(disclaimer: Aimsey appears in this chapter! Since they use all pronouns, their pronouns will vary throughout the book. Although, since it would be too confusing to read otherwise, in this chapter I will only use she/her. In the next chapter, their pronouns will change to he/him and I think you get the idea.)

Tommy was in the kitchen with Niki and Tubbo.

"So uh," Tommy started and sat down on the chair besides him. "what are we cooking?"

Tubbo shot him a glance and answered. "You tommy, are cooking nothing." he slightly gestured at the burnt toaster in the bin. "Me and Niki are baking a pie."

Niki nodded excitedly and turned around to face Tommy. "You can help if you wa-" Tubbo cut her off by lightly punching her arm.

"He is not helping." Tubbo insisted and turned around to face the kitchen counter again

Tommy laughed and stood up again, "I see I'm not welcome here.." he faked a sad tone.

"Nope, absolutely not." Tubbo really wasn't playing around. Tommy only laughed and headed to the living room of their tiny shared apartment.

Now standing in front of the couch, Tommy smirked. Three people were in this room, Aimsey; who was reading the news paper, Ponk; who was sleeping next to Aimsey and Eryn; who was on his phone.

Contemplating who to bother first, Tommy played with his white gloves. He settled on Aimsey.

"Hii, Aimsey!!" Tommy cheered and strolled over to her.

"Oh void no.." Aimsey muttered under her breath and pretended to not hear the devil himself.

"What's going on around the world!!" Tommy asked as he leaned against the wall next to her.

Aimsey let out a defeated sigh. "Not much, a new hero was recruited though."

Tommy's expression changed into curiosity. "Who?" he asked.

"Someone called Creep." Aimsey shrugged. "Can make explosions from his hands, pretty cool power, but I don't think Creep is a fitting name for a hero.."

Tommy nodded slowly. "Yeah.. I'd think he's a villian if they didn't have weird german names." he laughed slightly at his joke.

"Yeah.." Aimsey agreed hesitantly and turned to face Eryn. "What do you think, Eryn?"

Eryn jumped slightly at the sound of his name and sighed, "What do I think about what?"

"New hero in town, his name is Creep and he can shoot explosions from his hands. Me and Aimsey think his name sounds more like a villian. What do you think?" Tommy cleared things up for his friend as he opened the door to their balcony to let in some fresh air.

"Oh yeah, if they didn't have weird german names that no one can pronounce, I wouldn't think he's a hero at all." Eryn laughs lightly.

Tommy and Aimsey nod in agreement, but their nice little conversation was broken up by a Ranboo appearing in front of them.

"Guys!!" He called out, even though the ender pearl particles were covering up a lot of his body, scratches on his arms and neck were visible. He looked distraught, scared maybe, but the most important thing was that Byzantium—or Purpled—was nowhere to be seen.

Tommy straightened his posture, Aimsey jumped up from the couch, Eryn looked up from his phone, Ponk blinked his eyes open and Tubbo peeked out from the kitchen.

"Were in deep trouble!" he exclaimed, Tubbo now calmly walked out from the kitchen and looked at Ranboo.

"Sahara's around and, well, you know Byzantium, we got into a fight with them and-" Ranboo stopped and crouched down, resting his hands on his feet, taking deep irregular breaths.

Tubbo sighed and closed his eyes, before opening them again and scanning the room. "Tommy, Ponk and Aimsey, help them out, immediately. Take ear pieces and report back to me once you've found the location."

Tommy immediately jumped up, ready to fight the world for his friends.

–––

"Alright.." Carmine muttered quietly, they were crouching behind an air vent system, Sahara and Byzantium opposite of them. "What do we do?"

Alabaster was the first one to reply. "I reckon we take them all at once. I mean, Sensory, Crystal Red and Eye Shed are really good, but we're like, five and they're three." she suggested, tapping her fingers on the metal.

"Let's do that." Carnelian agreed and moved his hand up to his ear piece. "Going to fight them all at once, over." he spoke to inform Aureolin.

"Good plan. Byzantium looks to be in a bit of trouble. You better hurry." Aureolin responed. His responses never get friendlier.

"Alabaster, Eye shed. Carnelian, Crystal Red, me and Eminence will get Sensory." Carmine spoke, he was the one who knew most about the neighboring city's villians.

The three others only nodded, waiting for Carnelian to give them the okay.

Carnelian observed the situation for a bit longer, before nodding and jumping over the vent system. He didn't hesitate, and immediately ran at the villians, the others thankfully not far behind him.

In only the blink of an eye, Sensory grabbed Byzantium's hand and positioned themselves behind Eye Shed and Crystal Red, leaving them to deal with the four vigilantes.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Sensory called out, spreading his parrot wings, they were infested with sculk.

Eye Shed and Crystal Red stopped, but didn't let the vigilantes through.

"Why are you guys even fighting?" Carnelian called out and gripped his daggers, breathing heavily.

"We-" Eye Shed's explanation was cut short, aftertown city heroes appeared from behind them and made their presence known.

"Sahara! Colors of Death!" one of the heroes yelled and Carnelian pinched his nose.

"You're fucking kidding.." he muttered and turned around. "Fuck off, Blaze!!" he called out and gestured his friends to stay behind him.

Eminence quickly adressed Sahara. "Okay let's deal with them first and then we can resolve this issue. We hate them as much as you do."

Sensory looked to Crystal Red and Eye Shed and shared a knowing look. "Okay. Just this once." he agreed and let Byzantium go up front to his friends.

"What are you trying to do, huh? Rob another bank?" Coma snickered and leaned on Blaze's shoulder.

"Oh fuck off. Honestly, you're ridiculous." Carnelian snorted and turned around to see Byzantium behind him. He nodded slightly at Sensory, but his attention was focused on the heroes.

Suddenly, Aureolin spoke. "Coma and Blaze are up with you. Diamond, Demon and Frost are waiting behind. Even with Sahara on your side, this would be a painful fight. Ask your new allies if they're out here alone, I can't send you backup."

Carnelian's posture stiffened. Thankfully, Carmine decided to speak with Sahara, having the most experience with dealing with situational allies.

"You out here alone?" His eyes jumped from Sahara member to Sahara member.

"We've got two other people here, but there a bit further out." Crystal Red started and brushed his dark hair aside, finger hovering over his ear piece. "Want me to call them over?"

Carmine shared a look with Alabaster and nodded, before nudging Carnelian and smiling smugly.

"Shade? God of Skies?" Crystal Red muttered into his ear piece while Carnelian tried to keep the heroes at a distance. "Yeah, we need backup. We're here with Colours of Death against aftertown city heroes."

"Hey!" Carnelian called out, getting all the attention from the others, who were startled out of their conversations. Blaze looked like he was fuming, Coma already had his dagger out.

Eminence was the first to notice the black mist around them. He squinted, to be completely sure, but then nudged Carnelian to carefully point it out.

Carnelian reached up to his ear piece, before retracting his hands and gesturing Eminence to do it for him. Eminence did. Carnelian focused back on the heroes, Alabaster was keeping them at a distance.

"Carnelian, hey." Byzantium blurted out, "I'm having trouble keeping up right now.." Carnelian turned around and saw his friend trembling, his feet dreading to give in.

Byzantium felt panicked, sweat rolling down his face as he observed the area, waiting for his friend to reply. He had to use much of his focus to keep his eyes from closing and his feet from giving in, so he was surprised as he felt Eminence pick him up.

"I'll carry ya home. Orders of Carnelian." he muttered, but Byzantium was barely hearing anything.

Carnelian looked after them, as Eminence dissappeared over the neighboring rooftops.

Sensory shared looks with his partners and muttered a quick apology. Carnelian didn't pay much mind to it and focused on the threat.

"The Black mist is Mask's hidden power. A journalist from the Aftertown City Times found out not too long ago. It works like strength and instant healing basically." Aureolin responded to Eminence's previous question.

Carnelian looked back at his friends and sighed. "Let's fight them with no plan in mind to surprise them." He suggested and got muttered agreement from everyone but Sahara.

"Alright then." Sensory made his way to the front, next to Carnelian.

Alabaster started the fight, she stopped in the middle of their talk and began running at them, the others not too far behind.

Carnelian ran at Blaze, he had more experience with fighting the fire hero than he had fighting the others. He ducked to dodge Blaze's fireballs and shoved him to the side.

"You're simply a bunch of losers!" Carnelian taunted, but got shoved to the side by Frost. He swore under his breath, but gripped his dagger and ran at Blaze again.