the shop and instantly feels both intimidated and at home. There are shelves everywhere and they are all stacked to the roof. It's cramped and he's a bit scared books will come crashing down on him any second.

The lights are dim and the air is warm, it smells of old ass books. Tommy's not much of a reader, he doesn't know why he's even here.

He thinks Tubbo would hate this. Books are his worst fear.

He continues on into the maze of books, he decides that he's looking for a cookbook. He's not a great cook, and he wants to be able to make better dinner for Tubbo and him.

Despite seeming a bit chaotic the store was well organized and Tommy quickly found the small section of cookbooks. He picked out a small and simple one.

He made his way back to the front door, there's a small counter near the entrance but no one is behind it.

He steps up to the desk carefully peering around for any employees. No one. He realizes there's a sign on the desk, it reads “on lunch, leave money in the jar. Don't steal I'll know” written in an elegant cursive. The paper looked old as it had stains and rips in it.

What the fuck, this is just asking for theft! He doesn't steal, of course, even if it's incredibly tempting. He pulls out the money and drops it in the jar that already has a few coins in it.

-

He browses the cereal aisle, there's a Speedrunner themed cereal. Its green apple flavored which sounds gross to him. A wall of boxes with his mask on them stare at him. Creepy as fuck.

He's met Speedrunner a handful of times, but he was very busy while in the tower so they never had a long conversation. Either way he seemed like an okay guy, fairly charismatic, he just had bad vibes about him. Gave him the heebie-jeebies.

He picked up cheerios and continued on. Working in the tower was interesting, the top heroes were always busy, when they weren't being heroic they were doing paperwork, political ads, sponsors, interviews. They had a lot of shit to do. The lower heroes didn't do nearly as much, but every hero has to maintain a good image. 

Heroes play a big part in politics, the heroes cover up shit for the government and the government covers up shit for the heroes. The citizens just get fucked over.

He grabs 2 frozen pizzas, one cheese and one veggie. He thinks cheese is the best and can't be improved upon but Tubbo says that the more complex flavors are better. bullshit.

He grabs some bread and a couple other necessities and heads towards the checkout. The line is short and it isn't long before he's heading out the door, he puts a few things in his backpack but holds the rest in his hands, there's only 4 bags so it's not hard. 

He awkwardly eats his apple as he's strolling down the sidewalk. The sun burns hot, he swears it gets hotter every year. Well it actually probably does.. It's not like the power plants and factories are making it colder. There's a bunch of shit south-west Manburg, that's the worst part of the city. It's like you can feel the air get disgusting.

The apple is perfectly sweet; it's refreshing amongst all the surrounding smog.

Despite the temperature he makes it back to the apartment in no time and starts to put the groceries away before Tubbo gets back.

-

Okay maybe he got impatient of waiting and started making some homemade bread from the cookbook without Tubbo, and maybe he managed to burn a tea towel and maybe Tubbo is mad. But honestly he's not sure why Tubbo is surprised! He should be used to this by now.

“Tom, I think you ruined the toaster!” okay maybe Tommy threw water on the towel that was on fire and maybe he missed and got a little on the toaster.

“I'll get us a new one” he says waving Tubbo off “i don't want a new one” Tubbo says crossing his arms “it's the principle of it Tommy! I liked this toaster!” Tommy apologizes of course but he thinks Tubbo doesn't really care about the toaster. 

Tubbo was just worried about him, Tubbo always worries. Tubbo is just as chaotic and destructive as him, he just acts like he's the responsible one.

Tubbo and him have been best friends for a long time. Tommy first met him at a power specialist. His mum had brought him to the specialist to diagnose his power, he had been morphing his limbs by accident and it scared his mother, he was only 5 and already had control of his shapeshifting.

Tubbo was brought to the same specialist the same day and they talked in the waiting room. Tubbo told Tommy that his dad brought him because he was “like a bee”, Tubbo had explained that his power was being able to make a green gas emit from his fingers. 

Tommy told him that it sounded like fart powers, he wasn't sure how fart powers were anything like bees.

The doctor who had done the tests on him was really nice, he had directed Tommy to try to morph his pointer finger, Tommy had done it with a bit of focus. The doctor looked horrified, but in a way Tommy didn't understand. He asked Tommy if he could morph other parts of his body. Tommy nodded his head confidently.

The doctors horrified face changed into something sad. He pulled out a clipboard and started checking off boxes while asking Tommy strange questions. The man sighed as he told Tommy to stay right where he was and left the room.

Tommy sat there for what felt like forever, the room was small but had plenty of equipment that he struggled not to start poking at. The walls were a light blue with childish designs. He was sitting on an examination table, it was high enough up that Tommy's feet dangled off. 

The bright lights were starting to bug him, and the table wasn't very comfortable, he really wanted to just go home. 

He heard the door open and saw the doctor walk back in with a blank look, 

following was his mother whose eyes were red and puffy, her expression mournful.

 He had asked his mum if she was okay but before he could even finish she was giving him a hug. He had no idea what was happening but it was terrifying. 

His doctor explained to him as gently as possible that Tommy would have to go away for a while. Tommy didn't understand why his mum was crying, he would be back! The doctor said it would be like a school that he could sleep at and he would learn how to use his powers! That didn't sound so bad, surely mom could come visit?

By the end of both Tubbo’s and Tommy's appointments their fates were sealed. Their powers were deemed a danger to themselves and others.

Tommy never saw his mother again. He doesn't think his mum knew how bad it would really be, she just didn't want to be away from her kid. Tubbo told him once that he can't remember much of that day or before, that his childhood was a fuzzy mess in his head. 

Tommy remembers everything. He remembers his loving mother who had worked her ass off so Tommy could have a good childhood. He remembers how it was all ripped away.                          

Chapter Text

Okay these guys are twats. He was having a nice night appreciating the cool breeze, and they had to rob the best store in Manburg! So of course he has to stop them, but it's soooooo much work. and its almost bedtime. assholes.

They're trying to rob the pleasant old lady’s shop, ‘Grandma's garden’.

There's 3 of them and they're all equally annoying. One has stretchy ass limbs which is freakish. One is fast as fuck, but only when no one is looking at her. And the other is just strong or something. 

They broke the window to enter the store, which seems extra, there's the door for a reason. And they began stuffing all the fruit into bags. Why fruit? 

The cash register was open but empty, so Tommy had to assume they tried that option first. But why not go to a different store with more cash?

He has been sneaking around, observing them and sizing them up, he's not sure how he will defeat all three, he knows he would be a pussy if he didn't try.

Tommy picks up a small knife that is conveniently lying on the floor.

He sneaks up behind Stretchy freak and stabs him in the leg. “Gottem!!” Tommy yells as he springs back to avoid being hit. Stretchy freak crumbles to the ground, screaming something. He thought he would get a little fight from him.

He ducks back behind the counter as the two other guys come running to see what’s going on. Stretchy freak appears to be panicking, while the other two look confused. Perfect—Tommy thrives on confusion.

Tommy pulls his staff out from his belt and quietly unfolds it, he can fight two of them. He leaps out from behind the counter and attempts to stab the strong guy, bad idea, his blade bounces harmlessly off the man's body.

They both turn around and stare at him for a moment. “Are you that Hyperion fellow?” Strong man asks gruffly.

“Uh, I don't think so-” Speedy fucker suddenly throws a punch at Tommy, he easily jumps out of the way. “So, boys-” Tommy dodges another hit. “-why are you stealing fruit?”

Speedy slips out of his line of sight. Tommy allows her to escape as he tries to predict her next move. With a swift motion, he whips out his staff and, bingo, he hits speedy right in the stomach. 

She keels over. This is easy.

Tommy feels a sharp pain in his back as a man crashes into him. In an instant, Tommy's face is slammed against the wooden floor. Fuck that hurt. He feels blood trickling from his nose.

He quickly rolls over and watches as a boot lands right where his head was. “Fuck man,” he whines, “that hurt dickhead” Strong man looms over him, looking pissed as hell. Tommy jumps to his feet as quickly as he can; the strong man attempts to stop him, but Tommy is too fast.

Wings sprout from his back as he propels himself forward. “Not today, prick!” Tommy raises his staff up to block a punch, wincing as the stick bends under the force. “Not very talkative?” Tommy asks while trying to fend off Strong man.

His lips remain pressed together in a thin line as he fights Tommy.

Tommy throws his hand in front of his face to block a punch and feels something crack inside his hand. Fuck that hurt. He is in pain. Fortunately, he doesn't think his nose is broken, but it still hurts like a bitch. 

He hears a crash from behind him, Strong man stops fighting him and stares at whatever the crash was. Tommy takes this opportunity to kick him in the balls. He shouts in pain and dramatically falls to his knees. 

Tommy then turns around to see what the crash was. He doesn't know what thought it was going to be, but he definitely didn't expect Golden, Golden happens to be a hero, a hero who is running right towards him. 

Tommy, being incredibly cool, jumps using his wings to boost him into the air. But the ceiling isn't really tall enough to jump over Golden, which results in Golden getting a foot to the face.

Golden pauses in shock and Tommy takes that opportunity to get the fuck out of there.

He jumps out the window and starts scaling the building. Golden's power is cool, Tommy thinks it would better suit a villain. He can control gold, kind of. That alone probably wouldn't be enough to get him into the ranks, but he's an amazing runner. He's seen as a rival to Speedrunner with how quick he is.

He wears a white hoodie and black jeans, complemented by a simple gold chain around his neck. Tommy thinks he might have used the chain as a weapon before, which sounds lame. Although the gold-plated blades hanging from his belt are surely deadly.

Tommy is not surprised to find Golden right behind him.

Tommy leaps off the roof without hesitation. Golden appears to understand the situation as Tommy soars toward the building across the street, aiming to get as far as possible from Golden. He heads for a taller building.

He watches as Golden jumps off the building, landing on the street below without even flinching.

Golden is hot on his heels as they navigate the streets. Tommy is not in the mood for this; his nose and hand really fucking hurt, and he should have been heading home by now. He ducks just in time as a blade whizzes past him.

“Atomm,” Tommy whines into his earpiece, “what is the best direction to go to lose this guy?” He hears shuffling. “What guy?” Tubbo asks, sounding tired. “Golden! I stopped the robbery on 31st Street, but now he’s on my ass!”

Tommy's lungs already ache from running. He jumps off another building and swoops toward the street before sharply turning upward. They have moved north, and the buildings are growing taller as the city gets closer to Kinoko. This is fantastic for Tommy.

There are more people around—though not many, as it is midnight—but the cars on the road keep Golden on his toes. For now, Tommy is gaining ground.

What's concerning is that his legs hurt quite a bit. “Head east,” Tommy immediately turns right.  “Near where you met SBI, Erebus and Flamespitter are fighting. Northeast Manburg. I don't know where they are now, but if either of them is in trouble, there will be shit going down”. Tubbo explains.

He's right, if Erebus gets hurt, other Syndicate members will arrive, which will prompt more heroes to be called. Similarly, if Flamespitter is injured, heroes will respond, followed by the Syndicate. So there's a large chance shit will ensue.

Tommy doesn't see any signs of a hero fight but chooses to trust Tubbo.

Golden seems surprised by the sudden turn but easily follows Tommy. He isn't totally sure what this guy is planning on doing, as he held the high ground—both literally and figuratively.

But Tommy can't maintain this pace much longer, and Golden knows that. Tommy resorts to gliding, which is unsafe; Golden enjoys using his blades as throwing knives, and his aim is cracked. Tommy will be an easy target out in the open. 

He attempts to fly unpredictably even before he sees the first blade thrown. When the first blade is thrown Tommy might have pissed his pants a little. The knife flies right past his head, nearly giving him a haircut.

Tommy was prepared to dodge, but the outward violence still surprises him.

Where the fuck are the villains?  

He feels a knife lodge itself in his wings; this just got shitter. He flaps his wings frantically, but it doesn't help. His speed is lost dramatically which just makes himself a bigger target. 

He clumsily stumbles onto the road. Before he has a moment to rise, Golden delivers a swift kick to his stomach. 

“Don't kick a man while he's down,” he groans.

Fuck okay he can fight this prick. Tommy jumps to his feet and assumes a fighting stance, while Golden holds a pair of handcuffs. His body is aching.

“Into that kind of thing?” Tommy asks, pointing at the cuffs. “I don't kink-shame,” he says, raising his hands in fake surrender.

“Can we do this the easy way? I don't want to fight you, Hyperion,” Golden offers.

“Why the fuck is everyone calling me Hyperion? What the hell does that even mean?” 

“It's your name..?” Golden replies.

“No its fuckin not!”

“Then what is your name?”

They stare at one another.

Tommy shrugs. “I dunno”

Tommy prepares for battle by drawing out his staff, when suddenly he hears a buzzing sound.

Golden looks down at his belt and retrieves a communicator of some sort. He extends his index finger out in a ‘wait’ motion. Tommy could attack him, but honestly, he has no desire to do so.

He brings his staff back to his side.

Golden stares at it for a few seconds, his brow furrowing as he types for a moment. He looks back up at Tommy and then at his comm. “Hey man, let's do this later, actually.” Golden says, waving his hand casually. He runs off before Tommy can even get a word in.

Well, that was easy. He watches as Golden sprints away in a hurry. 

“Hey, he’s gone,” Tommy states. 

“Yeah, you should head home,” Tubbo replies.

Tommy should find that strange and perhaps feel concerned, but he is so tired, and the adrenaline is wearing off.

 -

He fiddles with his wing, he took the knife out and easily just healed it by shapeshifting. Wing injuries are never a concern since his wings are just morphs. However, it hurt like a fucker though.

He can't exactly do the same for his real body, it usually ends in more trauma to the injury. It works in a pinch though, it's only a short-term solution. It will work for as long as he can maintain the morph, but as soon as he sleeps or can't keep his strength up? Shit goes down.

A cold breeze ruffles his feathers as he strolls down the sidewalk. Maybe he shouldn't be out in full costume, but he doesn't feel like sneaking around.

He rolls his shoulders back; his body aches, but he keeps his wings out.

“Where is your little family now?” a voice sneers. He freezes.

It's coming from the alleyway right beside him. Why is it always alleys?

The voice sounded confident and dark.

Tommy peeks around the corner and sees nothing. He carefully walks deeper into the alley, trying to find the source of the voices.

“No,” Tommy hears the familiar clink of metal. “I won’t.”

He turns the corner to find Erebus cornered by Flamespitter. Although Erebus is clearly injured, Tommy cannot determine the extent or location of his wounds.

The lower half of his coat is gone seemingly from fire. His pants and boots are charred but still intact. His lip is bleeding, and his nose seems to be broken. He stands leaning against the wall behind him for support.

He looks pissed, but his gaze remains fixed on his shoes, refusing to meet Flame's eyes.

Flame doesn't look nearly as dead, but still looks rough.

His white shirt is stained with blood and dirt. The blindfold he wears to conceal his identity is loose and askew. A long cut in his pants exposes his underarmor. His face is littered in bruises.

Tommy doesn't have a high opinion of Erebus; he seems like a bitch, but Flame is an even bigger bitch. But does he really need to get involved in this? He could simply walk away. But then, he wouldn't have a sick ass story..

He watches as Flame reaches for Erebus's hands to cuff them. Fine, he'll do something.

—

Wilbur really doesn't want to go to prison; he doubts he would make it there without Phil finding him. Still, this is a giant pain in the ass. Flamespitter’s fire affects him even in his ghostly form, and he currently lacks the energy to phase through shit.

He feels trapped, so he stalls for as long as possible, hoping that Techno or Phil arrive.

“No,” Flame said, pulling the handcuffs off his belt. “I won’t.”

Wil wants to punch this arrogant fucker in the face. He refrains from doing so. He looks up to meet Flame's eyes, only to spot the assassin- Phil said his name is Hyperion- creeping into the alleyway. Wil also feels the urge to punch Hyperion in the face.

“You could make this easy for me, bud.” Flame steps closer, Wil crams himself further into the corner. “Come with me, admit that you killed the mayor, and we won’t hunt down Ares and Tithonus as well.” 

Wil sees Hyperion stealthily approaching Flame. The lower half of Hyperion's face is obscured by something, but Wilbur struggles to concentrate enough to see what it is.

Hyperion childishly gives him a thumbs-up.

Flame snaps his fingers. “Erebus?” he demands, pushing the cuffs a bit closer.

Wilbur looks up, staring at Flame. With all his strength, he spits in Flame's face. 

With a satisfied smile, he watches Flame's expression shift to one of disgust and rage. The cuffs he was holding clatter to the ground. Flame's hand strikes Wilbur's face with a sharp slap, and Wil thinks he feels a tooth loosen. Worth it.

Flame bends down to grab the handcuffs, he quickly stands back up. He says something, but Wilbur doesn't pay him any mind. 

He sees Hyperion standing directly behind Flame. Wilbur now notices that the lower half of Hyperion's face is obscured by a gas mask.

“You’re going to be fucking locked up forever.” Flame grips Wilbur's hands roughly.

Hyperion awkwardly pinches his fingers in front of his face, and it takes Wilbur a moment to realize that he is signaling him to hold his breath.

Suddenly, a green fog emanates from Hyperion's fingertips, accompanied by a low hum. Wilbur instinctively held his breath.

Flame suddenly turns around, releasing Erebus's hands; one wrist is already cuffed. 

Flame’s hands are instantly engulfed in fire, ready to attack, but Tommy hits him as hard as he can in the head with his staff. He watches as Flame stumbles backward, tripping over Erebus's foot, and ends up on his ass.

He appears to accept this as he launches a small ball of fire from his spot on the ground. Tommy effortlessly dodges this half-hearted attack. He watches as Flame's right hand falls limply to his side, panic washing over his face.

He looks at his own hand, then back up at Tommy, confusion evident on his face. 

“What did you do?” he mumbles, desperation evident in his voice.

“Do you need help getting home?” Tommy asks casually.

Erebus stands there, seemingly processing what has just occurred.

"you just took down like, the biggest hero. What the hell?

“You did all the work, King. I wouldn't have been able to do that on an even playing field.”

Erebus suddenly collapses to the floor with a grunt, cradling his head in his hands.

“Hey, man… you good?” Tommy takes a small step toward him.

Erebus groans. “Do you have a knife I could borrow?”

Tommy does, so he hands Erebus a knife. He is not particularly afraid of Erebus attacking him.

“Don’t freak out,” is the only warning Erebus gives before he cuts his own palm open. He mutters curses under his breath as he does so. Tommy struggles to keep his composure.

Erebus removes a small chunk of purple rock from his palm and tosses it into a puddle.

 “Here,” he tosses the knife toward Tommy. Naturally, Tommy because of the knife that is flying at him. also the large amount of blood pouring from Erebus's hand.  

“You should leave; Ares will be here soon,” Erebus says seriously. Tommy crosses his arms. “I don’t get a ‘thank you’? I just saved your life, dickhead.”

Wilbur scoffs, glancing back at Flame, Wil is still slightly horrified by whatever Hyperion did to him. “I’m not thanking you,” he replies, turning his gaze back to where Hyperion had stood, but he is already gone.

Chapter Text

Tommy swings open the door to his apartment. “I'm home,” he announces tiredly. Tubbo comes rushing out of his room. “Tommy! Tell me what the fuck happened!” Tubbo grabs Tommy's shoulders and shakes him dramatically.

Tubbo had requested updates while Tommy was walking home, but Tommy didn't feel like explaining it over the comms.

“Oh yeah, I made some pizza for dinner,” Tubbo said as he headed into the kitchen, with Tommy following closely behind. “I want to hear all the details.”

Tubbo asks Tommy to retrieve the pizza for him. Tubbo slices the pizzas and sets two slices on each plate before putting the rest in the fridge. Meanwhile, Tommy quickly washes up in the bathroom, grabbing some bandages for his hand as well. 

He heads to the sofa to eat with Tubbo.

“Alright,” Tommy says between bites of pizza. “I don't know what you heard over the comms, but I beat the shit out of Flamespitter!”

Tommy had successfully taken down number two hero, Flamespitter. Admittedly, the fight was somewhat unfair; Flame was already weak and Tommy had caught him entirely by surprise.

And he had utilized Tubbo's power. Tommy has two powers. Tubbo says its just one power manifesting in multiple ways. 

Tommy has the ability to replicate the powers of others, so he stole Tubbo's power.

There are many limits and rules to his abilities. He has to understand the power just like shapeshifting. He cannot use multiple copied powers simultaneously, nor can he maintain his morphs while copying. Most importantly, he must physically touch the individual whose power he's copying.

He must be in direct contact with their skin or blood actively to use their powers. There is a time limit; if he touches someone, he has maybe a minute to use their power before it fades.

Under his shirt, he keeps a small necklace containing Tubbo's blood. This allows him to use Tubbo’s power whenever he wants to. The older the blood becomes, the weaker his power is so they renew the blood once a month.

The less he understands a power, the more dangerous it becomes. For example, he knows that Erebus can make himself intangible, but he doesn't know how he does it, how it works, what it feels like, or any of the details of using it. It would be dangerous and unreliable for Tommy.

Tommy used Tubbo’s power to put Flame to sleep and paralyze him. Actually he thinks the sleeping part was from the concussion..

“Erebus fucking cut open his hand!” Tommy explains, gesturing to his palm. Tubbo nods intently. “And then he pulled some purple shit out of it.” Tommy takes a sip of his Coke.

“And Golden just ran away from me!” he exclaims incredulously.

Tommy stops his rambling for a moment to think. “Tubbo, why are people calling me Hyperion?” Tubbo shrugs. “The people have named you. It's what you get for not naming yourself.”

He never came up with a code name, to be honest he just couldn't think of one. 

It's not that he's not good at naming things. He's come up with many (in his opinion) amazing names, he came up with Tubbo’s alias!  

“Hyperion is a Greek titan” Tubbo reads off his laptop “Hyperion was, along with his son Helios, a personification of the sun.” Tommy thinks for a moment, he likes the name but, “it matches the Syndicates names.” Tommy says “why does it match the Syndicate?”

Most of the members of the Syndicate are Greek figures of some type. Some of them are more shit than others, for example, Erebus. The only one that isn't is ‘Tonitru’, he's not really sure why Tonitru’s isn't, but his name means “thunder” in Latin.

Hero names are usually something to do with their power. Flamespitter, Speedrunner, golden, interpreter. 

Tommy thinks that's a bit cheesy. But even if he liked the idea he couldn't think of a good name related to his power that didn't sound creepy as hell!

Hyperion has a nice ring to it.

He continues to recount every detail of the interaction to Tubbo. Exhausted and unable to move, he eventually falls asleep on the sofa.

He spent a lot of time with Tubbo as a child. They have truly been through thick and thin together. Tommy remembers sitting with him in the cafeteria, those were the best parts of the day. One time Tommy got a pea stuck in his nose and panicked, scared he was going to die. It was only when Tubbo reminded him that he could morph that he stopped.

The very first day they met, after the doctor, they were led to a small bus, it looked just like a school bus, but smaller. A few other kids as well. Tommy didn't know where they had come from, as there had been no one else in the small doctor's office. 

They sat next to each other on the bus, both so frightened that they held hands on the way there.

They had their clothes and personal belongings taken away and were provided with replacement clothing. They were then shown to a room that Tommy and Tubbo would share for the time being.

The first few weeks were fine. They were told that those who were well behaved and practiced their powers well would have the opportunity to become heroes. They played, and did some basic workouts. Those turned into mental and physical evaluations, which ultimately led to testing. 

It began with questions like, long can he morph? How extreme can you morph? How precise can you morph? Tommy didn't mind these, it was entertaining to test his power. But the older he got the worse the experiments got.

They instructed him to hold a ball, and then they asked him to completely envelop it by morphing. Easy. but it didn't end there; it never truly stopped. Ultimately, he found himself with small objects embedded in him to say the least. 

him and Tubbo don't discuss their childhood often; they share a mutual understanding of what's okay and not okay to talk about.

Tommy was trained to fight, that's really all they taught at the training center. Although he received some private schooling initially, that eventually came to an end. His education centered around his powers and combat skills.

When they left, that was all they knew how to do. So, they fought. Tommy stole, and Tubbo learned how to use what Tommy had taken.

Some days, Tommy can't believe that he lives the life he does and that he is where he is.

Chapter Text

It's objectively a bad idea to be doing this right now; Tommy has many heroes (and maybe a few villains) after him right now. He paralyzed Flamespitter just last week, it's still a fresh wound. But Tommy is confident and most of all bored.

He clings to the outer wall of the hero tower for dear life, positioned just outside the ex-mayor's office window.

His heels are hanging off as just the toes of his boots keep him on.

He pulls a small device from his duffle bag. Tubbo made it for him a while ago. He affixes it to the window and presses the small button on it. A tiny blade attached to the device extends and scores a circular line in the glass.

Tommy removes the device and slides it back into his bag. He hits the middle of the circle hard and the glass falls back into the office. He cringes at the loud crash but the glass doesn't shatter. he wiggles his way into the office through the opening.

The office is just how it left it, minus the body. There are bloodstains on the rug, and the empty bottle next to the desk is still there.

Unlike last time, he is here in broad daylight, he thinks it's less obvious, he could easily pass for an employee—an employee who is breaking in..

He was primarily here to create chaos, he also intends to steal all the interesting documents. He doubts there's anything brilliant in them, as Schlatt wouldn't be trusted with much in his office. He won't be finding any grand conspiracy here.

First, he ensures that the door is locked. Then, he begins to search through Schlatt’s desk. The top drawer contains a few cigars, which he picks up and throws out the window.

Next, he opens the bottom drawer. Inside, he discovers some pens, stamps, paperclips, candy, nothing of interest. He continues to sift through the contents and finds junk mail, bills, a sealed blank envelope, and a manila folder.

The manila folder is overflowing; someone should have got this guy a binder. He stuffs everything into his bag, along with the envelope, not wanting to waste time sorting through the contents.

He ducks under the desk, searching for any secret compartments. Instead, he only finds blood stains, weirdly some of which appear to be older than those he caused. 

He moves to the bookshelves, most of the books appear dull and merely decorative. He pulls out a few to make sure there's nothing concealed within. The only thing he discovers are a couple of notes stuffed between the pages of “history of Manburg. he tosses the money out the window. 

He opens one of the filing cabinets, which is filled primarily with bills. He carelessly stuffs some of the more important ones into his bag.

After searching all the obvious spots, he begins to dig deeper. He knocks paintings off the walls and discovers only a small envelope filled with cash. He checks behind the curtains—nothing. He feels along the walls, searching for a secret compartment, but finds nothing.

Finally, he lifts the bloodstained rug from the floor and uncovers a small outline: a loose plank. He lifts the plank, only to find bottles of whiskey and vodka hidden beneath it.

He leaves them. There isn't anything valuable hiding in Schlatt’s office.

He throws a few books out the window aiming for the grassy patches outside the tower, he's surprised when they landed and didn't hit someone. He continues doing this, but also throwing documents and bills, anything he hasn't put in his bag. 

He watches as a few passing civilians snatch some of the things he throws. He also sees cop cars pull out of the station a block down and head towards him.

He was expecting this.

Soon, police officers surround the building, Tommy aims the books at them. They are yelling at him through a megaphone. They seem to be conflicted on what to do. They don't know who he is and therefore don't know what powers he might possess.

Next to the officers stand a few heroes. From up here he can see Golden, Interpreter, and Alien. A strange mix of heroes.

Interpreter is the third member of The Dream Team, with Speedrunner and Flamespitter being the first two. In Tommy's opinion, the team name seems a bit arrogant.

Interpreter’s power is lie detection, nothing else. This is why he is always with his team. It's not that he is a poor fighter; he is well-trained and possesses many high-quality weapons. However, when facing opponents who may have invisibility or flight, being a skilled fighter doesn't help much.

Many underestimate him; that's how he gets people. Just a month ago, he obtained information from Erebus. Although the details of how this information was revealed have not been made public, somehow Interpreter learned that Tithonus is Erebus's father.

Alien is a new hero who was undergoing training while Tommy was working at the tower; he seemingly graduated recently. His power is light manipulation, in reality he only affects how others perceive light. He cannot permanently blind people or cause a citywide blackout.      

It's an incredible power, even with its limited usage and drawbacks. A well-timed flash of light could kill a villain. However, the downside is that he cannot choose who to use it on, only the radius of people it will affect.

He’s a chill guy though, he talked to Alien during his breaks in the tower. Tommy always got the impression that he didn’t want to be a hero, or at the very least, he didn’t want to be trained under Golden.

Anyways, He is being shouted at to exit the office. He is not doing that, there's probably some assholes right outside the door.

Tommy has thrown most of the interesting items out of the window by now; he just needs to escape, problem, those cops have guns. Firearms are extremely rare in Essempi and are entirely illegal for anyone who isn't a police officer. Not even heroes are permitted to use or own them. If someone is found to have a gun, they will be hunted down and imprisoned for life.

Some people claim that the Syndicate rats out anyone who sells guns. No one around here likes them.

They are a rare sight, and police are more commonly seen with tasers and non-lethal firearms. However, they are holding real pistols. That’s how Tommy knows he has really fucked up.

He takes his earpiece out of his bag, there's no doubt Tubbo has been calling him. He hears a soft beep as the device powers on, and another as it connects to Tubbo.

“HYPERION, I SWEAR TO FUCKING PRIME.” he winces at the volume. Tubbo has seemingly accepted that as Tommy's name.

“Atomic.. Hey man, how's it going?” Tommy says casually.

“Don't start that shit!-” 

“Atom, im fucked right now. Yell at me later dickhead, help me.” Tubbo takes a deep breath.

“What's your situation? I know there's heroes involved.” Tubbo asks.

“About 12 police officers and 3 heroes. There's Golden, Interpreter. And Alien.” Tommy carefully looks out the window, “the officers have guns, they're telling me to exit the office,”

Tubbo sucks in a breath. “That's not great-” Tommy rolls his eyes. “-Have you tried exiting?” Tubbo asks sarcastically.

“No you fucking twat.” 

“Well I think your only option might be shapeshifting?” Tubbo suggests.

Tommy knew this already but didn't really want to, he hoped that Tubbo had some magical solution. “As who?” he asks, he hears Tubbo hum in thought.

He could shapeshift as a hero, he could do Speedrunner? His close teammate is right outside, he will surely know. But maybe he can get away with it?

Tubbo’s right there's not any other options. He prays to prime that this'll work. He strips down to his boxers so as not to ruin his suit, he has time and would rather not ruin his outfit thank you. 

He stuffs his shit in his bag and zips it securely.

Be begins to carefully morph himself into Speedrunner, morphing his whole body like this is harder then most of the stuff he does. he focuses on the face first, changing his face into a grotesque mask made of flesh, no one would be able to tell its his skin, it looks like the titanium Speed’s mask is made of.

He tans his skin slightly and lightens his hair to a bright white, he removes the wings on his back, and he shortens himself by an inch. Yes he is taller then The Speedrunner, yes he is proud of it.

He then moves on to the outfit, a tight green shirt with armor covering it and baggy camo pants. Heroes used to wear more professional suits, not the business kind, the all armor and black spandex suit kind. Recently they have been trying to appeal to the youth or whatever.

Their attire needs to be simple so they can put it on quickly in emergencies, so the costume ends there.

He looks at himself in the reflection of the window, he looks like Speedrunner. It creeps him out. He won't be able to hold this form for long so he needs to get going. 

“I'm going as Speedrunner.” he almost laughs, as it sounds like he's just discussing who he's going to be for Halloween. “Okay big man! Good luck!” Tubbo replies cheerily. 

Tommy steps up to the open window and musters up his best Speedrunner impersonation, “I've caught him.” he shouts as confidently as possible. Tommy is sure he sees the doubt on Interpreter’s face, he's not sure if it's due to the shit impression or the half-lie he just told.

But he hears the police shout in celebration, they quickly accept this, Interpreter opens his mouth, Tommy cant hear what he’s beginning to say but it can't be good. He reaches behind him and throws his bag over his shoulder quickly. “He’s cuffed up here, I have to go deal with other heroic stuff now!” he stumbles out stiffly.

Wings shoot out his back as he clumsily flies into the nearest alley. He hears shouts of confusion from the officers and heroes alike. 

 He’s now wondering why the fuck he didn't go out the fucking door and jump out a different window. Running past whoever was out the door would have surely been easier.

He doesn't hear anyone chasing him yet, they don't know what's going on. Interpreter will put it together soon though. If he hasn't already.

The alley he picked doesn't go anywhere, there's a few doors and Tommy doesn't know what they lead to.

He hears the demanding voices of the cops as they approach the alley. His disguise deteriorates as he replaces it with a young boy, children will get in less trouble when they trespass. He quickly tries to yank open the doors until he finds one that is unlocked. 

As he opens it he immediately slams it shut, finds the lock, and locks it. He’s hit with the smell of bread and sweets. And a pleasant warmth. He is in a small room, it has a washer and dryer, and some pipes and shit, there's a doorway to the left of him, through it he sees a few ovens. 

“Jack? Is that you?” he hears a feminine voice call out. “I could use your help with mixing this…” She trails off as she rounds the corner to find a child. What is a kid doing here?

“Hello, sir. What’s your name?” She bends down carefully. The boy looks scared but determined as he clutches a heavy-looking duffle bag. “I'm Tom.. Er.. mas.. Thomas.” he says nervously.

“Okay, Thomas, why are you here?” she asks bluntly. Thomas cringes. “Uhm... there is a bad guy.. In the hero tower, and I got split from my mum, so I wanted to hide.” Villains? She hasn't heard anything about that.

“Oh, that sounds scary! I can help you find your mom, okay? My name is Niki,” she says calmly.

He is young, with a round face and large eyes. The bag appears far too big for him to carry.

Niki extends her hand toward the boy, who takes it hesitantly. She leads him to the dining room, where he gazes in awe at the sweets. Niki quickly snatches a cookie from the display for him. Since the bakery hasn't opened yet, the tables are empty, and Niki leads Thomas to a cozy corner booth. 

He wiggles onto the seat and plops down. Niki sits across from him and slides him the cookie. “How old are you, Thomas?” He pauses before looking down at his hands, nervously raising them to show six fingers. Niki nods with a smile.

He is unusually tall for a six-year-old.

“What happened at the hero tower?” Maybe there's better questions to ask that could help him find his mother, but she's curious.

He nervously picks at his nail beds. “There was a villain in the tower, he was throwing things out of the window,” he says, kicking his feet under the table. “My mum works in the tower, so she was trying to ask the police what's happenin’, they told us to go away,” he shrugs. Niki is surprised by the boy's sudden chatter.

She pauses, a villain in the tower. Perhaps the King of Hearts? “What did the villain look like?” she asks. “He was a demon,” he says simply.

Niki hums in thought. Maybe King has a new minion she hasn't heard about, or maybe a rogue vigilante? 

“Do you know your mom’s name?” Thomas fiddles with his thumbs. “No, Miss Niki,” he squeaks. This makes things more challenging. “How about where you live?” He shakes his head. The way the boy moves seems unnatural, as if he is uncomfortable. He must be shaken up about getting lost.

Does the bag he has belong to his mother? Maybe there is some identification inside it. 

She opens her mouth to ask about the bag but is interrupted by a loud knock at the back door. Frowning, she wonders, Is that Jack? She asks Thomas to wait a moment before heading to the back. Another loud knock follows. It's not jack, jack doesn't knock like that. 

She swiftly retrieves her dagger from her boot and slips it into her apron pocket, just in case. 

She attempts to open the door, only to discover that it is locked. huh?. she didn't lock it this morning. she slides the bolt out of place.

Niki swings the door open with a friendly smile. a lanky young police officer stands there looking irritated. “Hello, ma’am. I'm Lieutenant Jones. Have you seen any suspicious individuals 'round here?”

There is a group of officers behind Jones, one of whom is knocking on a different door in the alley.

“I don’t think so,” she replies, confused. The man seems to be impatient; he taps his foot, and his brow is furrowed. “Is there anything I should be worried about?” Niki asks.

He looks down at the notepad that Niki just realized he is holding. “There was a villain attack; he is a new villain, so you might not recognize him,” he scribbles on the paper. “Not much is known about him, but he is believed to have the ability to shapeshift. If you see anyone fitting this description-” he hands Niki a piece of paper “-alert the police. He is very dangerous.”

She stares down at the paper, which is covered in quick, scratchy writing: a red mask with pointy horns, blond hair, red hooded sweatshirt—the list goes on. “Thank you Mr. I'll keep a lookout." Officer Jones thanks her and slinks back into his group. Niki closes the door and ensures it is securely locked.

She knows she is neighbors with the tower, but why knock on her door?

She walks lightly back into the dining room. “Sorry, Thomas, it was-” she stops herself, Thomas is gone. She approaches the table where they had sat, only to find a wad of cash and a scribbled note. The note reads, 'Thank you' with a small heart doodle. 

She peeks out the window, searching for Thomas. Maybe there was a good reason they knocked on her door..

Chapter Text

Tommy is unsure how he managed to escape all of that. He knows very little about children, but he thinks he did a decent job of pretending to be one. He jogs down the sidewalk; the tower is incredibly far from home. While flying, it takes only about 30 minutes, but walking as a small human? That would take ages.

He's in pain, his legs are cramping and he has a killer headache, he has been in this intense form for far too long. He ducks into a nearby supermarket. Tommy rushes to the bathroom, locks himself in a stall, and carefully unmorphs. He dresses quickly, hoping that his red hoodie won't draw attention to him.

He casually walks out of the store, catches a bus so he can rest his body for a bit, and then flies the rest of the way, heading to his base first. 

Tommy swoops down into the forest below.  The church he uses as his hideout is located in the woods behind his apartment; it sits at the edge, not too deep within.

The door creaks as he opens it. The entire church is constructed from stone bricks, there's many cracks and chips, yet the building seems stable enough. Old wooden pews are lined up on the right side, while the left side has been completely cleared to accommodate storage and activities. 

Tommy sets his bag on a pew with a sigh, his shoulders aching from the weight. He rolls his shoulders back and lets his wings dissipate.

He steps into the small storage closet to change, he doesn't want the squirrels to watch him. He removes his hoodie, pants, and underarmor, replacing them with a dusty pair of cargo pants and a blue sweatshirt. He keeps his mask on for now, as there is a high possibility that someone followed him. After all, he did just commit a major crime.

He steps out of the closet and heads toward one of his storage boxes. He grabs a blue backpack, not wanting to carry around the same bag he was seen with earlier. It feels a bit heavier than it should, at the very bottom of what he thought was an empty bag, he finds a lunchbox. He sets it to the side for a moment,

First, he stuffs his costume and staff into the new backpack. Then, he empties the contents of his old bag into the new one, crumpling some of the papers to make everything fit. 

Back to the lunch box- Oh Prime, how long has this been in his bag? He lifts the box and extends it away from him while carefully opening it. He expects to find a used but mostly clean box; instead, he discovers a half-eaten sandwich—or what used to be one. The meat inside is dried out, and the bread is covered in mold. He gags at the stench. 

Tommy speed-walks toward the door, opens it, and flings the sandwich outside.

“Ew! What the hell!” someone shouts, Tommy freezes. He peeks out the door a little further to see Erebus, who stands grimacing at the rubbish Tommy just threw at him. Tommy screams, “What the fuck are you doing here?!” His hand instinctively reach for his staff, only to remember it's in his bag.

“What are you doing here?” Erebus retorts. Tommy rolls his eyes. “This is my secret hiding place i'll have you know” Erebus’s jacket has been repaired since the last time Tommy saw him; it now features a few patches. Additionally, Erebus wears bandages over his eyes instead of his typical masquerade mask. 

“So why are you hiding?” Erebus asks, crossing his arms. “Why do you think? I just committed a crime, duh.” Tommy sasses.

“What's up with your eyes?” Tommy asks. Erebus’s mouth opens in apparent confusion; Tommy can't see his eyes, making it harder to gauge his emotions. “Surely, there are better questions to ask. Im literally standing ominously outside your hideout” Tommy shrugs. Erebus scoffs. “The masquerade mask was weird, I wanted to change it up.”

Erebus reaches into his pocket, causing Tommy to tense up, but he only pulls out a pack of cigarettes. He takes one from the box and places it between his lips before lighting it. Of course, this fucker smokes. Tommy heads back into the church to retrieve his bag, slipping a knife into his pocket just in case. 

He heads back outside and is slightly surprised to see Erebus still there; he is now leaning against a tree. 

“If you go ghost with smoke in your lungs, would I be able to see the smoke?” Tommy asks suddenly. Erebus lets out a sudden laugh that turns into a cough. “I don't think so; you can't see food in my stomach, or my tattoos” he laughs again. “No one’s ever called my power ‘going ghost.’”

Erebus's coat is adorned with pins, spiky studs, and chains. A new patch displays the SBI logo. Tommy notices slight lumps in the fabric and assumes that Erebus has pockets on the inside to hold his weapons. However, his curiosity gets the better of him, so he asks, “do you have drugs on the inside of your jacket like a drug dealer?" 

Erebus smiles menacingly before dramatically opening his coat. Inside, Tommy sees blades of various shapes and sizes—some tucked into pockets and others secured with straps. Erebus's primary weapon, located in the middle, a set of two blades that are slightly S-shaped, with a handle in the middle. 

He slides one of them out of its place and holds it lightly in his hand. “No drugs, those are all in my regular pockets.” He tosses it into the air and catches it. “Oh, by the way, do you have a sharpener? These are getting a bit dull,” he says with a shrug.

Tommy hesitates before remembering he is supposed to get on good terms with this guy. “Sure, give me a second.” Tommy steps inside and grabs a wet stone. He tosses it to Erebus, who is now sitting in the grass. “Thanks.”

Erebus wets the stone before carefully dragging his blade across it; the action feels vaguely threatening. “What’s in the bag?” Erebus asks without looking up. “You’ll find out soon,” Tommy replies ominously. “Is that a threat?” Erebus asks genuinely. Tommy laughs, “Why would I threaten you? I don’t want to be murdered.” 

“What's your power?” Erebus asks suddenly. Tommy rolls his eyes. He’ll probably know soon with what went on in the tower. “Very personal question, don't you think?” It's uncommon to share your power with strangers. If you have a dangerous or extraordinary power and people know it, you could find yourself in deep shit. It's simply something that most people don't share.

“You know mine,” Erebus defends. “Well, I’ve got these.” Tommy says as he turns around, he wills his wings into existence, stretching them out to show them off. “Aw, fuck! I’m not in my costume!” he groans loudly. Erebus just laughs at him.

Half of his shirts have stitches in the back from doing that same thing. “Okay, but you obviously have more than just that,” Erebus probes, Tommy shrugs. “I’ve got to go, man. I have things to do and people to see.” He slings his bag over one shoulder and walks backward into the church. He slams the door and climbs the rickety ladder up to the steeple. 

“Don’t take my shit!” he exclaims before leaping off the tower.

“I don't want your shit!” Erebus retorts.

Tommy glides off toward Manburg, leaving Erebus behind in the woods alone.

-

He flips his bag over, dumping all the files onto their old coffee table. “Whoa,” Tubbo says, picking up a page and skimming over it. “What did you find?” Tommy shrugged. “Salaries, taxes, anything that looked important.”

“Let’s sort through this, then.” Tommy says, picking up a small stack of papers and plopping down onto the couch. Tubbo grimaces, “No, thank you. That’s far too much reading for me.” Tommy rolls his eyes; he knows Tubbo is dyslexic. While Tubbo can read, professional documents like these present a challenge for him.

“Alright, then check what's happening on the news and shit, King.” Tubbo nods and sits next to Tommy, he grabs his laptop from beneath the pile of papers and flips the screen open. Tommy yawns dramatically as he reads a document on power bills, he crumples up the paper into a ball and throws it at Tubbo's head. Tubbo remains unfazed as it bounces off him.

Tommy chuckles and crumples up another piece of paper, aiming for Tubbo's head. Tubbo catches it, and Tommy's smile drops. Tubbos head slowly turns toward Tommy, who braces himself for a face full of paper. Instead, he watches as Tubbo stuffs the paper into his mouth.

Tommy’s jaws drops, “what the fuck?!” Tubbos face goes from mischievous to disgusted as he yanks the paper out of his mouth. "Ew!" he yelps, “it tastes like sick”. He holds the slightly damp paper away from him. then suddenly, the Tubbo-spit-covered paper is flying toward Tommy. Tommy screeches as he scoots back to avoid the attack, the papers on his lap slide to the ground.

“What the fuck!” Tommy echoes Tubbo's words. Tubbo giggles. “I didn't sleep at all last night,” he shrugs, as if that explains everything that just happened. 

“I think you're properly a wrong'un now,” Tubbo says casually, acting like none of that happened. “Yeah? The police chased after me.” Tommy tosses a document about tax cuts onto the ‘interesting’ pile. “There was a policeman who said I'm ‘dangerous’ or something,” Tommy adds, using air quotes. Tubbo laughs, “You're dangerous to those pigs.” Tommy scoffs; he wouldn't be if they weren't dickheads. He discards a document about workplace rules into the trash pile.

“You have a warrant out for you now,” Tubbo says as he scrolls down the article he’s reading. “They have pictures and shit and they’re telling people to report to the police if they see you.” Tommy isn’t surprised at all.

 “Do you think they’ll blame me for Schlatt’s death?” Tommy asks. Tubbo doesn't get the chance to respond as Tommy picks up a folder. ‘annual salary report’. “Fuck yea! Tubbo, I found the salaries”. Tubbo quickly scoots over next to Tommy. 

“Salaries, projected blah blah, ‘expense: two hundred million,’” Tommy hums as he reads further. “That’s for the office employees,” he trails his finger down the paper. “The heroes! Salaries,” he squints as he counts the zeros. “Three hundred fifty million! That’s just for the heroes; there were only—” Tommy counts on his fingers, “—thirteen of them working last year!” Tubbo nods in confirmation.

Tommy flips the first page to examine the others stapled to it. “Separate salary reports.”

There are large blocks of text that have been redacted.

“There are numbers, but the details are redacted,” Tommy reports to Tubbo. “What are the numbers?” Tubbo asks. “75 million, 70 million, 50 million, 25 million, and a couple of 20 millions.” Tubbo hums, “So they are paid differently? I bet Speedrunner is 75.” Tommy nods in agreement.

“Okay, Tubso, let’s take pictures of these and share them around.” Tubbo jokingly salutes and grabs his phone to begin.

“Oh, by the way,” Tommy starts, “I spoke with Erebus.”  Tubbo blinks at Tommy “when?!” he asks incredulously. “He was hanging out by the church,” Tommy replies, picking up another file. “He asked what I was doing and shit.”

“Why the hell was he hanging out by the church?” Tubbo asks, confused. “He probably just wanted to talk to me after I saved his life or something,” Tommy replies nonchalantly. Tubbo appears skeptical about this explanation.

Tubbo begins taking pictures. He opens the salary reports and places them on a pile of folders, then grabs his phone and snaps a few photos. He plops down with a sigh as he pulls his laptop back onto his lap. “How are you going to do that?” Tommy asks vaguely. 

“I have to erase all the info from the picture,” Tubbo begins to explain. “It’s called EXIF. Phones and cameras store information with every picture taken, like location and device details. It’s easy to do from my laptop,” he continues. “I was thinking of emailing it to others and letting them do the hard work.”

Tommy gives a thumbs up “sounds good boss man."

Chapter Text

Tommy glares at the TV as the reporter drones on. She discusses the weather, but at the bottom of the screen, a line of text reads, “Curfew set in place in Manburg. Everyone is required to be inside their homes by 10:00 PM. This will be in effect until further notice.” The report continues with details that Tommy finds uninteresting.

This initiative is intended to reduce crime, but why would criminals fear breaking the law? Tommy thinks its bullshit quite frankly, maybe it is just to ensure citizens' safety. While there has been more villain activity lately, it does not seem significant enough to warrant this.

Tommy isn't afraid of breaking the law, so he decides to go out. It's currently 10:30 PM, and he shouldn't be outside, especially since this is the first day of the new rule being enforced. There will likely be plenty of officers on patrol.

However, the criminals he stopped a while ago inspired him.

He quickly suits up and swings into Tubbo’s room. “Hey, boss man! I'm heading out to do my rounds and shit.” Tubbo throws him a thumbs-up without looking up from his work. “Be safe, and call me if you need anything.” Tommy has a button on his earpiece that sends an alert to Tubbo’s phone, laptop, and earpiece. But Tommy doesn't use it often; as during most patrols, Tubbo is listening in and even conversing with Tommy.

Tommy grabs his suit from the closet and pulls it on. He typically changes into his uniform at the church, but today he feels a bit lazy. He strolls casually down the hallway and stairs of his apartment before sneaking out the back door.

He ascends the back of his apartment building, there are many pipes and such, but he’s added some pieces himself. The building is situated adjacent to three others, and it is close enough to the one behind that he can lean his back against one wall while resting his feet on the opposite wall. He easily climbs his way up.

Most days, he walks like a normal person, but being on the streets is risky right now. From the top of his building, he can see much of the city. He notices no people on the streets, aside from a couple of officers. He assumes that the situation will die down soon; they won't lift the curfew, but there's no way they will continue to waste resources on officers to keep the citizens of Manburg in their homes.

He glides to the next building and then to the next. He attempts to avoid the officers and continues until he lands on a supermarket. It is government-run, making it a rich shop, but not one of the ‘all natural’ one’s. It's closed due to the curfews; previously, it was open all night.

The entire building is made of glass, featuring large glass windows on all sides, and the roof is adorned with numerous skylights.

Tommy throws a stone at the front window, shattering it effortlessly. He jumps inside and skips toward the aisles. He has brought his backpack and duffle bag. He grabs boxes of cereal, cans of soup and vegetables, as well as some fresh produce and bread that he sets gently on top. He also selects some sweets and drinks.

Once the duffle bag was full, he realized how heavy it had become, so he kept his backpack filled with lighter items. It couldn't fit properly on his back due to his wings, so he carried it slung over one shoulder. He was too preoccupied with deciding which candy kids liked best to notice the police cars pulling into the lot.

“Freeze! Drop your weapons and walk out of the store with your hands up!” Damn, they didn't have their sirens on, there's no cars on the road anyway. He should have expected that. He does not drop his weapons, nor walk out of the store.

He slides behind a shelf to conceal himself. “Sir, we have a warrant for your arrest. Do not resist,” the same man shouts. “Do not attempt to escape; we have you surrounded,” he continues.

Fuck he might be in serious trouble. He scans his surroundings: tons of windows, three doors, and the windows on the roof, not great options. Going up is his best option; it always is. How can he quietly break one of the glass panes on the roof?

“Please exit the building with your hands up!” he demands again. Tommy carefully climbs the shelves. It’s not enough to reach the roof; with a jump and a leap, he might make it, but the window stands firmly in his way.

Shit, of course these shit fucking police officers have to come and ruin his day when he is trying to do good deeds!

So, Tommy does what he does best, breaks shit. He swipes a couple of cans from a nearby shelf and hurls them at the surrounding windows, shattering multiple panes both near and far. The officers quickly shout commands and rush toward the broken windows, but Tommy is faster.

He throws a can onto the roof, crouching down as the glass shatters and leaps up onto the roof. Who needs to be sneaky when you can be surprising? He hears commands being shouted and warnings about another broken window. However, Tommy doesn't linger; he flaps his wings as fast as he can. It’s difficult to maintain his balance with a backpack hanging off one shoulder and a duffle bag hanging from the other. Nevertheless, he quickly takes off.

-

He skips down the street, placing food in alleyways, on people's doors, and handing it to anyone he encounters. He stumbles upon a woman with two children.

“Hello, miss. What are you doing out so late?” he asks as politely as possible. She pulls her children closer to her. “We had to leave our apartment, so we are heading to a friend's place.” As soon as she speaks, Tommy realizes that this is the woman from the bakery, Niki.

“Leave? For what purpose? Do you need any help?” What would cause her to risk being fined for being out past curfew? Why is she in West Manburg? “I won't be answering your questions, Hyperion.” She squints in suspicion. He raises his hands in surrender. “Sorry, Niki, Jeez, I didn't mean to pry. I just wanted to help”

He takes a step back but remembers the weight on his shoulders. “Do you need any food?” he asks, sliding the backpack off his arms. “I have some extras that I'm giving away.”

up to see that her posture has changed, and her children have been pushed behind her. The expression on her face spells out danger. He steps back once more.

“How do you know my name?” she demands. Tommy freezes; he said her name, Prime—he's such an idiot. “I've visited your bakery,” he shrugs, trying to act casual. It's only natural for a civilian to be on high alert around him. He has been labeled as dangerous, and he doesn't blame her for being cautious. His words don't seem to calm her, but she appears satisfied with the answer.

“Give me all the food, now,” she says suddenly. He stares at her in confusion. Is he being robbed or…? “I run a charity of sorts; I won’t sell it or anything. I can give it to people who need it.” Tommy hesitates. She seems trustworthy; she helped him, she has two kids with her, and she runs a nice bakery. She’s not in a position to lie to Tommy. But does Tommy want to hand over illegal goods to a civilian so they can distribute them?

“Are you sure? I don't know if that would go over, um, well.” He slowly outstretches his hand, holding the bag, and she yanks it from his grip. “I know, I'll be fine. Thank you, Hyperion. Now, I’d leave if I were you; I saw Speedrunner around here, and I think he’s looking for you.” He feels ice run through his veins. Speedrunner? He couldn't have been happy after his stunt at the tower. “Thanks for the warning,” he salutes and slips dramatically into a nearby alley.

Well, he's missing a backpack. Hopefully, Niki can give it to those in need. Tommy's strategy of giving it to anyone may not have been the most effective approach. He strolls down the alley. He definitely needs to head home.

So he does. That is until a loud crash booms from the street to his right, followed by the blaring of an alarm. Tommy sneaks toward the street, peeking out cautiously. He sees Ares engaged in a fierce battle with Speedrunner just… out, in Manburg, on the streets. What the hell are they doing so far south? Behind Speedrunner, a car lies overturned, and Tommy assumes Ares must have thrown it at Speedrunner.

Speedrunner’s chest plates are barely hanging on; the strap on his left shoulder is missing, causing the left side of his armor to sag. Ares grips his obsidian swords at his sides as he breathes heavily. They stand, gazing at each other for a moment.

“Leave me alone. This isn't about you,” Speed growls. Ares steps toward Speed. “Get out of here, Speedrunner. Neither of us wants to fight,” Ares says in a quiet but commanding tone. “Why should I leave? This is my city, Ares, not yours. You are a criminal.” Techno shrugs and takes another step toward Speed.

Speed lunges forward and rams Ares in the stomach with his shoulder. Ares swings his sword faster than Tommy can comprehend, but Speed is still quicker. He darts around Ares, brandishing a small dagger, and jabs at Ares's torso. The blade bounces off uselessly, leaving only a small tear in his shirt.

Ares extends his hand, and Speedrunner collides with it, striking his mask. If Tommy is honest, it looks painful for both of them. Speed stumbles backward but quickly regains his footing. While Speedrunner can move swiftly, his mind doesn't operate as quickly as his body. causing him to be vulnerable during his swiftness.

Ares continues to employ this tactic; they have fought many times before. Ares can somewhat predict Speed's moves, but most of his attacks are merely educated guesses. Ares ducks as Speed aims a kick at his head, and they exchange endless hits at each other.

Tommy was so engrossed in the fight that he didn't hear the footsteps behind him. A hand touches his shoulder, and he has to fight every instinct in his body to suppress a scream. He quickly turns his head and feels a wave of relief upon seeing Erebus, who wears an evil smile plastered across his face. “Hello, Hyperion!” he says in a hushed yet amused tone. Tommy raises his hand in a small wave. A strong rush of power surges through him as Erebus activates his phantom abilities while still resting his hand on Tommy's shoulder. It's unsettling to watch Erebus fade into nothingness, along with the slight pressure on his shoulder.

Tommy turns his attention back to the fight. They have stopped again and now stand a few feet apart, both breathing heavily. Tommy watches intently, looking for any sign of Erebus. He can't spot anything unusual until Ares's cape is slightly tugged unnaturally, prompting Ares to nod his head slightly.

After a moment, Erebus appears behind Speedrunner and pushes him toward Ares. Speed yelps as Ares kicks him in the stomach. Tommy winces; that has to hurt like a bitch. Speed runs a few feet away, clutching his stomach tightly. “This seems unfair,” Speed says, a frown evident in his voice. “Life’s unfair,” Ares responds.

A loud beep emits from Speed's wrist, he glances down at the screen attached to it. Some kind of watch? Speed taps it a few times. “It is, isn't it?” Speedrunner responds with a hum, “I'm afraid we won't even get to finish this fight. You've won this one, Ares.” Speed salutes and dashes off in the blink of an eye.

Tommy wonders what could be more important than Ares. He clicks on his earpiece and soon hears another as Tubbo picks up. “Sup, Atom? Can you find Speedrunner?” Tommy asks directly while scaling a building. “Uhh…” Tubbo trails off as he begins typing.

Tommy can see far into the distance from up here; the city lights shine brightly despite the curfew. He frowns as he notices a group of people near the market. Many of the store lights are still on, and there are people gathered in the plaza area.

There is a cold chill in the air, reminding Tommy that autumn is approaching. He stares off into the distance, zoning out for what feels like five minutes or so. “You’re in luck; he’s at a protest right now!” Tubbo exclaims. “A protest?” Tommy asks, surprised. “He isn’t participating in it; he’s stopping it,” Tubbo clarifies.

“Lame work for the number one hero, innit?” Tommy stretches his wings in preparation; he’s only about a ten minute flight from the protest. Tubbo sighs, “They seem serious about this curfew thing.” Tommy just sighs in response. He jumps off the building and starts towards the protest.

-

Speedrunner stands atop the bookstore, Theseus’s Ship. “Everyone needs to head home. It is against city laws to be out this late! It is dangerous! Please make your way to your homes,” he shouts boredly, it seems as if he’s repeating himself.

There is a large crowd of protesters. The more active and vocal individuals stand in front of the bookstore, both talking amongst themselves and shouting at Speed. But there's others who are sitting at tables, wandering around aimlessly, and a small group singing. A few people appear to be drinking, but no one seemed wasted. many are gathered on the streets and across the street

It's definitely peaceful; they're all just existing. He supposes that's all they need to do to protest, though. They are technically breaking the law by hanging around. A few have cardboard signs, Tommy notices one that reads, “We don't need bedtimes, we need better heroes!”

“Speedrunner! Why were you sent and not the police?” a young woman yells from the front of the crowd, she holds a phone assumedly recording him. Speed does not respond, The woman frowns. “Why are we being forced inside?” she asks another question. He waves his hand at her dismissively, “I'm not answering questions,” he grunts, “I need everyone to go home!” he demands again.

Tommy is sitting casually, hidden in the crowd on the ledge of a water fountain that sits in the center of the plaza. The fountain is old and dirty; its water mechanism stopped working ages ago, leaving stale water to collect at the bottom, along with a few scattered pennies. His mask hangs around his neck, and he does not attempt to conceal it. His face is morphed as the boy who he once worked in the tower as.

“Who killed Mayor Schlatt?” she asks again, unrelenting. Speed stiffens slightly. “You know I can't answer that, ma’am,” he grumbles. She smiles. “Do you really think you are the number one hero?” she asks, almost challengingly. “Rankings don't matter; saving people does,” he states, making the sentence sound egotistical.

Tommy feels a tap on his shoulder and turns around to meet Niki's gaze. “How are you everywhere?” he blurts out, cringing at his lack of a voice changer. “I’m following you,” she says with a smirk. A wave of fear washes over Tommy for a split second before he starts laughing. “You better not be! I’ll fight you,” he says confidently. “That’s not a fight you’ll win, Hyperion,” she responds, amused. Tommy rolls his eyes.

“Are you part of the protest?” he asks, changing the subject. She shrugs, “yea, i helped organize it.” Tommy's jaw drops in awe. “That's so sick! Is it hard?” he asks curiously, as he hasn't seen many protests in his life. To be honest, he doesn't know how they usually go. “Not really. I just tell a few friends, ‘Be there at this time! Spread the word!’ and it works out nicely,” she explains. “Most people want change; they just don't know how to start.”

“So, are you going to do anything about us being here?!” a different voice demands from the crowd. Speedrunner crosses his arms and replies, “I'm just here to keep everyone safe. The police are on their way; they will assist you in getting home.” that gets everyone's attention. Tommy isn't quite sure what ‘help you home’ means exactly but he knows that no one at a protest is fond of the police.

He looks beside him for Niki, but she is gone. He should follow her lead and leave this place. Standing up, he carefully pushes past the crowd.

Others also begin to head toward the streets, seemingly taking Speedrunner's warning seriously. However, many remain, having no intention of leaving.

He hears a gasp from beside him. “Hyperion!” a boy his age whispers. Tommy gives a small wave. The boy elbows a woman standing next to him and points at Tommy. “Whoa!” she keeps her voice low, “Why are you here? It's dangerous; Speedrunner might catch you.” She seems genuinely worried. Tommy slides his mask over his face. “Thank you, miss. I won't get caught; I'm too cool for that,” he says with a smile and a thumbs-up.

Just as he speaks, two police cars pull up, honking as pedestrians block the road. The protesters remain unmoved, prompting the officers to exit their vehicles. The first officer to step out is a ghostly pale man with even lighter hair; his skin sags and deep bags under his eyes. He hardly seems fit for duty, let alone dealing with this situation.

Following him is a younger woman with a slender frame, but Tommy can just barely discern a baby bump—she's pregnant. Two tall young men step out of the second police car; they appear perfectly able in contrast to the previous two.

They quickly began ushering people away, telling them off, and issuing tickets to those who were drinking.

Tommy steps back as one of them locks eyes with him. He retreats quickly but turns his head sharply when he hears a thump behind him. Speedrunner stands confidently behind him. “Hyperion, is it?” he sneers. The crowd around him disperses as Speed reaches for his sword. Fuck, he doesn't want to fight this ugly dumb ass.

So he expresses that, “nice to meet you, asshole.” Tommy bows dramatically. “Do you really want to fight with so many innocent civilians around?” he asks confidently. In reality, Tommy feels like he might vomit. Speed glances at the dwindling crowd and shrugs. “I suppose not.” He stalks around Tommy, who turns to watch him.

“But I have plenty of time; I can wait,” he says, a grin apparent in his voice. Tommy begins to panic slightly. He can’t run—not from Speedrunner. He can’t fight either. “Thank you, really, but I have plans,” Tommy replies. Speed continues to circle him, and a small group of people has gathered around them. While the majority have left, a few have stayed to watch the confrontation.

“Plans? That's unfortunate; I suppose you'll be late.” Speed raises his sword, but just as he does, a tall boy behind him shoves Speed. Before Speed can react, the boy disappears. Speed stumbles to the ground with a thud. Tommy runs—he runs like he has never run before. He doesn't hear Speedrunner behind him, but he keeps running until he is almost home.

“Good work, Hype.” Tubbo says, almost in a whisper, as Tommy sits down beside a random dumpster to catch his breath.

Chapter Text

“he was a fucking twat ” Tommy grumbles. “Was it worth it to watch him eat shit?” Tubbo asks with a smirk. “‘Suppose so.” Tommy mumbles. Tubbo rolls his eyes and walks toward the kitchen. 

Tommy is lying on the sofa, holding his phone above his face as he reads an article about the upcoming election. There are quite a few candidates. Currently, Schlatt’s successor, Quackity, is serving as the temporary mayor until a new one is elected. Quackity is also running for a permanent position as mayor; he is well-liked by the public for his humor and charisma.

He has quite a reputation; he is known for being bad ass when he threw a man across the street following an attempted mugging. He was also known to frequently take Schlatt's place due to the former mayor's drinking habits.

He hears the fridge open and close as Tubbo prepares his lunch to take to work.

Another candidate who has gained popularity in the past week is Wilbur Watson. He promises many great things for the city and is known for being relatable and down to earth. When put that way he sounds lame, but he’s generally well-liked by the public. At just twenty-three years old, he is quite young for a mayoral candidate. Quackity is also on the younger side, but not notably so, being twenty eight.

“Goodbye, Toms! Make sure to do your chores,” Tubbo shouts from the doorway, sounding like a mother. “Bye, Tubster” Tommy replies distractedly.

Watson appears to be a product of nepotism; his father is wealthy, although he is not a politician. Tommy isn't sure the guy will win, he lacks any prior experience in politics. Naturally, he works under his father, Phil Watson, who owns numerous clubs and bars throughout the country.  

Next, he gets suggested an article titled “Do the Heroes Make More Than You?”  Tommy clicks on it hopefully. The article reveals the leaked salaries of the Heroes and analyzes other confidential documents. They estimate how much they make per hour of work, and compares their pay to that of other equally dangerous or significant professions. Finally, Tommy was starting to think he did all that work for nothing.

Tommy grins at the number of clicks the article has already received; it is only an hour old and is sure to get more attention. While many young people are not particularly fond of heroes—children, of course, still admire them—young adults have developed a growing disdain for them. This is due in part to the inconveniences heroes create and their often suffocating personalities. Young adults will likely welcome another reason to resent them. Tommy sends Tubbo a link to the article.

Tommy hears a faint clinking sound coming from the window. He pops up from his spot on the sofa to see a crow perched on the windowsill. Tommy squints and notices the subtle green and purple hues at the tips of its wings meaning it's one of Tithonus’s.

Tithonus cares for half the crows in this city, earning him the name “crow father”

From what they know, Tithonus can't control or communicate with the crows. However, he has used them to his advantage by swarming his enemies. They are not spies, just birds, so Tommy jumps up from the sofa and marches toward the window.

It's holding a necklace—a silver chain with a simple heart pendant. He opens the window and slowly reaches toward the corvid. It hops farther away, so Tommy retracts his hand.

He leaves the window open as he prepares for his outing. He puts on some old jeans and a black hoodie. He slips his mask and staff into his bag, along with other bag-things.

Turning back to the window, Tommy sees the bird still there, but it has set the necklace down and is now holding a giant beetle. The bird looks up as the bug slides down its throat. Tommy picks up the chain; it isn't anything special, and he wonders where the bird found the jewelry. He sets the necklace back down and carefully closes the window, ensuring that the bird doesn't get pushed off. 

Now, those chores. 

-

Tommy needed to pick up Tubbo's medication from the fancy pharmacist in North Manburg. Since he was already there, he decided to visit the fancy bank to cash Tubbo's check. This turned out to be a mistake; first, there was a long line. now, fucking Tethys and Tonitru are here!

Tethys and Tonitru are a well-known duo. They recently joined the Syndicate, but prior to that, they were regarded as vigilantes rather than villains. Tethys possesses the ability to control all liquids she makes contact with, usually this means she manipulates small bubbles of water. However, her power should not be underestimated, she is part of the Syndicate for a reason. Tonitru has the ability to control electricity. While he cannot project it from his hands or anything, he can fry any devices he comes in contact with, along with people. He can deliver shocks to people upon touch, nothing deadly but it certainly makes his punches rough.

He hears a child beside him burst into tears, followed immediately by their mother shushing them. 

It doesn't appear to be a robbery. Yes, Tonitru stole a bunch of cash, but they seem distracted. And they're just standing here? Not running? If this is a robbery, it's a proper shit one. They are currently monitoring all the hostages and appear to be waiting for something.

Tommy has shit to do; he doesn't want to be stuck here any longer. So he raises his hand, and Tonitru meets his gaze, nearly laughing when he realizes that Tommy is trying to ask a question. He nudges Tethys on the shoulder, and she follows his gaze to Tommy, looking amused. 

“Yes? Do you have a question?” She steps forward, causing the people sitting beside Tommy to scoot away slightly. Suddenly, Tommy feels a bit less brave. “You lads aren’t robbing this place? What's going on?” Tommy asks. 

“Don't worry, none of you will get hurt,” Tethys begins vaguely, though it doesn't feel sincere given the small blade she holds in her hand. “I'm just doing what the boss told me to.” Her voice is harsh, distorted by the voice changer, but her body language is relaxed, and her tone seems genuine. 

Tethys dons a black leather jacket, with one sleeve extending to her wrist while the other cuts off before her shoulder. On her bare arm, she wears a long glove that reaches her elbow. Along with, a pair of long, baggy pants adorned with chains and studs. Her hair is black, featuring a striking pink streak. A veil of black lace drapes masking her face. Tethys also wears many accessories, which she frequently changes for each outing. Jewelry, belts, hair clips, chains, anything really.  While many villains have dramatic get-ups, Tethys is known for having the best outfits.

“Oh, okay, thank you,” Tommy mumbles. He really wants to go home so he can start dinner.

He hears Tonitru laugh, Tommy scowls at him. “What are you laughing at?” Tommy asks, annoyed. a man beside him gasps. Tonitru only laughs harder, his laughter heavily distorted. “I've never seen someone be so polite to a villain- yet have such audacity” his voice is deep and purposefully robotic. “What are you even thanking her for! You’re being held hostage” Tommy sees the others stiffen up a bit at being called a hostage.

“Well fuck you!” Tommy crosses his arms, “A guy really just can't be polite?” Tommy should be careful with his words, but honestly he cant find it within himself to be scared of Tonitru, he is a bitch baby.

Tonitru wears something simple in comparison to Tethys. a letterman jacket, the sleeves and details are a dark navy blue while the torso part is a deep red. Gray camo pants. Black platform boots. And a black ski mask with goggles over his eyes that have mis-matching lenses, one being blue and the other red. 

Finally, a hero arrives: Alien. He marches into the building confidently, Tommy expects more heroes to follow him, but there are none. Just Alien? 

“Hello, Alien,” Tethys greets with a smile and a wave. “We were just about to be on our way!” she adds politely. Tonitru, standing beside her, looks at her in confusion. “But Teth,” he whines. Tethys elbows him in the ribs before he has a chance to continue.

“Are you sure? I didn't mean to interrupt” Alien smiles back. Man this shit is really lame; do they think they sound cool? Because they don't. Stop pretending to be polite and just fight.

Tethys grabs Tonitru's hand and dashes toward the nearest exit, but in an instant, everyone is blinded. The room is flooded with what feels like an intensely real light. Tommy knows that the light exists only in his mind, yet his eyes still burn with phantom pain, and his eyelids offer no relief.

The next second he can see clearly. Tommy and the others are still blinking away tears while Tethys and Tonitru scramble to escape. Alien stands defensively in front of the door. Why aren't they fighting him? They could beat Alien. 

“Instead of running, what about you put your hands behind your back?” he asks simply. Tethys reaches for a small cylinder on her belt. “No, thank you,” she responds before throwing it directly at Aliens feet. He jumps back, launching himself to the ground behind him. The cylinder sits there for a moment, and Tommy begins to think it’s a trick. Then, it lets out a loud crack as it splits open, and water erupts. The water flies through the air in a way only Tethys could produce, quickly clinging to Alien’s face. It has an unnatural dark hue to it. The duo sprints out the door, stepping over Alien as he sits swatting at the water uselessly.

People around the bank rise slowly as they realize they are safe. Tommy is left wondering what the reason for that was.

—-

“So, will you finally take down the Syndicate once and for all?”

Wilbur straightens his suit jacket nervously. “Yes, my team has tracked their robberies, and we have identified a clear pattern,” he begins. “We are one step closer to their capture.”

Wilbur is attempting to convince one of the wealthiest men in all of Essempi, Mr. Beam, to support him. Currently, Mr. Beam appears to have a bias towards the candidate Conner Pants.

The primary promise of Pants is a stronger economy, so it's obvious why Mr Beam is partial to Pants.

If Wilbur gets his support, it means they'll get a significant amount of legal donations. Opposed to the very illegal money he and his father have been contributing to the campaign.

He may want to eat the rich, but for now, he needs to butter up the rich. “I will increase security and increase patrols in Manburg, particularly around the Kinoko border, where many petty thieves tend to prey.” He lies through his teeth, like every good politician does. “We will impose stricter penalties for minor offenses to deter petty criminals. Then, without distractions, we can apprehend the Syndicate.”

They definitely won't be detaining the Syndicate; they are the Syndicate. However, Mr. Beam despises the Syndicate because they frequently steal from his company, Prime Bank, the largest bank chain in Essempi.

“Yes, very interesting,” he leans back in his chair. “What about all the ugly housing being built in Manburg, near the eastern border? It's an eyesore.” Mr. Beam phrases it as a question, but it comes off as a demand. Wilbur struggles to stay expressionless.

“I’m confident we can address that, sir.  My team and I have discussed allowing Mayor Jacob’s team to assist us with the necessary upgrades for Manburg.”

“Have you spoken to the president's committee about that?” Beam asks casually. Wilbur hasn't; he knows nothing about the president. His dad and brother are doing everything they can to find dirt on him. “We are working on it, sir.” Referring to someone as 'sir' is unnatural to him. Techno had taught him that it was polite.

“Thank you, Mr. Watson. Unfortunately, our appointment has come to an end.” Beam slides a piece of paper across the desk before turning back to his computer to begin typing.

Wilbur makes his way out of the office, which is located in a skyscraper in Kinoko. It was a pain to make his way up to his office, even after receiving helpful directions from strangers and office workers. However, getting out is a breeze, aside from dodging hurried employees as they go about their work.

He felt strange and out of place. There was no assistant to escort him to Mr. Beam’s office? He had to walk past cubicles and break rooms, which seemed like a poor impression to leave. Perhaps Mr. Beam didn't consider Wilbur important enough to treat better, though.

He strolls down the bustling sidewalks of Kinoko, which have only become busier since the curfew was enacted. Its only an hour 'til curfew, everyone is rushing to their homes, or to finish their errands.

Wilbur walks at his own pace, staring down at the paper handed to him. Similar to a business card, it lists various ways to contact Mr. Beam, but it also recites odd rules of acceptable reasons to contact him. How many meetings does this asshole have in a day? He crumples the paper and shoves it into his pocket.

Phil was so sure that Wilbur would win, but Wilbur himself has doubts. Quackity knows all the right people and already has one foot in the door, while Wilbur isn't even on the property.

Chapter Text

Tommy effortlessly hops from one rooftop to another, running atop them with ease. He is heading east toward the edge of Manburg. He doesn't feel like fighting any crime today. It is his job, but he's tired and feeling lazy. Sue him.  

He lands awkwardly after a particularly long jump, tucking into a roll before springing back up, with only a scrape on his hand to show for it. He leaps to the next building, throwing his hands up and gripping the ledge tightly. With a powerful flap of his wings, he propels himself up easily. The breeze is chilly; he may need to start wearing warmer clothing for patrols, and maybe fingerless gloves were not the best choice.

He began his vigilante work at the start of the year, specifically in April. Now, in October, just six months later, he has already killed the mayor and caught the attention of the Syndicate. He stands atop a tall building, catching his breath. His heart races from the adrenaline of running. 

A crow squawks from close behind him, and he definitely doesn't scream as he whips around. The bird is a striking white. It stands on an air conditioning unit, its feathers ruffled to protect from the cold. 

“Ayup, big man, you look sick as hell!” Tommy walks closer to the bird. “What kind of bird are you?” It resembles a typical crow, but it is white. The bird reminds him of a pigeon with its distinct purple and green hues, though that might just be the Tithonus effect. 

It caws again and gracefully launches itself into the air. “She's an albino carrion crow,” a deep, familiar voice speaks from behind him. 

Tommy immediately turns toward the voice, stifling a scream.

“Hey, mate,” Tithonus greets cheerfully. Tommy feels a strong urge to run; Tithonus usually brings death with him wherever he goes. Instead of running, he slowly reaches for his earpiece and clicks it on to ensure Tubbo can hear. 

“What do you want, bitch?” Tommy instantly regrets his words. Why is he this way? Surprisingly, Tithonus doesn’t strangle him on the spot; instead, he chuckles. 

“Sorry to scare you Hyperion. And I also apologize for the fright we caused you earlier, all those nights ago.” Tithonus gently pets the white crow now perched on his shoulder. “I would like to discuss your proposal regarding joining the Syndicate.”

Tommy remains silent as Tithonus continues, "we'd like to accept your offer. You can join the Syndicate.” Tommy feels faint; he suppresses both a cheer and a giant groan.

“For now you'll be under our protection. before you join missions and meetings you'll have to be monitored and then interviewed.” 

“Monitored?” Tommy questions. “Yes, we need to ensure that your actions and skills align with our interests,” Tithonus replies vaguely.

“Ask him how long it'll take” Tubbo whispers over the comms. “Oh, and maybe tell him about me? Is that a bad idea?” 

“Are you free tomorrow night at-” Tithonus looks at his wrist, “-11pm? You can meet us at the abandoned train station near Eldritch Farms.” He suggests not waiting for Tommy's answer.

“You’re not going to kidnap me, are you?” Tommy squints in suspicion. Tithonus cackles at that. “Yes, I’m telling you where and when I’m going to kidnap you, instead of just snatching you up now.” He gestures to the open air around him. “If I wanted to kidnap you, I could do it right now.” This is not the most comforting sentiment.

 "Any questions, mate?"

“How long will the monitoring last? And what happens if I don’t pass?” Tommy asks unsure. Tithonus's wings shift behind him, they're threatening merely just by existing.

“You won't fail Hyperion. If you need my assistance, find one of my birds and tell them as such” Tithonus places the white corvid on Tommy's head, much to the dismay of both of them, and then dives off the roof. Tommy scrambles forward to watch, but by the time he leans over the ledge, Tithonus is gone.

“Why are they always so dramatic?” Tommy mutters. “Like you're one to talk,” Tubbo quips. Tommy continues to curse at Tubbo.

—-

“Ten bucks the fucker is just talking to himself,” Wilbur said, elbowing Technoblade in the ribs. Techno snorts “I'll take that bet—free money. He has an earpiece.”

Techno cannot see Hyperion's ear from their position a few meters away, but Hyperion doesn't seem like the type to have a conversation with himself. 

Techno strains to hear Hyperion's words. Phil left him a solid minute ago, but the vigilante still stands on the building, muttering, “Wanker, bitch, pussy-dick-hole,” along with many other profanities of questionable origins.

“Who do you think he’s talking to, then?” Wilbur asks as he yawns.  “I dunno.” Techno responds with a shrug as he stands up and dusts off his pants. Wil rolls his eyes. 

Wilbur extends his hand towards Techno “help me up, i'm tired.” Techno his hand however only to mess with him and yank him back causing him to nearly fall. 

“Oops, forgot how strong I am,” Techno apologizes sarcastically while stretching. “Areees,” Wil whines, “you did that on purpose,” he accuses.

“yea, sure, man. It's definitely not just that you're weak."

Techno carelessly jumps off the building; it's three stories high but his expertly crafted boots easily tank the fall. Wilbur follows, but rather than jumping off the building, he phases down.

Recently, Wilbur's ghost powers have been having adverse effects. While it is common for powers to have consequences upon use, most individuals typically experience headaches or soreness.

Wilbur has been leaking a deep Blue substance from his eyes. He had to change his disguise from his old masquerade mask to plain bandages. The bandages absorb the 'tears' and help maintain his vision, while also keeping it from prying eyes. 

They first noticed it after the fight with Speedrunner that Hyperion attended. Techno initially thought the Blue was blood. Naturally, he was terrified, but Wilbur didn't even notice until Techno had pointed it out. 

Panic ensued as Wilbur began to wipe his eyes, causing the Blue to be smudged all over everything. Initially, they feared it might be a new hero weapon or chemical. The pair returned home and discussed it with Phil, who was also uncertain. They concluded that it was either a bizarre chemical reaction or magic, as all traces of the Blue faded by the time they reached Phil—leaving no stains on his skin or clothes. 

The following night, when the same thing happened, they began to experiment and eventually discovered it was his ghost powers that caused it. Power changes can occur due to medicine, illness, aging, and many other lifestyle changes. 

It is concerning and inconvenient that it happened to Wilbur so suddenly though.

They both throw on their cloaks, which are useful for concealing their identities and sneaking around. with their slightly obnoxious outfits they often need them. The cloak is a bit suspicious but is far more convenient than completely changing attire whenever they wish to blend in with civilians. However, due to the increased restrictions and curfews, this tactic has become harder. Recently, Niki added some black faux fur along the edges of the cloaks to create a more ‘coat’ look, far less menacing.

So, in their cloaks they casually walk the streets of Manburg, no one bothers them.

After Hyperion discovered their house Phil quickly decided that they needed to move again. They move often, once a year, and also whenever their house or area becomes suspicious, heavily monitored, or exposed. Usually, Phil simply rents a house in lower Kinoko. This time though, they decided Manburg would be a more suitable place to lie low. Which they are currently trying to do while Wilbur is campaigning for mayor.

They speed-walk into the apartment lobby and quickly up the stairs, being careful to shield themselves from the cameras. Fortunately, the lobby is empty, so they don't have to worry about being seen by others.

Techno doesn't love the idea of Wilbur becoming mayor, as famously he isn't a fan of traditional government and politicians. If Techno were to attend a meeting with any politician, he thinks he'd have a hard time not choking them on the spot. Which is one of the reasons why Wilbur is doing it instead of him.

Wilbur collapses onto the couch. “I'm fucking exhausted,” he complains dramatically. “Drink some water,” Techno replies. Phil should be home soon, he's going to follow Hyperion for a bit, but other than that, they don’t have any duties today.

For organized crime, they aren't usually this coordinated. Half the time, Techno has no idea what Wilbur is doing until he sees it on the news. They follow a loose set of rules, try not to harm too many civilians or cause excessive damage, be dramatic and cool, be smart, and don't get caught. 

Only two Syndicate members have ever been caught, three if you count the time Wilbur was thrown into a police car. Who would throw a ghost guy into a normal cop car? Wilbur can be contained, but not with any solid walls, not even the hardest or densest materials can stop him, what can stop him is electricity, Fire works too, but not as well. He can pass through flames and electricity of course, but not without pain.

Techno scans the pantry for something to eat. “You hungry?” he asks, half-expecting Wilbur to be asleep already. Techno hears a vague groan, which he takes as a yes. So, no potato soup, Wilbur isn't a big fan of it after eating so much as a kid. Maybe just some pasta then.

Techno hears shuffling and eventually voices from the living room as Wilbur picks a random movie to play on the television.

Techno brings water to a boil before pouring a box of Penne noodles in. After they cook he adds a generous amount of butter and spices, along with some leftover chicken from the fridge, cream cheese, diced tomatoes, and finally, tomato paste. 

“I’m home!” Phil announces from the door. Wilbur mumbles a greeting. “Tired?” Phil asks sympathetically. Wilbur simply sighs in response.

“He's just being dramatic,” Techno comments sarcastically. This gets Wil to talk.

“Says the one who cried over a rip in his cape,” he jabs. “I didn't cry; I just sulked,” Techno corrects. “Now come eat, nerd.”

He serves a generous portion into their matching bowls, they're hardly matching being totally different colors, but they're matching in his heart. Techno's bowl is a baby pink, Wilbur's is a pastel yellow, and Phil's is a dusty green. Despite the rough years, they've had these bowls for ages, with only a few scratches and a chip or two to show for it.

Wilbur eventually drags himself off the couch and makes his way to the dinner table. They sit around as if it's a normal dinner, and as if it's not 2am. 

“So, Dad, anything interesting on Hyperion?” Wilbur asks, lazily stuffing pasta into his mouth.

“I assume you two listened in?”

“We tried, but we couldn't hear well,” Wilbur mumbles in reply. Techno grimaces as Wilbur appears ready to fall asleep in his food.

“Okay, well, we went over everything as discussed. He asked if we're planning to kidnap him tomorrow, but besides that, nothing unexpected” Phil takes a sip of water “after our discussion I followed him, nothing odd. He helped a woman to her home, punched a cop trying to fine an elderly man for being out past curfew, and literally helped a kitten out of a tree.” he finishes.

Wilbur stares at his plate intently. “I think I should draw some inspiration from him for my campaign,” he muses, deep in thought. “Do you ever think about anything other than politics?” Techno questions with a snort. Phil waves Techno off. “In what way, Wilbur?” Phil asks curiously. Wilbur shrugs. “Charity that isn't obnoxious, I suppose.”

Wilbur had, of course, told his Dad and brother about Hyperion's kindness in helping him. That's what ultimately led to their decision to allow him to join the Syndicate. However, they remain cautious of him; after all, he killed the mayor, discovered their address, and threatened them. Then he morphed into Phil and used a poisonous gas that emanated from his fingers against Flamespitter.

Honestly, he seems like a force of nature. Wilbur is unsure how he will fit in. They aren't even entirely certain what his power is—obviously shapeshifting of some form—but how powerful is he? What are his drawbacks? What are his limits?

Is he powerful enough to fight the most powerful humans on Earth? He took down Flame when he was vulnerable, tricked Police and heroes alike, and is suspected of leaking sensitive information about the heroes to the public. But can he hold his own in a battle against Speedrunner? Can he make life-or-death decisions in the blink of an eye?

Wilbur lets out a sigh as he rises from the dinner table. He rinses off his plate and bids a quick goodnight to his family. Exhausted, he realizes it's already 3 a.m, and he has to be at a meeting by 8 a.m. Balancing his roles as a villain and a politician is far more challenging than he ever expected. He doesn't know what he will do if he wins.

Chapter Text

When Tommy was at the 'School,' as they called it, it wasn't all that bad, all things considered. It was more boring than anything else. They were constantly required to train and learn. It was never a good environment, there was constant abuse and belittlement from adults who they wanted to trust. But the last few months he was there were especially hellish. 

They were never told outright why they were there, but they all eventually gathered that they were being trained for war. At that time, relations with the powerful country of Traphic were shaky and Essempi lacked a proper military, relying instead on a few superheroes and a couple of police forces. Guns were outlawed, even stricter policies were in place.

Imports had slowed and eventually ceased from Traphic, meaning Essempi had little way of getting certain crops, that's when many farms on the outskirts of Manburg appeared. A completely new infrastructure was built to compensate for the losses in imports and exports to and from Traphic. 

Disagreements between the countries persisted. Traphic had various weapons with varying degrees of destruction. From guns to explosives. They maintained a military force and were prepared to use it. 

Intense pressure was placed on Essempi, they had little defense against Traphic. Still the citizens of Essempi rejected the idea of military or the use of firearms in any capacity. Military campaigning failed and the production of firearms was never even started. So Essempi relied on what they knew best: Powers. 

It is not just Essempi that has supernatural humans; however, Essempi is commonly thought to be the birthplace of supernatural humans. They have more Powered humans than anywhere else.

Even with the best of the best, ordinary powered humans wouldn't save them from bombs. Therefore, they sought to create individuals with abilities beyond those of normal humans. They started to train and experiment on children with powers in an effort to forge the best Powers known.

Tommy has always felt the energy of others' powers coursing beneath his skin and resonating in his mind. He feels the power in people. But after Exdee gave him those drugs, it transformed from the mere buzz into something far more intense. He could hone in on the feeling and harness it to his advantage. 

Not only can he steal others' powers, but those drugs also allowed him to fully morph his body. Previously, his abilities were quite limited, but the effects of the dangerous drugs altered his powers seemingly forever.

The cost was agony, yet even then, it felt insufficient. Such power should come at a higher cost. The pain from the drugs flooding his body was excruciating, akin to the buzz of others' powers but in every nerve. He could neither hear nor see; all he could taste was blood, and all he could feel was torment. It seemed like centuries passed as he convulsed on the examination table. 

Long term? Only mental trauma. That's what makes the drug dangerous, it has little consequences. Tommy was lucky to get only one dose though, even if it was a high one. Many got multiple doses. That's when he becomes dangerous, many people's hearts and brains couldn't survive with the drug pumping through their veins.

For Tommy it meant freedom though. With powers so strong he escaped further testing. He's confident that certain facility isn't running anymore, the threat of war is gone and the drug was quietly outlawed. But the possibility of a different facility being somewhere, of someone getting their hands on those drugs, is very real.

Tommy and Tubbo have discussed the possibility of the drug being further tested. Or being used on heroes, villains, military, or even children. They want to prevent that, but they can't. They're two teenagers. Sure Tommy killed the mayor, but bringing down a whole system that they aren't even sure exists.. It's a harder ask. 

Tubbo says Slime has heard whispers, he told him of clients asking him about the drug. Asking where to get it, how to make it, what it is. Rumors are dangerous.

That's why Tommy and Tubbo are trying, the possibility that it is still out there. It was one of the reasons they chose to reach out to the Syndicate, one of the reasons Tommy killed Schlatt. Ultimately it's the reason he is a vigilante. But still it's on the back burner. They have to make a name for themselves, get the resources, the people, before they can start on that. 

Tommy slipped on his mask and ascended the rickety ladder of his church before leaping off the steeple and gliding through the air. However, instead of heading toward Manburg, he directs his flight toward the abandoned train station where Tithonus had insisted they meet.

He wanted to arrive early to scout the area, but Tubbo advised him not to go too early, just in case. So Tommy reached the old station at 10:55.

He had to walk a bit, the short steeple didn't provide him with the momentum he needed. He could have made it if he had tried, but he did not want to exhaust himself. He wants to be able to fly away quickly if necessary.

He stands on the platform, carefully examining his surroundings. The station is run down, it's abandoned of course. However, looking at it Tommy doubts it was ever stellar. There's not much proof of any previous structures in the vicinity; why would there even be a stop here? He supposes Eldritch Farms or perhaps some nearby mines.

The tracks are rusty, but not usable. The roof above is almost entirely gone, leaving only support beams. The glass that once comprised the roof now covers the floor. The floor itself has several holes and cracks.

He sees no evidence of villains or traps, so he waits.

Why is he even here? What does Tithonus want? He settles onto an old bench, watching the minutes tick by. At 10:59, he sees Tithonus high in the sky; he looks so grand from down here. The man dives toward the station at such a speed that Tommy has a hard time keeping up. He half expects to see Tithonus dead on the floor, but instead, he stands casually in front of Tommy and gives a friendly wave. 

“Hello, Hyperion!” he greets cheerfully. “Erebus is on his way.” Tommy opens his mouth to respond, but before he can, he hears yelling from the sky. Tommy looks up to see a ghostly Erebus falling from presumably Tithonus’s height. He is descending more slowly than Tithonus did, but still quite fast. As he approaches the ground, he slows, until he gently and gracefully lands on his feet.

But, to disrupt the cool effect, Erebus glances over at his father and whines, “Tith, why'd you do that!” Tithonus shrugs “you were getting heavy.” Erebus crosses his arms and sighs, “Whatever, old man.”

“Anyway,” Tithonus says pointedly, “Hyperion, this will be a brief meeting; we just wanted to quickly go over a few things.” Erebus smiles with excitement as Tithonus speaks. “Let's get right into it. First and foremost, what is your motivation for—” Tithonus gestures vaguely at Tommy, “—vigilante work?”

Tommy crosses his legs, still sitting down. A bit intimidating having these two questioning him, he wonders if he'll ever find them not slightly scary. “I've been fucked over by a lot of pricks. I want to stop assholes from being assholes” Tommy shrugs casually. 

“Okay but who are the assholes in this situation?” Erebus says, suddenly a bit more serious.

“Well..” Tommy's leg bounces up and down nervously, he makes an effort to keep it still “I'm not quite sure yet, that's what I'm trying to figure out. But I suppose the Essempi government" Tithonus hums a small approval. 

“Do you have fighting experience?”

“Duh, I've fought my whole life, I can throw a proper punch. I am best with weapons though”

“Who isn't?” Erebus comments off handedly

“Opinion on heroes?”  Tithonus starts rapid firing questions.

“Shit.”

“Preferred weapon?”

“Whatever this is?” Tommy says pulling out his stabby staff.

“Agility skills?”

“I got away from you lot.”

“Age?”

“Fuck you.”

“Education?”

“High-school degree.” Tommy lies. Only slightly.

“Favorite villain?” Erebus suddenly butt's in.

Tommy lays his pointer finger on his chin and stares up as if thinking. “Ares.” He smirks.

Erebus groans “why?! He's lame! I'm obviously cooler” Tommy shrugs, “he has pink hair.”

“If I dye my hair pink will I be as good?” 

“No.”

“Cmon at least give me some constructive criticism!”

“Get a less shit name”

“Ares picked my name!”

“Oh.” Tommy thinks for a second. “Get a less shit real name”

“You don't know my real name!”

“I know it's shit!”

Erebus opens his mouth to continue the argument but Tithonus interrupts. “boys.” He looks between the two, obviously amused. 

“How often can you work?” Tithonus continues.

“How often will you let me?.”

“Why do you want to work with us?”

Tommy pauses. He wants to work with them for resources, for help, for revenge. “Really just the same reason every other fucker wants to, i want to protect Manburg and i want revenge. Those things are easier if i join the Syndicate”

“That's sweet, especially the revenge part” Erebus smiles. Evil fuck.

“Okay mate, Thank you for your time. ‘some point soon we'll be burning down some banks in Kinoko, just keep away from them.” Tithonus warns vaguely. 

“Why banks? What did banks ever do to you?” Tommy asks incredulously. Tithonus sighs “its a part of some masterplan or something” Erebus looks slightly offended but keeps quiet. “We'll be on our way, I would've preferred for this meeting to last longer but we have business to attend to.” 

A crow suddenly hops up to Tithonus’s feet and lets out a squawk. “Yes, yes, I know” he says dismissively at the bird. “We will be contacting you soon Hyperion, have a great night!” He smiles and grabs Erebus's hand before launching them both into the inky black sky.

Tommy stands there, a bit baffled. That only took a few minutes, Tommy sorta expected to be interrogated or killed, not just have a casual conversation.

-☆-

Wilbur holds back a yawn, he's been in this meeting for what feels like hours. He checks his watch, it's only been 30 minutes. He resists the urge to fidget. The man in front of him drones on about policies and budgets. 

Not only is Wilbur exhausted but he can't help his mind from wandering off.

Hyperion hasn't contacted them since the meeting three weeks ago. Which is fine, they’ve been checking up on him occasionally and he’s fine. They were hoping to ask him to attend this month's Syndicate meeting in a sensible manner but it seems like they're going to have to surprise him again on one of his outings. 

The syndicate is powerful, but that doesn't mean they aren't nervous to have a new guy join a meeting. It's how they welcome all potential new members, Phil and Niki argue that it's too intimidating for new members, since they have to sit in a room with all the villains. but the rest of the Syndicate agree that it's a great way to judge if they'll fit in. 

How a new villain or vigilante reacts to a table of high tier villains tells a lot about them. Will they try to sneak in weapons? Will they yell? Will they stutter and stammer? 

They recently took up a new hire, Phil found them wandering around in the cold and saw potential in their power. They stuttered through the entire meeting but were polite and honest. Complete bravery in the face of the top villains would be idiocy after all.

“Mr Watson? Do you have any input?” His assistant asks politely from beside him. Oh yea, and the boy they hired for the Syndicate he also hired to work as his assistant. The kid doesn't do much at the Syndicate yet, he doesn't fight, his power is more support than anything, so he has the time.

Wilbur looks up at the slideshow the man across the room is presenting. Ranboo, his assistant, had been responding and answering questions for him until this point, they're a smart kid, they understand this shit just as much as Wil does. if not more sometimes.

He doesn't have his glasses so the words are a bit fuzzy but he makes out something about pollution and goes with it. “Well I certainly want to lower light pollution in Manburg. Along with reducing or preventing all waste materials from being dumped in our lakes and on our dirt.” He blindly hopes that he went the right direction with that response.

The man, a councilman that Wilbur might have forgotten the name of, seems pleased and continues.

After that, Wilbur and Ranboo head back to his office to sort through some paperwork, they need to work on potential hires for employees for various government positions in case Wilbur does win.

Dad and Techno alike have offered to murder the mayoral competition for him but Wilbur has a positive opinion of Quackity, he seems like a good guy. And it might be a bit suspicious if his running mates got murdered.

So they work hard to get the public's favor instead, they're in a time crunch as elections will be held soon. Manburg law states a new Mayor must be voted in within 150 days, or 5 months. But they're currently working with about two months. Elections will start December 30th. Far too soon in Wilburs opinion.

Ranboo carefully reads and sorts the documents on Wilbur's desk. Usually the Syndicate wouldn't reveal their identities so soon after hiring someone, but Ranboo had already seen Phil's face and Wilbur quite frankly needed the help. 

Currently one of Wilbur's pitches to the public is to make the streets a safer place, ridding of thieves and beggars. Realistically that's not his goal. But he's having to balance appeal to both conservative and liberal views. He wants to condemn villains but not quite uplift heroes. He wants to tell those who hate authority that he wants to tear down the system but tell those who love traditional values that he's a good honest guy who wants to make the world a better place. He also has to appeal to donors who are supporting his campaigning and ads.

Its hard to juggle but he has to appeal to all audiences, Quackity has done it excellently and if Wil doesn't, He doesn't have a chance.

To prove that he can protect Manburg and stop Villains he has been ‘predicting’ villain attacks with his team. They ‘cracked the code’ of the Syndicate and found the patterns. Really he just got his friends to rob the right banks. It makes him look good, like he and his team are smart enough to finally pin down the Syndicate's patterns.

He plans to get more extravagant with these lies. Maybe revealing secrets of top villains. Anything that gets him attention and credit.

To add to this, his main detective that has helped him in solving this puzzle is Jack manifold. Surprisingly he's a good actor, he makes a great detective and happily did interviews about how he unraveled the Syndicate's secrets. Really though, Jack was the one who robbed the bank.

Its all one big lie being carefully balanced. 

They work their way through all the necessary work before Wilbur and Ranboo head back to home base.

Wilbur revs the engine of his car, it's an old thing, he’s had it for years and Phil had it before him. He has the money to replace it, he’d just rather not.

They each have their own homes of course, but the Syndicate has a hideout that many of the members stay at. It's an evil lair in a way. They actually have a few, scattered around the country, but their main base is on the outskirts of the country between Manburg and Kinoko.

in an now abandoned village where everything has a layer thick layer of snow this time of year, is a creaky old church, similar to the one Wilbur met Hyperion at a while ago. The church looks average inside and out, but in normal supervillain fashion, there's a secret staircase that leads to a fairly sized bunker. It had a few rooms for members to stay in if needed, a medical area, storage of extra weapons and armor, a meeting room, a kitchen, and a common room.

The church had the bunker when Phil found it, he and Techno expanded it though. Far before the Syndicate was as big as it is. Now though, with Sam’s help it's big enough for the whole Syndicate. 

Wilbur swings the heavy door open with a huff and they descend.                                                        

-☆-

Phil grips the steering wheel while he very calmly drives home. 

When he was younger he never much believed in gods. Prime and XD were everywhere. his mother dragged him to a prime church once a month, but he never found it within himself to believe.

That quickly changed when he stumbled across an ancient altar. He was 20 and drunk, losing hope for his life and the world. He fell to his knees in front of a heavenly statue of a woman, she wore a long flowing dress and had a veil of lace. The statue was made so lovingly and detailed, it was once deeply cared for. Though, now, it looked forgotten, she had vines growing around her, and moss covered her face. Still, Phil was enamored with her beauty.

He was crouched there for what could've been hours swinging between consciousness.

In what then seemed like a cruel twist of fate, hundreds of crows swarmed him. Like hungry dogs they picked at him. But, at some point in the dark mob of feathers he found her, he saw her face. Soon he would find feathers of his own on his back. And later, he’d come to know her.

He talks to her often. She goes by many names, but Phil knows her as Kristin. Today though, Phil wasn't as happy to hear her voice. She had told him to “go home, now Phil” .  He wasn't prepared to hear a godly voice while driving, but he did quickly swerve towards home.

Somewhere, maybe in his heart, he hears a laugh as he tries to gain back control of his car. She loves to play with Phil. once their relationship was more a goddess and her pupil, now though Phil finds its a husband and his wise wife. 

Costume she whispers, as if just an afterthought. Its not often she talks to him like this, he weaves in and out of traffic and runs red lights fretting that his boys are in trouble. While driving, he throws on his mask and cape. He keeps extras on him always, it comes with the job.

He sees their modest apartment complex come into view and sloppily parks on the side of the road, practically jumping out of his car while throwing his hat on. He scans the building and area not seeing anything amiss. That is, until he hears a yell from somewhere behind him. He recognizes the voice, it's not one of his boys, but he knows it's why Kristin told him to come here, so he dashes towards the voice without a second thought. 

-☆-

Tubbo had warned him to be cautious before they both left for work, as there is a bounty on his head. A 'prize' is being offered for information about many villains. For the Syndicate it could mean a life-changing sum of money. For him? Just $10,000. Don't get him wrong—that's a lot of money! But that's the maximum reward, meaning if they captured Tommy and turned him in, they would only get 10k. He killed the damn mayor. Then again, that isn't exactly public knowledge. His public crimes include unauthorized disclosure of classified information, breaking and entering, trespassing, trespassing on government property, impersonation of a government official, evading arrest, battery against a police officer, and probably a lot more… he thinks all of that deserves more than just 10k!

For Tithonus, Schlatt was offering ten million, dead or alive. Ten million for the man he spoke to! Tommy wonders how high his bounty would be if they knew he was essentially a part of the Syndicate now. 

Tommy casually kicks a man in the balls as hard as he possibly can, he watches with delight as the man writhes on the ground. He snatches the backpack from the man's hands and tosses it to the young boy to whom it belongs. As Tommy prepares to deliver a funny quip or offer to walk the boy home, his heart sinks when he turns to see Speedrunner looming ominously behind the boy. 

His instinct is to grab the boy and run, but he quickly reasons that the boy is safe while he is not. Tommy's legs are moving before he knows it. He dashes down the street, his wings flapping wildly as he attempts to take flight. He knows he can't outrun Speedrunner, he knows it, but he isn't sure what else to do. 

Speed isn't pursuing him just yet, but Tommy knows it won't be long before he does. In a flash, Tommy dives into an alley and begins to scale a building. He can't outrun Speedrunner. In the distance, he hears a shout—something almost joyful—“Hyperion!” Speedrunner sings from the street. “You can't run from me,” Speed echoes Tommy's thoughts.

Tommy quietly leaps onto a balcony. He was never good at hide and seek as a child, he tries his best now. He ascends further, scaling the building as he hears rapid footsteps all around him; the sound is so fast that it sounds more like a constant rumble. 

“Hyperion! Have you used those little wings of yours?” another shout rings out. 

Tommy watches in horror as Speed effortlessly scales the wall of a low building. He feels like a sitting duck.

So, Tommy dives off the tall building and veers away from Speed. For a glorious second, he believes he has actually got away. But another rush of adrenaline surges through his veins as he spots Speed running beneath him. 

“Hey, Hyperion!” he greets, his smiley mask staring into Tommy's soul. 

Tommy's stomach churns. How the fuck does he get out of this? He can only fly for so long and Speed can run for miles before tiring.

Tommy does what he does best and veers into an alley, hoping that the sharp turn will buy him some time. 

It seems to shake Speed off his tail for a brief moment, but it is only seconds before Speed is back on him again.

Dread courses through Tommy like ice when he realizes he has reached a dead fucking end. He attempts to swing upward, but he doesn't move quickly enough and slams into the brick wall. 

Before Tommy can stand, Speed presses a sword to his chest. “Don't try to run.” Slowly, he pulls the weapon away. “You tried your best, Hyperion. But there is no point.”

“Fuck you!” Tommy spat, his anger spilling over. This all went to hell far too quickly. “Hyperion, what did you do to Flamespitter?” 

“Fuck. You.” Tommy mutters, scanning his surroundings, but it's only brick walls. “Enough of that. Answer my question.” Speed raises his sword once more as a threat.

“I don't fucking know what you're talking about, asshole”

The sword swings a bit closer.

Tommy lunges for his knees, and Speed collapses to the ground with a thud. Tommy tears off his new gloves, and instantly, gas fills the narrow alley. 

Speed swings his sword toward Tommy, slicing through his hoodie effortlessly before striking the brick wall with a dull thud. Tommy fights the urge to gasp, holding his breath instead. He watches as Speed reaches for his belt, unhooking a gas mask and sliding it onto his swiftly. Damn this guy and his preparation.

Tommy ducks as a knife soars over his head. He swiftly draws his staff and starts swinging. Speed's agility is less effective in the confined space, so Tommy tries his best to fight, but its useless. Tommy gasps as he feels a cold blade slice through his side. Looking down, he sees blood pouring from the wound. In that moment of distraction, Speed plants his boot on Tommy's chest and forcefully pushes him back to the ground. 

“Give up, kid,” he says, his voice muffled by the odd gas mask. “Fuck you pussy.” Tommy can taste the faint bitterness of the gas on his tongue. 

“I have questions for you, Hyperion. Come back to the tower with me, and you can be on your way. We’ll even patch you up,” he offers.

“No, you fuckin’ ugly bitch!” Tommy screams with as much conviction as he can muster. Speed kicks him in the jaw, and Tommy hears a crack reverberate in his skull.

“Do you feel like talking now?” Speed sneers at Tommy. He doesn't know many prayers, but he silently recites every one he can remember. A dull pain throbs in his head, making it difficult to do anything other than sit there.

As Speed reaches for his cuffs, Tommy notices a large shadow of wings cast upon the tall walls of the alley. For a brief moment, Tommy fears he has surely died, but he quickly realizes it's Tithonus, he looks terrifying, Tommy feels only relief upon seeing him.

Tithonus jumps down from his position and lands directly behind Speed. “Speedrunner,” Tithonus says. He spins around faster than Tommy's eyes can see. “Oh, Tithonus! Good to see you…” Speed's eyes dart around as he searches for an escape.

Phil couldn't help but grimace at the blood spilling from Hyperion. “It's okay, mate; I'll get you patched up,” Phil mumbled to the bleeding villain. Hyperion appeared only vaguely aware of Phil’s presence. Phil quickly scooped the boy up and flew to his car. He slid Hyperion into the passenger seat and jumped into the drivers.

“Stay awake for me, Hyperion.” He quickly dials a number into his burner phone while flooring it towards Kinoko.

“Paean? I need you at the base."

“Already here, Tith.”

“Perfect, thank you, mate. i’ll be there in five.”

Phil arrives in four minutes and gracefully carries Hyperion down the stairs. He hurries through the hallway toward Paean’s medical room, swinging the door open roughly.

Paean is dashing frantically around the room. “Over here, Tith! Set him here,” they wave toward an empty bed. “What happened?” she asks distractedly as she brushes her hand over Hyperion's wound. “Speedrunner. I'm not really sure.”

Paean's abilities have always perplexed Phil. Unlike some of the Heroes' medics, she cannot heal instantly; however, with just a touch, they can discern everything about a wound and determine how to treat it with the tools at their disposal. While they often need to learn information, she simply knows other things.

Paean grabs various jars and boxes and brings them over to Hyperion. “I need you to stay awake; don’t fall asleep,” they say, directed at Hyperion, who only groans in response. Paean leans over Hyperion, thoroughly inspecting the wound. “It needs cleaning, stitches, salve, and bandages,” she mutters instructions under her breath.

He opens a box and takes out scissors to carefully cut away a small section of his hoodie around the wound. Then, they begin gently applying a paste before wiping the wound with a small towelette, followed by another paste.

“This might hurt,” is the only warning she gives before she begins stitching his wound. Phil watches Hyperion flinch before he relaxes. It must have been a numbing salve. 

“Tithonus,” Paean suddenly says, “go, please. You're hovering. He'll be fine.” They make a small shooing motion.

Phil watches Hyperion, feeling uncertain. He trusts that Hyperion will not attack in the heart of the Syndicate, especially while he's hurt..

“Really, it'll be fine. just go make some tea,” she scolds while tying off the last of Hyperion's stitches. “Okay, okay. I'm going.”

Chapter Text

Tommy is in pain. He tears his eyelids open and rubs the crust from the corner of his eyes, in which he immediately realizes that his mask is hanging around his neck, instead of on his face, panic quickly fills him.

The hospital. He is in a medical room of some sort, he tries to calm himself. Tithonus brought him here. Tithonus scared away Speedrunner. 

His jaw is broken, that's right. That makes sense. Obviously, they would have to remove his mask for that.

Standing up, he examines his surroundings. A mop and bucket sits by the door, its stained red. The sheets beneath him are stained a similar red.

There are many cluttered shelves, on them seem to be potions, medicine, plants, bandages, and other medical equipment. It's unorganized.

A small door in the corner of the room slides open, and a (presumably) doctor walks into the room, Tommy vaguely remembers them. “Hello Hyperion! How are you feeling?” the doctor asks as he strolls up to him, holding a bin bag.

Tommy opens his mouth to respond, but he is surprised when a sharp pain shoots through his head. Instead, he simply shrugs, which doesn't feel great either.

“I can't imagine you feel amazing. The stab wound is nasty, you have a concussion, and you've dislocated your jaw. Prime knows why you're awake; you've been sleeping for about eight hours.”

Tommy just blinks at them. “Okay, well, I bought you this,” they say, holding up the bag. “it has some of your belongings, a change of clothes, and some meds. You don't need to take those yet.” They set the bag on a table beside Tommy's cot. Tommy coughs and asks in almost a whisper, “I'm sorry, but who the hell are you, and what's happening?”

They laugh lightly, “I'm Paean, any pronouns. You're in the Syndicate's medical room.” they wear a ski mask— or as Tubbo once called it, a balaclava— with only their eyes showing, along with a lab coat covered in various stains. The pockets of the lab coat are filled with what appears to be rubbish. He also has a pair of goggles resting on his head.

“How long do I have to stay here?” Tubbo is surely worrying.

“Until Tithonus says you may leave.”

“When will he do that?"

“I'm afraid I don't know. He's out right now; we'll talk to him when he gets back.”

Paean sits down at a desk near Tommy and opens a large book. “What’s that?” Tommy asks. “It's a book,” she replies plainly.

Tommy remembers his earpiece and quickly moves to turn it on, only to discover that it is missing. “Where is my earpiece?” he asks, upset.

“took it away. Breach of security.” They underline something in their book.

“But I need to talk to Atomic!”

“You can have it with supervision, but I have a feeling that it's out of battery,” Paean says sympathetically. 

Tommy groans. “He's going to kill me! He told me to charge them before leaving ‘just in case’! Didn't think he'd actually be right. that asshole.”

“Maybe I can charge it for you?” Paean offers genuinely. They fish the small device out of one of their pockets and hold it gently in her hand. Just as she'd said, a small red light flashes signaling the low battery.

Tommy shakes his head, but quickly stops as a wave of nausea hits him. “It uses a specialty battery.” 

“It's pretty cool tech, how'd you get it?” Tommy can only see his eyes but they're still very expressive. They squint slightly, obviously confused.

Might as well share the information if he's going to be a part of the syndicate anyways. “Atomic makes everything for me, he's the smartest guy I know.” 

They just hum and turn back to their book. Her voice is higher pitched, not affected by any voice changer, which is a refreshing sound compared to all the other villains.

Tommy's legs dangle off the cot and for a sudden but brief moment he's not in the Syndicate medical room, but in the School. For a moment he is being tested on and not treated.

Then he's back. He slides his feet up onto his cot and tucks his knees under his chin carefully, grunting slightly when his wound stings. 

His torso is covered in bandages and under them he can feel the familiar pinch and tug of stitches. 

“How long is healing going to take?” He hates being hurt. This is the worst. Fuck Speedrunner.

“avoid opening your jaw too wide or chewing on tough food for around.. three months” they make a so-so motion. “Stitches will be in for about a month, it's not too bad”

Tommy slumps down. ‘I can't wait that long! I'm joining the Syndicate, you know! I need to be kicking ass, not be kicked in the ass.”

A knock rings throughout the room, causing Tommy to jolt at the sound. However, Paean quickly speaks up. “Who is it?”

“Tithonus!”

Paean nods at Tommy before jumping to their feet, “come on in, Tithonus!" Tommy quickly throws on his mask.

As the door swings open, Tommy can make out a few chairs lined up against a light green wall, adorned with a framed picture of Tonitru with a blue ribbon on the edge of the frame. What the hell? The door closes and Tithonus begins speaking before Tommy can comprehend what is happening out there.

“Hyperion! Good morning! Are you doing alright?”

“No.” He replies deadpan. His jaw hurt like hell and his head felt incredibly heavy. Surprisingly, his side hurt the least, despite the wound.

“Well.. As expected,” Tithonus shrugs with a smile as he walks over to Paean. They whisper to each other, and Tommy knows he's probably being talked about but can't find it within himself to care. Instead, he rummages through the bag that Paean gave him. 

There is a plain black hoodie, similar to the one he is wearing in size and material. A mint tin with marker scribbles on the top reads: “Take one green once a day. white when in pain (only two a day)” in messy handwriting. Tommy opens the tin to find a few oddly shaped green pills and a handful of ordinary-looking white pills.  

He isn't entirely sure whether he should trust the green ones, but if worst comes to worst, he'll sue the Syndicate's ass. Continuing is his utility belt, which still contains everything except for his staff. Fortunately, the two knives that were on his belt are loose in the bag, which provides him with some reassurance. At the bottom of the bag are small scraps of his hoodie and under armor, contained in a second, smaller plastic bag. His armor is actually a bullet proof vest, very unfortunately, that means it's not protecting along the sides.

Paean suddenly appears in front of Tommy. “Hyperion?” Tommy gets the feeling he has spaced out;  everything still feels a bit fuzzy.

"You feeling alright, man?” Paean questions. 

'Yeah, just dizzy. ‘Heads a bit fucked” he waves Paean off. They look concerned but continue. “Okay, well, here, drink this.” Paean hands Tommy a cup. He downs it without much thought; it's cool and soothes his dry throat. He hadn't realized he was so thirsty.

“And, could you please use your power, quickly? Head injuries can sometimes affect them.” Paean requests, Tommy feels a surge of fear at that statement, but he effortlessly alters the shape and size of his hand. Quick emotions flicker across Paean's face before he settles on a smile. “Uh, awesome! You should be good to go..” she trails off.

Paean gives Tithonus—who Tommy somewhat forgot was present in the room—a nod and then returns to their desk.

Tithonus steps toward Tommy. “So mate, you're safe to leave. But we happen to be having a meeting in a few minutes. I was thinking you could join us? Only if you feel up to it, of course.”

He has to get home to Tubbo, he's probably worried.. but can he really say no to a Syndicate meeting?

“Yea okay, that sounds good” he gives an awkward thumbs up with a smile. 

Tithonus claps his hands together. “Amazing! I'll escort you to the meeting room in a bit; I have to sort some things out first.” He waves goodbye as he rushes out of the medical room. 

Tommy feels overwhelmed and asks Paean if he can quickly go to the bathroom. Paean points him toward another door. (Why does this room have three doors, and why are they all practically hidden?)

He experiences only slight pain as he walks toward the bathroom. Once inside, he immediately removes his mask and splashes cold water on his face. If he is going to attend a Syndicate meeting, he needs to be fully present in his own body. Tommy slowly stretches, feeling his muscles creak and crack. He is stiff after sleeping on that hard ass mattress. He puts on the hoodie that Paean gave him and carefully tucks his necklace back under the collar before wandering back into the main room. 

Tommy looks around at the shelves, again noticing the amount of containers. He wonders how many of their contents could get him high. Leaning toward Paean, he glances at their book. It's mostly boring, Medical things. It seems hand written but Paean has underlined and annotated certain things, it seems she did not write the book herself.

Their desk is as cluttered as everything else in the room, filled with pens and highlighters in jars, and a few candles lighting his book dramatically. Along with a small space heater, it looks like a fire hazard. 

He considers asking Paean how to clean or care for his wound. However, he doesn't care. He'll just ask Tubbo or something.

Eventually, Tithonus walks back into the room. “Let’s go,” he waves Tommy forward with no more explanation. Paean follows them from a distance.

They walk into what appears to be a waiting room, where he spots the same odd picture of Tonitru. The chairs, though worn, seem comfortable, and there are plants in the corners along with a table displaying a few books. 

Tommy trails behind Tithonus as he navigates the narrow hallways. “If you ever need a break from the meeting, feel free to take one—just let me know,” Tithonus offers. Tommy simply hums in agreement.

The halls are warm in contrast to the winter air outside. With no visible air vents, he wonders how they keep it so warm.

They pass by many doors before Tithonus stops at an inconspicuous one and turns to face Tommy. “You ready, mate?” Tommy shrugs and replies, “I guess.” 

Tithonus dramatically opens the door, revealing a grand meeting room. The walls are lined with tall bookcases, and on the back wall a lit fireplace roars. Lanterns glowing with blue fire cast a dim light throughout the room.

in the center of the room lies a large, intricate rug. Atop this rug stands an imposing table crafted from dark stone bricks, with peculiar glowing vines weaving through it. Seated around the table are nearly all the villains Tommy knows, and many he doesn't.

“Is this room where all the budget went?” Tommy blurts out. Tithonus doubles over, cackling. A couple of chuckles ring out from the villains at the table. Tithonus takes a deep breath, calming himself. “Yeah, kind of.”

He gestures for Tommy to follow him and pulls out a chair at the end of the table closest to the door. Tommy sits down politely, and Tithonus walks around to take the chair opposite Tommy. Paean slips into his seat between a tall, scrawny villain he has never seen before and a villain Tommy vaguely remembers as Apollo.

Tommy can't help but nervously pick at his nails. what the fuck is he even doing here?

“Okay, everyone. As you all know, this will be an important meeting for several reasons, one of which is Hyperion.” Tithonus starts, Everyone's gazes flicker toward Tommy; most of their eyes are covered one way or another, making it all the more intimidating. “First, let’s go around and share our names and pronouns for Hyperion.”

Erebus, who is sitting next to Tithonus, slumps down in his chair with a groan. “It's not primary school, Dad.”

“Then stop acting like a child, Herb.” Tithonus scolds back. Dramatic “ooohs” and giggles erupt from the table, breaking the slightly tense atmosphere.

Tithonus continues, “I am Tithonus, he/him.” he grins. Erebus and Ares follow, repeating the same phrase in monotone.

Then, “I'm Lelantos, he/him.” He's vaguely familiar to Tommy, but Tommy can't recall anything he has done. His disguise is a surprisingly realistic fox mask, paired with a leather jacket and a white button-up shirt with suspenders underneath. odd choices, but Tommy can't judge.

“He’s our stealth!” Erebus exclaims, reaching around Ares to poke Lelantos. “I don’t think you’re supposed to tell people that.” Ares snorts, staring at Erebus. In response, both Erebus and Lelantos shrug in unison. 

Lelantos's hair is a natural orange with a small white streak that complements his fox persona remarkably well.

Tethys and Tonitru follow, with Tethys looking a bit concerned about Tommy's presence.

Next, on the other side of the table, someone wearing a ruby tiara and matching corset. Covering their face is a masquerade mask very similar to Erebus's old one. “Ananke, any pronouns.” they nod a greeting at Tommy. Their voice is unaffected by any voice changer, but his voice is deep, it shocks Tommy for a second. Tommy thinks he remembers seeing them with Erebus earlier this year. 

“Apollo, he/him” the next rattles with a friendly wave. His voice is affected by a voice changer, it's purposefully robotic and tinny. a metal gas mask covers his mouth, there's gears and wires springing from it. There's nothing covering his eyes, but his eyes are entirely black. It creeps Tommy the hell out. His outfit is plain, just being a black turtleneck with green armor over it. 

“Paean any pronouns!” Tommy can hear the grin of his voice.

“Uh, Nyx, they/them” 

“You have a fuckin’ cool mask” Tommy compliments. It's true, they wear a mask that's split down the middle, the left is a deep purple tragedy mask, and the right is a white comedy mask. Golden details endow the mask on both sides. Their outfit is equally as extravagant with a matching purple velvet poet's shirt, adorned with gold embroidered details of stars.

“im Hermes, she/her!” Tommy knows her. She wears a clearly pirate themed outfit with a big red jacket, gold details, a loose white shirt, a belt with a large buckle, but contrasting the pirate is a simple pair of sunglasses covering her eyes. And of course her long white curly hair. That's what she's known for.

“Okay perfect” Tithonus claps “now that that's out of the way, go ahead” he motions towards his son.

Erebus jumps up from his seat “what's your power!?” he asks accusatively. 

“I shapeshift? Isn't that obvious?” 

Tonitru jumps up similarly to how Erebus did “hah! Told you just shapeshifting.”

“Well..” Tommy holds back a laugh at the way Tonitru deflates, “I have another power”

Erebus leans in, Tithonus tilts his head slightly, Paean's head turns towards him. “I can copy other people's power's”

Jaws drop, and questions spill from everyone. Tommy feels a bit smug with how surprised everyone is.

“I can only copy their power if I'm actively touching a part of them. See this?-” Tommy pulls the small necklace that was tucked under his hoodie out. “-This is a sponge soaked in my partner's blood! So I can use his power, which is what Erebus saw in that alley.” 

Tonitru whips around to Erebus “you saw him use a secondary power!? You cheater!” he accuses. Lelantos looks at him, angry. Tonitru looks a bit guilty about yelling in Lelantos' ear. 

“Well I didn't know if it was a power or some type of tech..” Erebus admits.

“Okay, what are your limits?” Tithonus asks, getting the meeting back on track. 

“It has to be.. fresh” Tommy grimaces at his own words “Atomic replaces the blood regularly, if he doesn't the power becomes harder to use, and weaker.”

He fidgets with his hoodie strings suddenly nervous. “And I have to understand how it works, I can't just touch Speedrunner and run fast. That's dangerous, it'll be unstable.”

“Understand how?” Tethys asks.

“Like, Atomic told me he has to make the heat of his body move to his fingers, and focus on the poison in him.”

“What even is Atomic’s power? And who is Atomic” Apollo questions. 

“Atomic can create an anesthetic gas” Erebus cuts in. “Right?”

“I guess? Usually it just makes people sluggish. Flame was weak.” Tommy states, Erebus grins. “Atomic makes my gear for me, and supervises my patrolling.” Tommy supplies simply.

“Will he be looking for you?” Tithonus asks, seemingly worried.

“Oh definitely, he is going to kill me when I get home” the group shares looks of concern. “Not actually!” Tommy defends. 

“Back to the power thing- can you use multiple powers at once?” Ananke cuts in. 

“Dunno. Haven't tried.” At the School they didn't have enough time to test his power, by the time they discovered it the place was shutting down. And Tommy doesn't know anyone aside from Tubbo.

“tell us about the assassination of mayor J. Schlatt.” Tithonus asks, mouth pressed into a thin line.

“I slit his throat.”

“Dude Cmon.” Ares grunts. 

“I shapeshifted, then slit his throat, while you lot were causing a ruckus near the las Nevadas port.” he motions to the whole table. 

Tithonus looks conflicted. “No insider help? Payed off security guards? High tech devices?”

“Oh yea! I did actually pay off one dude, just the guy who was watching the security cameras that night.” They were nice, nervous though. they weren't even trained security. Just someone given the unfortunate shift. Tommy gave them 500 bucks he stole off some asshat and it worked flawlessly. In retrospect it wasn't the best plan, but whatever.

“That's all? We could've done that this whole time?” Hermes says in both awe and disappointment.

“They're a mess in that damn tower, untrained fuckheads do all the heavy lifting. I assume they've gotten their shit together now. But they didn't even run a background check on me!”

Tithonus cocks his head. “Did you work for them?”

“Oh yea” he waves off “I worked while morphing my face so I didn't get caught”

“Doesn't That get tiring? Doing that for hours?” Paean asks, pulling out a small journal.

“A bit.. but I just kinda got used to it? Like my wings, those aren't too tiring to keep morphed. It's like a muscle I can train. Doing unfamiliar morphs takes way more out of me.” He explains unsure.

“Why did you kill the mayor?”

“I wanted to start shit! Things are fucked and i thought it might help” he shrugs. 

“Did Atomic help you?” Nyx speaks up, a small shake to his voice.

“Yea, he planned with me, and got me the shit i needed. couldn't have done it without him.”

“How long did it take to plan?” Nyx asks again.

“Couple of months to form a proper plan. I ended up mapping out the whole place" Tommy notes.

“That’ll be useful” Ares says, absentmindedly weaving small braids in his hair.  

“Thank you for answering our questions. We have this-” Tithonus slides a device over the table towards Tommy. “-for you.” Tommy picks it up to inspect it. It has a small screen with a keyboard and many buttons under it. It's the size of his phone but a bit thicker and way heavier. 

“We were planning on inviting you on a mission this week, but with your injuries that’ll have to wait” Tithonus gives an apologetic smile to Tommy.

“We call them communicators, they're highly secure communication devices. It already has Tithonus’s and Paean’s contacts. All the instructions can be found on the device.” Apollo explains.

“This is sick! Way cooler than texting” Tommy grins, ignoring the slight disappointment.

“Now, Hyperion, we have to continue this meeting without you, mate. Thank you for being here, Ares will escort you out.” Tithonus smiles warmly despite the dismissive words. Ares stands up and motions Tommy to follow him out, Tommy quickly stands up and shuffles his way out of the room. As the door closes behind them Tommy hears Tithonus start on another topic. 

Ares wordlessly leads Tommy to the medical room and grabs the bag full of Tommy's belongings, along with another bag from Paean’s desk. 

“You'll be cold.” Ares states with a frown. He looks around the medical room before opening a trunk, he pulls out a bundle of cloth and shuts the trunk.

“Heads up” is the only warning Ares gives before Tommy is plunged into complete darkness via the cloth Ares had grabbed. “What the fuck!” He screeches and scrambles to take it off, but Ares plants his hand on Tommy's head to prevent it. “Bro calm down, can't have you seein’ stuff for a second.” Ares huffs.

Tommy grumbles curses at Ares but stands there waiting. he hears a few clicks and a beep, “Okay, let's go.” Ares continues as Tommy blindly follows while removing the cloth.

They continue down the narrow hallways passing dozens of rooms until Ares opens an old looking brown door, it leads to a stone cellar. Wine barrels that look older than Tommy himself line the walls. There's a creepy staircase that provides the only light 

Ares leads the way climbing the wooden staircase, despite its rickety appearance its stable under them. Still, the climb makes his stitches flare with pain.

“put that cloak on, its cold.” Ares instructs.

They enter up into an abandoned church not too different from Tommy's. Its stained glass window depicting purple spirits clearly signals it was a church of prime.

Outside the windows Tommy sees light snowfall. Ares leads him outside where he spots a few other abandoned buildings. Tommy assumes they're on the outskirts of north Essempi, no where else would be snowing this early. 

They continue around to the back of the church where behind some bushes, a few cars are parked, they look out of place among the old buildings and foliage.

Ares pulls his keys out from a hidden pocket in his cloak and unlocks an average looking car. Ares opens the backdoor for Tommy, he carefully slides in attempting to not get too much snow inside.

Ares slides in the driver's seat, and Tommy hears Ares click his own seat belt in place so Tommy fumbles around to put his on. 

They continue in silence as Ares starts the car and drives down the muddy roads. 

“Why did you guys put your base all the way over here?” Tommy breaks the silence.

“Where can I drop you off?” Ares ignores Tommy’s question. 

The Syndicate already knows so much about him, does he want them to know where he lives? He doesn't know if he can walk all that far home.. especially with all his gear. He mentally debates it for a minute.

“uh- Pogtopia street, south manburg”

A frown flickers across Ares's face before he nods.

Tommy realizes he knows where they are, he doesn't think he's ever been here as Tommy, but he's been everywhere in Manburg as Hyperion. 

They soon make it to his street, Ares pulls over, clicks the locks open, and throws the two bags back towards Tommy. “You need any help carrying that?” 

“I'm good!” Tommy grabs his bag and hops out, he waves to Ares. He can't see Ares through the incredibly tinted windows but assumes he's waving back. 

Ares speeds away and Tommy starts the short walk to his apartment. It's only a block but feels like forever. It's cold as balls and his side is sore.

Eventually he makes it home and bangs on the door, he has no idea if Tubbo is home but he prays to prime that he is. 

He gets his answer when the door solely creeks open and Tubbos eyes peep through the crack, as soon as they make eye contact the door flies open and Tubbo pulls Tommy into the apartment.

“What the hell dude?! I thought you were dead!” Tubbo yells, giving Tommy a small hug. “Where the fuck were you?!” He steps back and gives Tommy a death stare. 

Tommy throws his hands up in surrender “Speedrunner fucked me up!” Tommy defends himself, pointing at his wound. “Tithonus found me and took me to their medic.” He moves to take off his shoes but is suddenly very dizzy, he quickly decides sitting down right now would be the best choice. 

He plops down on the cold tile and holds his head as black spots dot his vision. “Tommy?” Tubbo questions lightly. Tommy waves his hand dismissively. “I'm fine” he means to say but his throat is so dry and he is suddenly so tired. So he just sits there for a minute instead. 

Tubbo walks off towards the kitchen and comes back with a cup of water, this man is an angel. Tommy takes the cup and chugs it. His throat still tickles though. He throws his hand up to his mouth as a rough cough racks his body. He curls in as he tries to expel the shit stuck in his throat. He hears Tubbo gasp lightly and quickly opens his eyes to see a deep cyan substance coating his hand.

“Oh, fuck. Ew.” Tommy grumbles.

“What the fuck!” Tubbo shouts.

Tommy wipes his hands on his pants with a groan. He then points to the bag that was dropped in the commotion. Tubbo shuffles over and hands it to Tommy. Tommy grabs the communicator from it and fumbles with the buttons but eventually calls Paean, or he thought he called Paean but is surprised to hear-

-“Hyperion? What's going on mate?”  Tithonus's voice rings out, tinny through the device.

Fuck there's only two contacts in this damn thing and he managed to press the wrong one. 

Tubbo is looking at him with bewilderment as he starts “Meant to call Paean- I'm uh-” he's interrupted by a cough, Tubbo pulls the comms out of Tommy's Hand. “Hyperion just got home and he's now coughing up.. blue? No blood just blue shit”

A few other voices erupt from the device “blue?” “Like Erebus?” “Who is that?” “Is he okay?” they fizzle out as Tithonus hushes the group. “Is Hyperion okay?”

Tommy gives a big sigh. “I'm okay, just- I'm just confused.” 

A different voice peeps up “weird question.. What shade of blue? 

“Its- its deep and kind of- green?” Tubbo responds, grimacing as he stares at the blue mucus. 

Whispering and muttering start. “We know what it is, but we don't know why it happens.. or how to fix it..” Erebus admits.

“Okay? Is that all? Fucking explain please!” 

“Well- it's complicated..” Tithonus trails off.

“you know what else is complicated bitch? My emotions! What the fuck is wrong with him?!” 

Tommy laughs but is cut short by a sharp pain from his stitches. The painkillers are definitely wearing off.

“He shouldn't be in any danger-” Paean speaks up, Tommy feels slight relief.

“shouldn't?! As in you're not sure?” Tubbo questions. “Atommm let them finishh” Tommy complains.

“Can he breathe as normal?” Paean asks.

Tommy exaggerates his breathing to answer the question. “Yes.” Tubbo states.

“Then he should be okay. if it gets worse or breathing is affected, call me and we'll move from there.”  

Tubbo takes a deep breathe before simply replying “okay”

“And make sure he takes his meds so-”

Tubbo abruptly clicks the off button on the comms device, not really being sure how to hang up. Tubbo sighs once again as he offers Tommy a hand, Tommy takes it. “Go change out of that. i'll make some dinner” Tommy gives a weak salute and heads towards his bedroom.

Tubbo quickly makes the two sandwiches as Tommy plops down on the sofa. They eat as Tommy explains all he can, Speedrunner, Tithonus, the hospital and the Syndicate meeting.

Chapter Text

The lights abruptly flick on, along with a familiar buzzing. An annoyed groan comes from both the boys in the room, but they rise from their beds in unison.

Tommy stretches with a yawn while Tubbo rubs at his eyes. A click emits from their door as it's unlocked by one of the Keepers. They practically stumble out of their room and down the hall, following the many other students towards the cafeteria.

They sit down at their assigned table along with four other kids. Tubbo elbows Tommy and subtlety points to the far corner of the room, Tommy gets the urge to run as he spots what Tubbo had pointed to; The Warden. The Warden is the fucker who runs the place, the headmaster of sorts. 

He wears casual clothes, his hair is disheveled as if he just rolled out of bed, there's always bags under his eyes. He can't be much older than 20 though.

He doesn't usually show up for breakfast, only occasionally dinner. A pit forms in his stomach, nothing good comes of the Warden. The rest of the table follows their gazes and a tight silence settles at the table. And soon across the cafeteria as everyone realizes.

A small bell rings, signaling that they can rise from their seats to collect their breakfast. Almost robotically the whole school rises and neatly forms a line, each student grabbing a plate and allowing the cooks to scoop whatever slop they have to serve.

Today, Tommy watches in slight horror as grits are poured straight onto their plates. And a plain piece of bread is thrown onto the side.

The line moves fast and only a few minutes later everyone is sitting down again. Tommy scarfs down the piece of bread but begrudgingly stares at the grits. He's so hungry, but they're gray, gray things shouldn't be eaten. 

Tommy looks at Tubbo, he seems equally as disgusted. His grits are also untouched. Tommy scoots the plate to the middle of the table, offering it to anyone who wants it. 

The five kids look at it unsure, eyeing each other. One carefully extends his arm and takes the plate, no one seems disappointed that they didn't get it. 

The air in the room is still tense, the minutes tick by until the same bell rings, each student stands up again. They stack their plates at the designated place before sitting back down. 

Usually, this is when a Keeper would inform everyone what they will be doing today, but instead, the Warden walks toward the small stage near the entrance of the cafeteria. 

“Students! There's been an exciting step in our medicine. We have the special opportunity to test a process that should improve your power instantly!” He smiles something sinister. To anyone who didn't know him it would seem normal as ever, but Tommy knows nothing this man does is well intentioned.

“Students that we deem fit with level eight or more will have the honor to experience this first. But we will take any volunteers from lower levels, of course.”

The level system is something they use to organize the students. The more powerful you are, the higher level you are. They didn't have anything like that on the outside yet.. yet? They don't-

Tommy is a level eight, which doesn't spell good things for him. Luckily Tubbo is level seven. 

The Warden steps down and a Keeper replaces him, they inform everyone of the schedules as usual, “level fives will attend outside training. Level sixes endurance. Level sevens history.” Tubbo quietly celebrates, the traditional classes are the best, Tommy isn't sure how to feel about history class though.

“Level eights medical room-” Tommy doesn't bother to hear the rest. Tubbo slumps down onto Tommy, as an almost apology. Tommy feels a bit defeated, yesterday he did endurance, endurance sucks, he is so exhausted he was hoping for an easy one today.

The Keeper dismisses the students and everyone walks to their assigned Keeper. The Keeper does a quick headcount before leading him and the other eights to the lab. They always call it a medical room, but it's nothing more than a laboratory. 

The fifteen or so kids enter into the waiting area of the lab, the Keeper stands in front of them and asserts the rules and instructions.

They ask if anyone would like to go first, they all look amongst each other, but no one speaks up. 

“Very well, J. Baker and P. Orbit, you're up first.”

Baker looks frightened and slowly moves towards the Lab. Orbit confidently walks past Baker and marches into the Lab. Tommy can see the furrow in his brow though, he is afraid.

The remaining students shuffle to sit down in the old wooden chairs. They're not comfortable but better than the floor.

The school is white, every floor is shiny tile and every wall is a dingy creme. But it is not clean, in the corners years of cobwebs pile and on shelves layers of dust collect. 

The lab though, it's clean, sterile. He can smell the bleach from here. The lights are always too bright, too cold. It's a shocking difference from the warmer buzzing lights that shine over the whole school.

They sit in silence. They hear nothing from the lab, but that much is to be expected, it's mostly sound proof. Eventually the door opens and a Keeper leans out with a thumbs up. 

“T. Innit and K. Johnson, enter the medical room.” The Keeper that had led them there, instructs. 

Tommy feels sick, something sits heavily in his stomach and spreads to his chest, tugs at his heart, claws up his throat. But he stands up and stiffly walks to the lab with the other kid. 

The lab initially seems like an average hospital, there's a scale, eye chart, couple of beds and cots, but Tommy knows better.

A doctor leads Tommy into a separate room within the lab, they tell him to wait a moment before leaving Tommy alone in the room.

It mimics the same room that all of this started in, there's childish decals on the wall. It makes him want to sob, he doesn't though. interrupting the paint is a large window, or what he assumes is a window. All it looks like from this side is a mirror. 

He waits staring at the mirror, inspecting his own face. His room doesn't have one, he's seen his reflection in other things, but he hasn't seen himself this clearly in awhile. 

His hair is short, they give all the boys buzz cuts upon arrival, he's been here a while so it's not shaven, but still shorter than he'd prefer.

When the doctor walks back in, Tommy has to suppress a flinch. “Okay Thomas, today we'll be doing micro-injections of this-” he holds out a vial of dark blue liquid, it sparkles with light specks making it look like the night sky. it swirls and wiggles in the glass, as if alive. 

Tommy feels a dread deep inside him.. more than he should. it's wrong he isn't supposed to feel that. He didn't feel that. Not like this. He knows something, why does he know something?

Everything escapes him; he can't reach whatever he had thought of.

The doctor instructs him to sit down on the chair, it's one of the ones he'd sit in at the dentists. Once sat he secures Tommy's arms to the arm rests. Now unable to move, Tommy immediately feels claustrophobic. 

The doctor turns away and picks something up from a countertop before turning back to Tommy with a needle, the needle is filled with a tiny amount of the dark liquid. 

“I will be injecting this into your veins, it's entirely safe, it might hurt, but you'll be okay.” The doctor attempts to calm him, Tommy does not feel comforted.

He places a stool down and rolls a trolley next to Tommy, on it Tommy sees many scary tools. He places the needle down onto a trolley and picks up an alcohol pad. Tommy cringes as the cold cloth is wiped across his arm.

“Relax your body. This will be harder if you're tense.” the doctor advises. Tommy attempts to relax, but its sorta hard when you're fucking strapped to a chair.

The doctor leans in with the needle and gently pushes it into Tommy's skin, it's only a slight pinch, that is until the doctor pushes the plunger down. The liquid is flooded into his veins, it's cold. He feels the cold in his veins, it's so cold.

The doctor quickly pulls the needle out and backs away, Tommy barely notices. He watches his arm in horror and pain as previously unnoticeable veins in his arm start glowing a dim blue. Tears well up in his eyes. 

It hurts, it really hurts. it feels like it's burning the inside of his veins. He digs his nails into his palm with nothing more to do than sit there and endure the pain.

He watches as the blue dissipates, his veins quickly returning to normal. But he still feels so cold. 

“How much pain are you experiencing?” The doctor asks cruelly, holding a clipboard and pen ready to document anything Tommy says. 

Tommy stays quiet for a second before responding. “A lot. I'm cold. I feel it.” 

The doctor writes something down. “Okay one more then we'll be done for the day.” Tommy doesn't feel relieved.

The man picks up another needle, this one is also a disturbing black but with brighter blue swirling in it. It's like water and oil they refuse to mix but somehow are spinning inside the container.

The process is repeated. This one was just as cold. Blood seeps from his lips where his teeth dug in. But he's okay, it's not that bad.

Until, “How much pain are you experiencing?” Tommy cant process the doctor's words as the sound of his voice somehow irritates his iced veins, they flare up in pain with each syllable the man speaks. 

Tommy shakes his head, too scared to speak himself.

“No? No, what?” 

Tommy whispers intelligible pleas begging the man to shut the hell up. 

As the new liquid makes its way through his veins each flare of pain starts to hurt less, but it hurts less through his entire body. He feels the pain spike in his heart as the doctor speaks.

“I don't understand you Thomas.”

“Stop.” Tommy demands, he holds back a sob as he speaks. “Please talking makes it hurt.” How long will this keep hurting? Will he have to live in silence forever?

The doctor hums an acknowledgement quietly. He walks towards the counter and begins to do something. Tommy feels every step, every page flipped, every swipe of a pen, in his veins. 

The thrumming of his own heart hurts as the sound ripples through his body. 

The thrumming of his own heart hurts as his head pounds in rhythm, not his veins, his veins don't hurt.

His veins don't hurt, just his stitches, he has stitches? He has stitches.

Tommy sits up to find himself on the sofa of his apartment. He's in his apartment. His veins don't hurt. Sound doesn't hurt.

He flinches hard as he hears a tapping sound at the window. It hurts his head with how fast he looks towards noise, however there is no threat, instead a familiar white crow sits on the slim windowsill. 

He shakes his hands in a comforting motion attempting to both get all the energy out of his body, and wake himself up.

Tommy slowly stands up from his spot on the sofa (he sleeps on this shitty sofa far too often.) And stretches wide, but upon stretching he gets lightheaded and his vision blacks out. He collapses back onto the sofa so as to not pass out.

As he's laying back down the whole dream rushes back into his mind, he hadn't forgotten it, however he hadn't processed it. Now he is, now he can't avoid the truth.

He frowns at the unnatural hue the veins on his wrist take. How has this happened? At the School he never coughed up any blue, and he hasn't had any blue veins in years! Why the hell is this happening now?

When he had originally attempted to call Paean, the thought was in his mind, he had a pit in his stomach looking at the blue mucus. But with Paean saying they knew what it was.. Tommy had tried to convince himself it wasn't the blue he thought it was. 

But now with the tinted veins and unusual dream Tommy confronts the fact that maybe this is a problem. 

Noise doesn't hurt though, it hurts his head, sure. But that's just a headache. He isn't cold either, he's okay.

He hasn't coughed up anything in a week, its been three since he called Paean. He hasn't done any vigilante work, both in part to his injuries and the fact that last time he did Speedrunner tried to murder him.

But now his leg bounces up and down from the nervous energy humming under his skin. He grabs his bag from his room and his earpiece from Tubbo’s and practically runs out of the apartment towards the church. 

He's had nothing to do for the last three weeks, he's had to “lay low,” and “let his stitches heal.” What does that even mean? Laying low is for pussies, obviously.

Tommy's watched every movie Tubbo has ever pirated and read every article on Supervillains and Heroes he could find. He is bored.

So when he does make it to his church he throws on his suit quickly and happily makes his way into Manburg. With no Tubbo he'll have to be more careful but it's far from his first time going out alone.

He quickly finds some man trying to break into someone's car, he holds a lockpick up to the lock. The way the man is constantly looking around and is fumbling with the tools, gives Tommy the impression he isn't very confident.

As much as Tommy wants to throw some punches, he gives the guy some mercy and decides to warn him before.

Tommy sneaks out from the alley he was watching from and announces his presence with, “so.. Is this your car…? Or…” 

The man jumps and drops his pick, he stutters something before backing away with his hands up. “I was just trying to get some extra cash, I'm sorry-” 

Tommy steps forwards to scare the man off, but doesn't bother chasing him when he runs.

Watching the man fearfully run away, Tommy feels almost defeated. Just trying to get some extra cash. Tommy doubts this was the man's only option for cash. He picks of the lockpick the man dropped, it seems high quality. 

The man should've chosen to steal from the rich, not someone else just trying to survive.

not everyone has that privilege, he argues with himself. Not everyone can catch a bus to Kinoko, or run away from a car alarm, or last another night without dinner.

Tommy heaves a sigh and decides to change his plans. He shouldn't be out here. He could rip his almost healed stitches. He just wanted to do something, to make his anxiety fade.

He heads back to the apartment, but instead of going inside he climbs up the building and sits on the roof.

He sits on the edge with his feet dangling off. It's gotten so cold, winter is arriving and soon there'll be snow on the streets. A cold breeze bites at his skin. part of him loves it, makes him feel more awake, alive.

The familiar sight of the city he's lived in all his life both comforts him and reminds him of the harsh reality of their ever crumbling government.

He wants to make a difference now, to steal from the rich and give to the poor, to kill another mayor, fight a police officer, anything. But how can he with Speedrunner apparently after him? Speed, who's widely considered to be the most skilled hero.

He wonders just how long it'll take before he's plastered on every news station and article. How long until it's every hero after him?

Since the ‘unfortunate’ murder of Schlatt the other mayors have stepped back, Mayor of Kinoko, Madelyn Morel, hasn't been seen in weeks. Kyle Haycheque the mayor of Las Nevadas has noticeably upped security. Tommy wonders if he'll be able to eliminate them, or if he even needs to? 

His thoughts are rudely interrupted by an odd vwoop from directly behind him. Tommy instinctively morphs wings onto his back, and jumps to his feet away from the edge. 

He is surprised to see Nyx standing there, looking a bit nervous. They wave silently.

This guy is creepy.

“Uh, hi. Nyx is it? What.. brings you here?” 

“You.” they respond.

“Flattering, really. Doesn't really explain it though.”

“Sorry, yea, you're right. Erebus asked me to check on you.” Nyx says with a nervous chuckle.

“I don't need checking on.” Tommy says, sitting back down. Nyx sits beside him.

“Is your stab wound healing okay?” Nyx asks while fidgeting with the small demon tail that Tommy hadn't noticed is attached to their pants.

“Well I wouldn't call it a stab wound, it's more like a slash wound.”

“Okay then, how is your slash wound healing?” 

“It's okay, doesn't even hurt anymore.” Tommy says with a shrug.

They hum an acknowledgement. “What's your power?” Tommy asks Nyx.

“Oh, uh, teleportation.”

“What!? Really?! That's sick!” Tommy exclaims.

They respond by disappearing entirely. Tommy jolts back caught off guard. He looks around rapidly for Nyx but can't find them, until they appear back in front of him again. 

“That's mental! How far can you teleport? How often? What are your limits?” Tommy springs the questions on to Nyx as they sit back down.

“I have a figurative battery. The further I teleport the more battery is taken, and the more stuff I teleport the more battery it takes. If I use all of my battery and continue using my power it starts draining me.” They recite, they've seemingly explained their power in a similar format many times.

“You can teleport other stuff!?” Tommy asks.

“Yea, otherwise I wouldn't be wearing clothes..”

Tommy laughs loudly “alright then, suppose that makes sense.” 

“Can you teleport other people?” Tommy prods.

“I think I can, but haven't tried. I'm scared that it'll hurt them.” They admit as if sharing a sensitive secret.

“Well I suppose that's a reasonable fear. It doesn't hurt you, right?” 

They shake their head “only if I do it too much.”

“Well I'd guess it doesn't hurt others then. ‘You'd like to test it? I'll volunteer.”

Nyx promptly looks horrified at the offer. “No! I'd rather test it with Paean nearby..”

“Alright, suit yourself. Smart decision I am currently injured.” 

Nyx's comms beeps quietly, they grab it from their belt and type out a few words. “I apologize Hyperion, I have to go now.” they say with a frown present in their voice.

“Oh, uh, bye then.” Tommy waves as they once again disappear, leaving Tommy alone again. 

Chapter Text

Phil paces around his office, his son and Hyperion have similar symptoms, if not the same symptoms. They had seemed fine while in the meeting room. Wilbur never felt ill while in it, they've tested.

Hyperion did not seem ill either, only ill once he left. It's obvious leaving the area is when they become sick, but why? And why only them two

Techno speaks up, he lays tiredly on the old couch crammed into the corner of Phil's office. “What do they have in common?” He asks, somehow following Phil's thoughts.

Phil starts listing all he can think of, “Male, young, type B power,” the list ends quickly, he knows nearly nothing of Hyperion aside from his murderous tendency.

“Does he count as type B?” Techno asks, monotone, but Phil knows that he's genuinely interested.

Phil hums “I don't know, he certainly has a type B power. But his second power..” he trails off. Power types were only ever used in the context of heroes and villains, it's rare to hear a civilian use the terms.

There's five types: type A, a power that doesn't affect any human, now this does not mean it is harmless, Jack's power is type A, it can affect people, but does not inherently.

Type B, can only affect themselves. Hyperion's shapeshifting, Speedrunner's speed, Wilbur's intangibility. Hyperion's morphs might be able to harm others, but once again, his power doesn't exist to be used on others.

Type C, can only affect others. Techno's tracking, Interpreter’s lie detection, Alien's light control.

Type D, can affect all. Not many fall into this category, but the heroes Roseheart and Bloom with their powers do. Being able to heal and give resistance respectively.

“he's all of the above” Techno jokes with a snort.

Phil shrugs in some kind of agreement.

–

In a few minutes Wilbur has to debate with Quackity, he isn't particularly excited. Quackity has been a politician for years, he's done this before. Wilbur is entirely new, he has gained traction in his campaign, enough to debate against Quackity!

He's in a dressing room of sorts behind the stage. A young woman carefully applies powder to his face, Wilbur is unsure what its purpose is but trusts her to do her job.

Ranboo peaks around a corner and holds up three fingers then a thumbs up before disappearing again. Three minutes. Wilbur thanks the prep woman, dismissing her, before standing up to get a drink. He grabs his coffee, the warm liquid calms his nerves and warms his throat. despite it being terribly cold out, his suit feels suffocating.

He blinks in confusion looking down at his left hand, the tips of his fingers are ever so slightly ghostly, he can see his shoes through his fingers. He hadn't done that on purpose. He shakes his hand with a panicked confusion, his hand quickly turns opaque again.

A crew member suddenly ushers Wilbur to an entrance and tells him to wait for his que. From here Wilbur can see the stage and a sliver of the audience. Most political debates or speeches are given in public, in front of a crowd. It's a tradition now.

A man stands in the middle of the stage introducing the debate and the candidates. Wilbur doesn't recognize him, he's unremarkable, he wears a black suit with a green tie, has short brown hair, pale skin, and glasses.

A large crowd continues to gather in the surrounding park, nearest to the stage are reporters with microphones and camera crews all eagerly waiting.

“deputy mayor, former head council member, and incredibly charming man, Quackity Fortune.” The man announces with a grin. Quackity walks on stage to cheers from the crowd, he waves to everyone and gives a firm handshake to the announcer.

“Now, a man who's new to the scene, but is quickly stealing the hearts of Manburg, Wilbur Watson!” Wilbur swallows any remaining nervousness and confidently walks onto the stage wearing the best smile he can manage. The crowd cheers for him just as they had for Quackity.

The announcer passes Wilbur with a friendly pat on the shoulder before exiting the stage from where Wilbur had just entered. Wilbur and Quackity meet in the middle of the stage. Wilbur extends his hand for a handshake, but Quackity chooses to pull him into a hug as if they're old friends, the crowd erupts in laughter as Wilbur awkwardly returns it.

“Be careful man, watch your back. I've heard whispers.” Quackity whispers, Wilbur doesn't get time to process what he's said before he's pulling away wearing a shit eating grin.

He walks back to his podium, “I apologize Watson, handshakes are just so stale!” Wilbur chuckles performatively, waving it off as he walks to his podium, however each step feels impossibly heavy. All the preparation he didn't to not feel nervous has been washed down the drain.

Maybe that's all it was, Quackity was trying to catch him off guard, make him nervous. He attempts to ignore the pit in his gut.

The same announcer is now in the crowd leaning in towards reporters writing words down rapidly as they supply questions. He turns around dramatically to face the stage.

“I will ask one of you a question, you answer it quickly and concisely.” He states, they both nod.

The man rapid fires questions at both candidates and they both seem to be doing pretty well. Wilbur starts to feel more confident as they go on, getting into the rhythm.

“Watson, per Burg journal, how will you run the city if you've never had any experience?”

Wilbur thinks for a moment, “I have experience, just not in the traditional sense-” his sentence is cut off by a high pitched squeal, panic fills him as he searches for the cause, he figures it out pretty quickly.

—

Tommy has mostly healed by now. Paean had insisted Tommy come see them, Tommy didn't want to, he can't explain why but that place gives him the fucking creeps, he knows he'll have to go back soon for other Syndicate shit, but he had begged for Paean to just teach him how to take out his own stitches. He did so successfully and everything has been smooth sailing.

That's why Tubbo finally told him he could go back out as Hyperion, he had even given Tommy a high risk job! Slime, Tubbo's info guy, had told him that there's a hit out on one of the mayoral candidates, planned to happen at the mayoral debate in Manburg's Prime Park. Although neither of them are too fond of politicians, technically none of the mayoral candidates have done anything horrid, so Tommy decided he'd be there.

All this leads to now, Tommy is sitting uncomfortably high up in a tree, skin morphed an uncomfortable green, as he watches two old fucks ‘debate’, its hardly debating! They’re just talking.

The white crow seemingly followed him, he should bring that up to Tubbo. Hopefully not a bird spy. it could blow his cover though. The crow sits politely on the sidewalk, watching the chaos curiously.

Tommy scans the crowd for anything suspicious.

A man in the crowd is straying towards the back, he's wearing sunglasses and his hood is up. He keeps his hand on his backpack tightly. He's pacing, stressed. But he eventually walks away, into the Manburg sidewalks.

A woman with stiff posture keeps her clunky purse close, she keeps looking around her and jumps when someone taps her on the shoulder. But she instantly calms upon seeing the person, she jumps into their arms and drops her purse.

Then, a man in a fucking bush. Tommy instantly knows this is the guy. He's deep in a huge hedge, he wears a green outfit effectively camouflaging him. Tommy's stomach drops when he sees the man holds a gun.

“Target spotted, they are armed with a firearm.” Tommy whispers seriously to Tubbo.

“What? Actually? What are you going to do?”

Tommy doesn't respond, he doesn't know, he'll make it up along the way.

Tommy starts to climb down his tree as quietly as he can manage, somehow, he does so without anyone seeing.

He pulls his cloak- the one Ares gifted him- tight around himself. He wants to get behind the bush, and man. he decides to take an indirect route to the bush and go the long way around to avoid being spotted. He sneaks up behind, he's about three meters away. He reaches into his pocket with a grin. Tubbo had got him a perfect distraction device that he had quickly hidden around the park before the debate started.

He clicks a tiny button on a remote in his pocket, following the small click! a high screech echoes across the park before the loud Boom! of fireworks. Not all that impressive in the broad daylight, but an ample distraction. The crowd yells and gasps, the politicians look around in confusion.

He allows wings to spring from his back and prepares for the next fireworks. As the boom rings out Tommy dashes forwards, but so does the bush man, he has sprung from the bush to run at the same moment. Tommy angles his shoulder hitting him at full speed and tackling the man to the ground. The gun is firmly planted under the man's back along with his broken arm, ouch. Tommy quickly reaches under, yanks the gun from his grasp, the man groans in pain as his injuries arm is jostled. Tommy stuffs the pistol in his cloak.

“You don't have to rat me out man, we can both walk away from this.” The man bargains, as if Tommy's knee isn't inches away from his throat. He doesn't buy the confidence.

Tommy carefully rises, keeping one foot on the man's chest. A woman gasps loudly as she sees what's happening, that starts a quick chain reaction, gasps and shouts ripple throughout the crowd. No one makes any moves to stop him.

Watson’s strangled gasp rings out from the speakers. A few police officers start slowly moving in on Tommy. As heroic and pog as Tommy feels right now, he takes Tubbo's advice as soon as he hears it, “Hyperion, get out of there.”

He waves politely before putting every ounce of power into flying the fuck out of there. He grins slightly as he feels the crack of the assassin's ribs under his feet.

—-

“You need to be careful!” Tithonus half shouts over the comms.

Tommy had escaped, no sweat. But Tith seems to think otherwise.

“I was quite careful” Tommy reminds “I am here, not a scratch on me.” he swings open the door to his church

Ares speaks up “its not just you that's in danger, kid. You're apart of the Syndicate now, you protecting mayoral candidates… it says things about us, and them.”

A small guilt rises in Tommy's stomach. “It's fine, no one even knows I'm in the Syndicate. Anyways, i didn't do it for Watson or Quackity, i did it to save a life.” he sits down on one of the old pews.

“They don't know that!” Tithonus reminds.

“Sorry I didn't know I had to care about my image.” Tommy snarks back.

“What do you think being a villain is? Our ‘image’ is half the work! If people think you're deadly they won't bother messing with you, if people think you're kind they'll try to fuck you over.” Ares scolds.

Tommy scoffs, he has the strong urge to ‘whatever’ Ares but that felt too teenage. “I'm sorry, i saved a life. If that's a problem we have problems.” he says bitterly.

“Its not that you saved a life Hyperion, it's that you risked your own-”

“Oh yea! I'll start practicing villainy safely, thanks for the tip!” Tommy really doesn't get what their problem is, he saved someone. End of story.

“You didn't let me finish. We had it under control. We had a plan already. You risked exposing us and killing yourself. If you contacted us before doing that, you wouldn't have risked anything.” Ares explains, attempting to stay calm.

Understanding hits Tommy square in the face, this isn't about him saving someone, it's about him not checking with them on his plans. Why didn't they start with this shit? He takes a deep breath, “Okay men, I'll report all substantial actions that I take, or plan to take, to you lads.” he says diplomatically, honestly just trying to get this over with.

The call cuts suddenly and Tommy is left in silence, he shrugs his shoulders and continues with his routine. He changes out of his villain outfit, and goes to put his staff away but decides it’s been a bit since he sharpened it. He sits back on the pews and starts dragging the blade across the wet stone. The pew in front of him still has a hymnbook, it's falling apart, but there.

Prime isn't commonly practiced anymore, but most adults know of the religion, maybe even unknowingly subscribe to beliefs that originated in Prime. Like the belief that everyone is born with every power, just not the tools to use them and the theory that powers (and pointed ears) came from angels called Maodds or Gifters.

Tommy doesn't necessarily believe in Prime, but the religion is near to his heart, he thinks it's incredibly interesting at the least.

Silently he prays to them often, it's a habit more than a belief or faith in anything.

After testing the blade he deemed it sharp enough and folds it up to store.

—--

Admitly Phil and Techno had been tough on the boy, Phil is stressed to say the least.

They had already been at the debate, Techno and him, they were watching, waiting, for anything to happen. One of them have been at every one of Wilbur's public events, just in case. fireworks going off wasn’t comforting.

Hyperion had brought a lot of attention to himself, he could already see the conspiracies forming. “The Syndicate protecting a politician!” But really it wasn't Hyperion's fault, Phil was already stressed. Wilbur had told Phil that his entire hand had dissipated without him meaning for it to. He had gotten out of there ghostly hand unnoticed, but it's still extremely concerning. If he isn't able to control his power he cannot go out in public, much less be a politician.

Ponk had checked Wilbur out as soon as they could. He seemed okay physically, Ponk couldn't diagnose anything wrong with Wilbur, His power had just malfunctioned.

After testing his power for a bit they found nothing wrong, but rather Wilbur was able to ghost much faster than before, before it took him maybe one or two seconds, now, he can turn fully intangible instantly. This is a huge difference in certain situations, but none of that matters if there's a chance that he might randomly lose control of his power.

Wilbur looks up at Phil from his spot on Phil's couch, “do you think.. this is related to the blue?” He asks hesitantly. Phil had thought of this already of course. It's complicated either way, if it's not connected his son has two unrelated and concerning symptoms. If they are related he has a dangerous illness that- “Hyperion could be exhibiting the same symptoms.” Phil finishes his thought out loud.

Wilbur's eyes widen, he looks down at Techno opening his mouth to ask something. “he hasn't coughed up anymore blue, he's probably doin’ fine.” Techno interrupts Wil, looking up from his book. He's been doing research, looking for dangerous vines matching the one's under their base.

Phil hums in agreement, but decides to be safe. He grabs his communicator from his coat pocket and quickly texts Hyperion, just to be sure.

Techno closes his book and gets up from his place on the floor.

“I heard there's some civilian black market happening tomorrow,” Wilbur mentions to Techno, not caring much for input, just filling the silence while Technoblade searches for a new book on Phil's limited bookcase.

“King said it'll be running all night between Las Nevadas and Manburg. They'll be selling the most boring illegal shit, like food.” Wilbur continues.

Techno leaves the room without any explanation or goodbye, Wilbur scrambles from his seat to follow but Techno stops him, “goin’ to the meeting room, you stay here.” He gives a pointed look. Wilbur has been banned from entering the meeting room or even going near it, this isn't a problem for him really, he had always been unsettled by the room.

When they first built it he had suggested some different design choices, but Techno and Phil were pretty set on the current ones. Sam and Ponk had tested the vines in the room when they built it, however all the results came back clean, nothing tested as toxic or harmful. They aren't sure why Wilbur and Hyperion seem to be having adverse effects.

Wilbur sighs as he pulls out his laptop and starts typing something, Techno leaves to go find his books.

“We should interview Hyperion-” Phil starts, Wilbur looks up at him in confusion, “Dad, we've done that already, like five times.” Phil rolls his eyes, “-yes, but, we need to find out what you two have in common.”

Wilbur shrugs “it could be anything, it would take forever. It could be a food we both ate, or a shampoo we use.”

Phil doesn't respond, instead he messages Hyperion asking him when he's available to come by the base. Only a few moments later he gets a response, to both messages.

“My powers r ok
Im available whenever
Well not tmr night”

“Can you swing by tonight?” Phil asks.

“See u in 30 o7” Tommy confirms.

“He'll be here in thirty minutes” Phil claps, scaring Wilbur slightly. Wilbur sighs but rises from the couch “okay, I'm gonna go shower.” He says tiredly.

“Use the closer shower.” Phil reminds. opening a drawer in his desk he grabs a large notebook.

“But that one sucks ass!” Wilbur complains but leaves in the direction of it anyways.

Phil opens the notebook, inside are logs of everyone in the Syndicate, Wil calls him creepy for it, Techno says it's useful. Its written in a code, he really didn't want it being found and the details of his friends be leaked, so he uses a made up language only he knows, its hardly a new language, being just hidden English, but hopefully it's enough to deter decoding.

He flips to Hyperion's section, its plain, not detailed. But it scans it for question idea's, he doesn't know where to begin on questioning Hyperion. He grabs another sheet of paper to start scribbling questions on, eventually Techno joins him on the brain storming until they have a whole list of questions.

Eventually Hyperion messages Phil that he's arrived. Phil grabs his mask and meets him at the entrance and leads him to his office while explaining everything. “-its best if you stay far from the meeting room, or you might progress and get the same symptoms as Erebus. I wonder what your malfunctions would look like..” Phil rambles a bit. Hyperion seems a bit spooked but mostly unconcerned.

“Okay where do I even start,” Phil hums, inspecting the list they put together, Hyperion tentatively sits across from Phil at his desk.

Techno joins them, he wears a casual outfit now, just some sweat pants and a hoodie, but has kept his mask on.

“What detergent do you use?” Phil tilts his head at Hyperion.

Hyperion looks at Phil incredulously, “thats your first question? could that really do anything? Real dumbass question” Phil just raises an eyebrow.

“I don't know!” Hyperion exclaims.

“Do you enjoy any unusual foods? Have any pets? Any siblings?” Hyperion drags a hand dramatically- and awkwardly due to the mask- down his face, “there's no way any of this is relevant” he groans. “I eat very normal food, pasta and chicken and shit. No pets, unless the spiders in my cupboard count, no siblings.”

Phil makes a disgusted face, his wings twitch slightly, he can't stomach chicken. “Has the spider ever bit you?”

“What? No. She's very kind, you know. She'd never.” He frowns at Phil.

“Okay okay, let me see… Do you take any prescriptions?” Phil asks, satisfied with the question.

Hyperion shakes his head, but stops mid shake. “I don't..” he starts.

“But?” Phil questions, waiting for him to finish his thought.

“Well I had the ones Paean gave me, finished those a few days back though.” Tommy supplies, fidgeting with his sleeves.

“Any other meds?” Techno presses.

“I used to, uh, take an experimental drug for a power related injury?” He admits, seemingly confused about what he was saying.

“Erebus took part in an experimental drug trial once.” Techno declares suddenly.

“do you know what drug he took?” Phil asks Techno, he shakes his head no but pulls out his phone.

“Hyperion, mate, what drug was it?” Phil asks seriously.

He cringes at Phil, “I dunno..” he shrugs.

“You don't know?” Techno looks at him like he's stupid.

“It was blue, blue and glowing, exactly like the shit in the meeting room.” Hyperion blurts out.