That Night. . .

    Tubbo watched Fox from a roof, his wings buzzing to life as he thought. Fox, he was a weird vigilante to talk to, at least in his opinion. Tubbo sighed, looking around before jumping off the roof and throwing his bee wings open to fly. He rose up into the air and quickly began to chase after the vigilante, who didn’t take long to notice him following. Fox stopped, fox-like ears perked as he faced him, tail swishing side to side as he heaved for breath from his running. “Bumble?” Tubbo landed, folding his wings against his body once again. 

Fox was interesting, an orange and black-themed vigilante who seemed to just wander and attack from out of nowhere. Fox had an orange metal mask covering his nose and mouth, his black shirt under an orange leather jacket, pants that Tubbo could only describe as puffy with little shape covering the vigilante’s legs, and orange and black military boots covering his feet. He had weapons on his back, a katana and short sword strapped to his back, and other gadgets that where more meant for hacking than fighting lined his waist, making even Tubbo impressed. Getting his mind back on the task he looked towards the other vigilante, ready to begin the task at hand. 

    “Hey, mind if I tag along?” He had a mission, but he and Fox had never properly had a conversation- or a mission together. It would be weird if he just asked him out of nowhere if he wanted to join a highly dangerous mission that he might not come back alive from. Fox looked at him, his orange eyes skeptically looking at Tubbo. 

    “If you want to.” Fox said, looking back towards the area he was heading. “I’m trying to find a rising drug ring.” He explained. “I’m hoping I can shut it down before the ring gets too big.” Tubbo nodded, letting his wings carry him back off of the ground. 

    “Well, lead the way. It seems like this is important, so I’ll help as much as I can.” Fox looked unsure, his left ear flicking as his eyes thought. Tubbo only smiled, hoping that Fox would just carry on the mission so he could tag along. It would be the best way of getting Fox to agree to helping since the vigilante never really worked with other vigilantes and therefore probably had trust issues. It didn’t take long for Fox to once again start jumping the roofs of the building, this time with the bee hybrid not that far behind him. It was awkward though, the two not even looking at one another as they tried to get to the location. "So, how has your night been?" It was an attempt to make things less awkward. 

"Well, not much since it just began for me. But so far it's not bad, it'll be even better once I stop this drug ring." Tubbo chuckles, eyes looking towards the fox to see the other smirking himself. “What about you?” 

“Not bad, I stopped some lousy robbers and then found you.”

“Are you and your friends in some type of fight right now?” That got Tubbo to whip his head towards the other vigilante, a look of offense on his face. 

“Me and my team don’t fight.” He paused. “Well- at least we don’t let it affect our job at least. But no, I and my team are not in any kind of fight right now.” Fox looked over towards them. 

“Then where are they?” The vigilante asked. Tubbo looked over towards The other, wondering if the other was serious. 

“They’re off patrolling.” He answered simply, watching at the other's eyes turned skeptical in the process. “We sometimes split off to cover more ground, if I ever need them they’re usually never that far away.” 

“How would they know you need help?” Fox asked, stopping at the edge of another building. He looked down at the streets below, tail flicking as he watched. Tubbo landed next to the other vigilante, himself looking over the edge with less care. 

“I made us a button on our costumes that if pressed, will let the other two know and give them coordinates to the pinged coordinates.” Fox looks over, eyes sparkling in interest. 

“That’s…. Interesting… I’m guessing you’re the mechanic in the group?” Tubbo smiles, at least he was somewhat getting the other to warm up to him. 

“Yeah, I am. I handle all the machines, weapon maintenance, and also know how to infiltrate electronics.” Tubbo says, proud of himself. Fox huffs a laugh. 

“You can just say you’re a hacker.” 

“Fine, I’m a hacker.” Tubbo grumbles out. After a few minutes of silence, finally Fox began to speak once again. He pointed at a four-story building that looked run down, with many planks covering the windows and doors, and the ones that were open looked smashed. Tubbo took the scene in before looking towards the vigilante. 

“That’s where the action happens, at least from what my sources tell me.” His voice was serious, his arm falling to his side as he stands up. “If we do this right, we can corner them and take them out easily.” He states, ears flicking back as he looks towards Tubbo. “They should be in the basement. There is a window in the back that leads to it, and I can take the stairs and block off that exit too. All you need to do is push them to me and then we can take them out together.” He pauses, eyes flickering back to the abandoned building. Tubbo’s unsure about this plan, green eyes flickering towards the building and then to the button on his hip. 

“Maybe we should call for backup, there's only two of us. We don’t know how many we’ll be facing, do we?” Fox looks towards him, a dark glimmer in his orange eyes. 

“You want to call your friends in?” A long pause. “They’re low rankers, trying to make it big on selling drugs. They’ll be easy to take out.” Tubbo sighs, finally giving in with a quick nod of agreement. 

“Fine, let's get this over with then.” 

“That’s the spirit!” Fox jumps off of the building, grabbing onto the building to slide down slowly. Tubbo unflared his wings, letting himself flutter down onto the street below. As the vigilante looks at the building, he can’t help the unsettling feeling from filling him. Something seemed off, yet he couldn’t place it. Fox planted a hand on his shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze before walking past the bee hybrid. “Let’s get to it then!” Tubbo sighed, following behind the other. 

-^-^-

Breaking in through the back was much easier than he thought it would be, as it wasn’t even locked. His slim body fell feet first onto the cement ground with ease, green eyes taking in the dimly light area around him. It was a closed-off room, a small one at that. He looked back to the window, wings buzzing as if ready to haul him back up to escape. Yes, there was definitely something off about this situation. He made his way to the door, opening it as silently as the bee hybrid could manage. The last thing he needed was to alert whoever was down here that he had entered their domain. He gulped, eyes taking in the darkness around him as he slowly stepped out of the room. 

Tubbo noted how the basement looked just as abandoned as the rest of the building looked, only making the suspicion grow in the vigilante. He walked forwards even with this in mind, even if the situation looked very dangerous. The basement was weird, with hallways filling it along with many different rooms. It only made Tubbo’s stomach sink more with caution. It wasn’t long until he hear movement within the building, ducking back behind a wall as they footsteps grew closer. He stilled his breath, not daring to poke his head out in an attempt to see who was prowling the basement. “Did you hear something?” That voice was familiar, low in tone yet still smooth, still casual yet alert at the same time. 

“Calm down Ram, it's probably some rats or something.” That voice, Tubbo knew. It was Hero Captians, goosebumps quickly climbed their way up the teen's skin. Captain was someone that his team tried very hard to not run into when patrolling. She was a beast in battle, most villains that were captured she had some part to play in that outcome. Ram, the name sounds familiar to the vigilante, the teen trying to dig for who that could be. Tubbo didn’t know any hero named ‘Ram’, at least that he knew of. 

“Maybe.” A long pause filled the room after that single word as if neither dared to talk afterwards. Tubbo almost believed that they had left, until someone decided to break the silence.  

“It’s important you don’t go off and act out again though, Ram.” The more feminine voice began. “They’re beginning to catch on, and it’s only a matter of time before they figure out I’m connected to you in some way.” It began to click in Tubbo’s head. Ram, a villain that had recently come to light from the depths of the dark. He was a slowly rising force, somehow already having ties with many other villains, and apparently heroes too. Not much was known about him, other than he was a potential threat that not only heroes would be going after, but also vigilantes as well. Tubbo broke out of his thoughts as Ram began to respond to the other. 

“So what? I’m no longer allowed to do anything?-” 

“That’s not what I meant, Ram, and you know it.” A long silence once again filled the area, a tired sigh leaving the hero. “It’s not easy tracking someone that is not alive in the system anymore down, Ram. It’s not going to be easy, and you making scenes like you did at that bank a few days ago did not help you.” An irritated huff left the villain, footsteps following as if he was walking away from the other. 

“I don’t understand why you didn’t grab him, why’d you leave him like that?” Another pair of footsteps entered the echoing hallways. 

“Ram, I had my own kid to worry about and was a new hero at the time- and I was on some watch list when I joined, Ram. I had my own responsibilities at the time. I didn’t even know where they put the kid, or really what the poor kid looked like in the first place when finally I did go looking for him.” A shaky sigh filled the air. “I thought you were dead myself for a while, you know? You fell off the earth after you and… her, had that fallout.”  

“I’m sorry, Captain. But I had to disappear for a while.” It took longer than Tubbo thought it would for Captian to answer, a simple answer at that.

“I know.” With that the footsteps started up again before disappearing, the two were leaving the area and making Tubbo feel less anxious about his situation. This was an obvious trap, and he wondered who had told Fox about this place. Quickly Tubbo began to walk again, determined to find the way out and hopefully Fox as well. As if the gods above heard his thoughts, he ran into another figure. He backed up first, prepared to fight if necessary before the bee hybrid realized who it was staring back at him. With a relieved sigh he let up his fighting position, grabbed hold of Fox’s wrist, and quickly started making his way away from the villain and hero’s original location. The last thing they needed was to run into those two and end up fighting them, especially since so little is known about one of their powers and the other was a tank that could easily take them out. 

“Wha- What are you doing?” A hissed-out whisper growled, Fox ripping his wrist out of Tubbo’s hand. Tubbo turned around, wings buzzing in irritation. 

“Hero Captian and villain Ram are here right now, I’d like to get out of here before they find us.” Tubbo explained, once again turning around to find a way out of the building. 

“What? Why the hell would Captian be with a villain?” That made Tubbo once again pause, looking around and shrugging at the question. 

“Who the hell cares? The important thing is, is that she is and we need to leave now.” The last bit came out more hissy and demanding than he would like, but he needed to make it very clear to the other it was important they left while they still could. Fox looked back towards the halls, an almost curious look falling over his face. Tubbo understood exactly what the other vigilante was thinking right away. “I know, I want to know what the hell is going on too. But right now I think it would be best we got out of here before we run into them.” Fox let a defeated sigh leave his lips, shoulders slumping over before he nodded his head in agreement. 

“Yeah… Yeah, you’re right.” 

“Let’s go.” Tubbo whispered as he turned around again, quickly freezing when he hears a yell from behind him. 

“HEY! WHO ARE YOU?” Tubbo whipped around once again, meeting Ram’s goat skull mask in the process. His fists were balled, his stance radiating power as he stared at the two vigilantes. 

“Shit.” Tubbo quickly pressed the button on his waist, hoping that Tommy and Ranboo would appear out of nowhere like they seemed to do and save them. “R-Ram… Nice bumping into you!” Tubbo laughed, walking in front of Fox with his hands up as if he was trying to keep a feral dog from attacking. “So sorry to just break into… your lair? But uh, we’re leaving now! And w-we’ll never come back, ok?” 

“Oh, you can’t leave now.” It was a hissed-out answer, making Tubbo jump at the sudden voice that left the villain's mouth. It screamed power and authority, and it terrified Tubbo to his core. “You know too much now, you have to die.” Tubbo backed up as Ram started walking forwards, reaching for the dart gun that sat in its holder on the villain's right leg. The gun held poison darts, a slow and painful death but not one many got to escape from. Tubbo and Fox would be fucked if one of those hit either one of them. Fox tensed up behind the bee hybrid, Tubbo’s wings buzzing once again as he tried to come up with a plan. 

“Y-you don't need to kill us though! We won't tell anyone, ok? We won't say a word!” The villain grew closer, his gun pointing towards the teen the whole time. 

“How long have you been here? How’d you even find this place?” 

“I-I-” The gun pressed against Tubbo’s head, making the vigilante shake from fear. He’s never been this close to death in a long time, a gaping hole in his stomach growing by the second at the very thought. He couldn’t die, at least not like this! He was meant for more than this, dieing at the hand of villain Ram in a dusty and dirty basement. He was supposed to change this city! He was supposed to save this city! How could he do that if he was six feet under? 

What about Tommy and Ranboo without him? What would they do without him? Rip each other apart probably. Fight a lot more without a middleman to calm the two down, probably. Get caught by the heroes on a mission, probably. Live on without him… probably. He could feel tears build at the edges of his eyes by the mere thought. This was not how he would go out! He had a family to get back to! 

With a quick motion, he kicked the gun out of the villain's hand, watching as the stunned Ram stumbled back holding onto his now injured hand. “GET THE HELL AWAY!” Tubbo yelled, once again entering a fighting position. His wings flared open, buzzing in anticipation as his opponent looked towards him. “I refuse to die here, damn it! Fight me like a real man asshole!” He wasn’t sure what came over him, but hot adrenaline flowed through him as he screamed at the villain. He could hear the other vigilante unsheath his katana, the end of the blade twinkling brightly in the edge of Tubbo’s vision. Ram looked at the two, an angry aro radiating off of him. 

“You’re gonna regret that…” With that he lunged forwards, a short sword being released from its sheath on the man's waist. Tubbo watched as Fox surged towards the villain, their weapons meeting in the middle before the vigilante pushed the other backwards once again, a slash coming right after hitting the armor on the villain's arm. Snapping out of his daze Tubbo pressed a green button that sat next to the red button, a clicking sound meeting his ears before a swarm of robotic wings buzzed through the basement. He pointed forwards towards Ram, who now was fighting with an orange-themed vigilante with vengeance. The little bots flew forwards, swarming the target as Fox dashed away from the scene. An angry yell escaped the gray and black mass, then a hissing sound that made the gaping hole in the bee hybrids stomach present once again. 

Little was known of Ram, whispers that even Tubbo heard all just theories on the strange man. Some said he had flame powers, able to turn them so deadly they’d turn an electric blue, others spoke of poison that dripped from claws of steel, some even spoke of the man being powerless, but as Tubbo stared forwards he knew the last one was very, very wrong. His heartbeat grew as he processed his bee bots being destroyed with little effort, angry red eyes looking towards him with murderous intent. “You just ceiled your tomb, you dumbfuck.” 

Oh fuck. 

With little thinking Tubbo bolted, watching as Fox followed suit. “WE’RE GONNA FUCKING DIE!” Tubbo let his wings carry him off the floor, zooming forwards in an attempt to not die. If one of them was going to die here tonight, it was not going to be him. A worp sound made Tubbo stop, looking behind himself and ignoring the fact the other vigilante ran into his back as Tommy and Tubbo met eyes. 

“Are you ok?!” Tommy rushed forwards, ears pressed back and tail puffier than Tubbo had ever seen it. Ranboo stood behind the raccoon, his head turned towards the other end of the hallway with an alarmed look. 

“Uh, guys?” At that all three looked towards where the enderman was, Tubbo screaming at the sight of Ram speeding down the halls with blue flickering off of his fingers. 

“OK TIME TO GO!” Tommy yelled out, grabbing onto Tubbo and Fox before slamming into Ranboo as be began to teleport away. It didn’t take long for them to teleport out of that situation, all four falling forwards onto the roof of a building. Tubbo sighed, slumping onto the ground as his adrenaline finally drained out of him. Tommy pushed him off, huffing as he stood up before looking towards the other two. “Is everyone good?” Fox stumbled up onto his feet, heavy breaths leaving him as he nodded his head with a thumbs up. 

“Ugh…. this is why I stick with just two people…” Ranboo groaned out as he stood, holding his now aching head in one of his hands. Tommy walked forwards, patting the ender hybrid on the shoulder before looking towards Tubbo. 

“I’m good… I just need a minute.” Tommy nodded, looking back towards Fox who looked like he was in a daze. 

“Fox?” The vigilante looked up, orange eyes meeting Tommy’s own. 

“Uh, thanks… for the save.” 

“No problem, I wouldn’t leave a fellow vigilante behind to die anyways.” Tommy calmly said, walking closer to the fox hybrid. “I’m guessing that’s not how that was supposed to go?” A laugh left Fox’s lips, his eyes crinkling together indicating he was smiling. 

“No, no it wasn’t. I thought it was… well I guess it doesn’t matter now, does it?” 

“Yeah, I guess not.” Ranboo growls out, letting himself sit down on the ground. 

“Well, I’m sorry that happened.” Fox nodded in acknowledgment. “But, there is a reason Bumble was hunting you down.” This perked the vigilante’s curiosity. 

“Yeah? I’d love to know the reason.” Tubbo felt his eyes flutter closed, his tired body deciding that the top of a roof was the perfect place for a nap. He’d have to learn if Fox agreed to help in the morning because he doubted he’d be waking up anytime soon.