Tommy really should've thought this through.

It seemed like every hero was on the scene, including every police officer in West and East. All standing around a warehouse looking for clues. It made Tommy nervous as hell. Even Eret looked majorly uncomfortable. West's officer's didn't spare them more than a glance, but East's officers glared at them and some threw harsh names at them. They were pretty much hiding behind Themis. Themis found The Angel quickly and had been hurriedly talking to The Angel about what'd happened. The Angel glared at Eret and Tommy but said nothing to them or Themis about their arrival. Captain Puffy walked over and tapped Tommy's shoulder, motioning him to follow her. He complied knowing none of them would remember anything about them being here. Eret didn't put up a fight about it either, and Themis was distracted. She took him to the side of the warehouse, where only a few stray cops and Faux were.

"What do you make of this?" Tommy raised an eyebrow and huffed.

"What?" Captain Puffy rolled her eyes and motioned all around them.

"All of this. You're West's favorite vigilante, I'm sure you've helped Tommy at some point. So what do you make of it?" Tommy grimaced and looked around. Great. Now he had to give input on a scene he created. Maybe he'll give them some crumbs.

"It.. feels wrong." Captain Puffy gave him a weird look and he sighed. "There are no tire tracks. It was a dirt road on the way here and the road to get here was overgrown. If people have been in and out, there would have been tire tracks." Captain Puffy blinked and Faux poked his head out of a window very high up that Tommy just noticed he was hanging out of, looking at them from behind Captain Puffy.

"Well if you're so observant that you already got more than the police force, get over here." Captain Puffy turned around and Tommy walked over to Faux. Faux jumped down from the window and reached out his hand. "What's your name?" Tommy shook Faux's hand and bit his lip.

"He doesn't have a name, and he's selectively mute so good luck talking to him." Faux let go of Tommy's hand and shrugged.

"Fair enough, I used to be selectively mute too. I'm going to call you red." Tommy nodded and Faux bent down, picking Tommy up by the ankles and lifting Tommy up to the window. Tommy grabbed the window and pulled himself in. Faux jumped in after him.

"Wait for me, I'm coming too." Tommy turned around and reached his hand out for Captain Puffy to grab. She did, and Tommy pulled her up into the window. The warehouse was lit up, and Tommy could see the mess he'd made. It held a bunch of boxes that, when he came here he didn't know what was in them, but was now opened to reveal a bunch of lab equipment. It was a bit weird, and Tommy wondered if he accidentally set himself up to look like he'd been kidnapped by mad scientists or something. The broken rope surrounding a chair was still there, along with the specks of his blood that he'd set up around the chair were there. He'd also set up a smear of blood as though someone had tried to clean it then decided they didn't have time. It was bigger than the specks and made it seem like he'd gotten fatally hurt. Perfect for his plan. Except now he was going to throw in some doubt that everything they see is correct.

"Why'd they try to clean up that blood, but not the blood around the chair?" Faux grinned at Tommy and stuck the middle finger up at Captain Puffy. Then he shrugged and walked around, smelling everything. He was weird.

"Panicked, maybe. When this blood happened they weren't concerned about it because they didn't have a chance of getting caught. We were told there was a loud bang on the phone, maybe he was shot and they panicked because they knew they'd be caught so they tried cleaning up the blood, only to realize he'd gotten his phone and cleaning the blood was a waste of time." Tommy nodded along with Faux and walked around, looking at everything from different angles. He knew what he'd done here already but he was making it seem like he didn't.

"Hey, over here." Faux and Captain Puffy came around to the side of the chair Tommy was on, and Tommy grazed his thumb over the number 29 carved into the chair. He'd actually scratched that into the chair, spent an entire night doing it. Just to make it as real as he could. Part of him was impressed by his dedication to make it look like he'd been tortured.

"29? What does that mean?" Tommy shrugged and Faux felt the carving. Faux was still weird. The number was how many days he was going to be missing but there'd be no reason for them to guess that.

"Maybe that's how many people were here? Or a number for an address?" Faux huffed and shoved the chair on it's side. Faux stood up and paced back and forth. Captain Puffy sighed and stood up, and Tommy stayed down.

"This is bullshit! There's so little information here. Just blood and the chair. Where's his phone? Where's any sign of there being people here?" Tommy bit his lip, feeling slightly guilty for upsetting Faux so much. He was young too though, so he was probably just emotional. Captain Puffy walked over to Faux and hugged him.

"They probably tossed the phone on the side of the road somewhere. And maybe Tommy was wrong, maybe they don't sleep here. Never know for sure. They could have only been here to torture him or something. In which case, we should check for fingerprints and make sure all of this blood is from the same person, who I'm assuming is Tommy's but, we might want to keep that to ourselves for now." Faux sighed into Captain Puffy's shoulder and nodded, regaining his composure.

"Yeah, we don't want Themis to see this. He's not even being let inside, he's pretty pissed about it." Captain Puffy nodded and moved away from Faux, putting her hand on his cheek and smiling at him. He smiled back, though it was obviously forced, and the two continued to look around. Tommy was very confused, about a lot of things really. Why wasn't Themis let inside? Why would they keep this to themselves?

"Well, what's your final analysis red?" Tommy looked up at Faux and stood up. He took a deep breath and looked around.

"Well, you're right. There's not enough information here to know what's going on entirely. But, if I know anything about people from West, it's that they're smart and resourceful. Tell your team to answer any calls from any unknown number regardless of the time, and spend some more time in West to become better with your surroundings. If a West citizen couldn't get away from something like this, either they'd have to be a literal child or there'd be multiple people." Tommy walked around as he talked, examining the scene closer and thinking on the spot. He had to really sell himself to these guys.

"These people know what they're doing. Start looking into people with a history of violence that hang around other people with a history of violence. Those people aren't always in gangs so keep an eye out for any group. The number was carved into the chair with his fingernails, as the short marks and dried blood show. It would've hurt, taken effort. It must be significant. The rope was cut messily, so he tried to escape on his own, but didn't get that far. It must've taken time to do, say at least 5 hours. So either his kidnappers weren't checking on him frequently, or they didn't care if he escaped or not. I was told there was a loud bang, perhaps he'd tried to fight back and that's what got him injured. The smear could also mean that they tried to drag him away at first, but gave up and picked him up. They left in a hurry, and now they know we're on to them. If they're from West they're going to go to South, but we need to be open to the possibility that they're from South, in which case they'll stay in West." Tommy really should stop giving these fake people so much damn credit. Tommy realized he wasn't looking at Captain Puffy or Faux and turned to look at them, seeing both of them shocked. They looked like idiots.

"What?" Captain Puffy huffed in exasperation and Faux grinned widely.

"I knew bringing you to see this was a good idea red. Come on, let's get out of here." Faux led them out the same window they went in, and Tommy sighed when he heard shouting. They walked to the front of the warehouse, seeing Eret and Themis yelling at each other about the situation. Tommy sighed and walked over to them.

"Hey, they have their information. It's time for us to leave." Eret looked at Tommy, and so did Themis. Tommy nodded at Eret and Eret sighed.

"I'm counting this as a favor, by the way." Tommy rolled his eyes and motioned Eret to continue. Eret looked around at everyone, not having realized that everyone crowded around them to see what was happening. Probably were expecting a bigger fight. Eret bit their lip and whispered to Tommy, "If I erase their memory now, it will have to be very specific. Everyone will be out for almost a day." Tommy bit his lip and looked around. They couldn't leave all these important people here to fend for themselves, and they'd never be able to get them all to safety alone.

Tommy whispered back to Eret, "Leave Themis, Faux, and Captain Puffy out of it. They can help us get everyone to safety." Eret nodded and took a deep breath. He was risking a lot in this moment. She'd have to be more specific about what they forget than he ever has been, and that could potentially be dangerous for her as well. They'd started seizing the first time he'd erased someone's memory, and she hadn't pushed himself further than a specific time and specific people. Plus it was a lot more people than normal. Safe to say, they were nervous.

"Everyone in a mile radius," everyone's eyes fogged over and Eret's head began to hurt, "except for the one 9 inches to my right, Captain Puffy, Faux, and Themis." their eyes all refocused and the heroes looked around in confusion. Tommy motioned them all to come closer and Eret fought to remain focused. "Forget that myself and the one 9 inches to my right were within a mile of you tonight, but do not forget what we have said. Replace what we've said with the person closest to you currently." Everyone's eyes refocused and one by one they started falling. Eret felt extremely lightheaded and their head pounded.

"What the fuck!?" Tommy shushed Faux and Captain Puffy stared at Eret in awe. Themis looked disturbed and Faux was clearly distressed. Eret ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. They felt sick. Captain Puffy's expression changed to one of concern and she took a step towards Eret, catching Tommy's attention. Tommy looked at Eret and froze at how pale she was. Captain Puffy tapped Eret's shoulder and they fell back at the slight pressure. Everyone moved to catch him at once. Tommy grabbed their shoulder, Captain Puffy grabbed the collar of their shirt, and Faux appeared behind them, catching them under their arms. Themis was too far to actually help out at first. Tommy jumped at Faux's sudden appearance but helped the other two lower Eret to the ground gently. Captain Puffy put her hand on Eret's forehead and tiny blue lines connected her fingertips and his forehead.

"She's never done that before.. what happened?" Themis and Faux looked at Tommy and Faux huffed.

"I've been wondering that since he- she?" Tommy grimaced and fixed Eret's shirt.

"All pronouns. Even though you probably won't remember by the end of the night." Faux smiled and tilted his head mockingly and Tommy furrowed his eyebrows.

"Well, what did they do to everyone? Erased everyone's memory or something?" Themis and Tommy both looked at Faux and shrugged. "Yeah pretty much." "Sounds accurate." Faux looked between both of them and scoffed. He then looked at Themis and smiled in disbelief. "And you've known about this... this hazard!?" Themis raised his eyebrows and huffed in shock.

"Well, yes, both I and Captain Puffy are aware of this person, but she's not a hazard. Their only goal is to protect that one." Themis nodded towards Tommy and Faux looked at Tommy.

"So that thing he just did, to everyone except for us, was all for you?" Tommy bit his lip and nodded. He didn't feel very talkative anymore. He didn't think about it like that, but Eret had really just passed out for him. He didn't even know it was possible. Eret was always so confident with his power, but he had a limit and he hadn't even told Tommy about it.

"He'll be ok now, should wake up in a few minutes." Tommy looked at Puffy and nodded, thankful for her helping him. She had no reason to other than her own kindness. Technically neither of them had any reason to not arrest Tommy right now. Even Themis had several reasons to arrest him right now, and Tommy's in a very vulnerable position. He could easily be overtaken and lose everything.

"Right well, why were we left out of this?" Themis looked at Faux and shrugged. It didn't make sense for Faux to have been left out, but if the memory guy knew he'd be pushing his limit then Captain Puffy made sense. Himself being awake was likely courtesy of the vigilante. Themis looked at said vigilante, realizing they hadn't gotten a response. He was staring at the memory guy, not paying attention to any of them. Themis furrowed his eyebrows and waved his hand in front of the vigilante's face. He didn't move.

"Captain, I think he might've gone into shock. Do you mind just, checking on him?" Captain Puffy nodded and rested her hand on the kid's head. She pulled away a minute later.

"He's completely fine but he is stressed. I can imagine he's dependant on this one and being surrounded by authorities without them awake must be nerve wracking. If he is selectively mute then it's likely that's due to anxiety so, this is probably an anxiety attack. He'll be responsive again when the other one wakes up. By the way, do either of them have names because this is tedious." Faux shrugged and Themis stared at the kid. He wasn't even sure if the kid was selectively mute. If Captain Puffy was sure about it then Themis was sure it was true, but Themis didn't know anything about anxiety.

"I just call him red." Faux pointed at the vigilante and Themis shrugged.

"I call them memory guy. Neither of them have official names I don't think." Captain Puffy nodded and chuckled quietly.

"West's best vigilantes. Red and Memory Guy." Themis grinned and Faux laughed.

"Even their vigilante's names are on a budget." Captain Puffy and Themis laughed at the irony. Themis honestly hadn't met a single vigilante in West with a name. At least Faux was joking around now, not as disturbed by the situation they were in. Themis was a bit nervous about the power memory guy could hold if they trained her power more, but if he could become friends with them too, he'd have nothing to worry about.

"Hi. Ok, can you tell me where you are?" Themis looked at Captain Puffy, who was holding up Memory guy's head slightly.

"Uh.. some warehouse... somewhere." Captain Puffy furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Themis.

"That is about all the information he was given. Didn't have much time to explain everything." Captain Puffy nodded and looked back at Memory guy.

"Wait, you didn't even tell these two where they were going? They just, followed you?" Themis looked at Faux and nodded. Faux huffed in shock and shrugged.

"Whatever works I guess."

"What's the date?" Themis looked at Captain Puffy and sighed. Memory guys sat up slightly and rubbed their head, slowly becoming more conscious.

"Uh, august 13th, 2022." Captain Puffy nodded and looked at red. He still wasn't coming out of it. Themis was concerned but there was nothing he could do. Memory guy looked at red and sat up quickly.

"Are you ok? Hey, talk to me. Come on." Memory guy rested their hands on either side of red's face, moving closer to him. None of the heroes did anything, instead watching as memory guy tried to get red's attention. They were really sticking with those names, huh. Red's eyes focused on memory guy and they grinned widely. "Hey, I'm ok, see? Nothing to worry about." Red nodded and sighed heavily. Then slapped memory guy in the face.

"Fucken prick. Never do that again asshole." Tommy hugged Eret and Eret chuckled quietly, hugging back. Their head felt like lead, but she was glad Tommy was ok. He supposed they both learned something about the other today. "What would I have done if Captain Puffy wasn't a saint? You leave me here surrounded by heroes without even a warning. That's fucked up." Captain Puffy smiled and Eret sighed.

"You're literally friends with Themis and acquaintances with Captain Puffy, you'd have been fine. You chose those three for a reason, I knew it was a good one." Tommy sighed and Faux tilted his head.

"Wait, red chose us to be awake?" Eret and Tommy looked at Faux.

"I'm sorry, red?" Tommy grimaced and looked at Eret.

"Well they gotta call me something. Faux chose it so, blame him for the shit name." Themis laughed at Faux's offended look.

"Well- Themis calls you memory guy so, which is worse?" Eret and Tommy looked at Themis and Themis shrugged.

"I think red is worse"

"Yeah red is worse."

"Fuck both of you."

They managed to get all the police officers back in their cars and Themis and Captain Puffy got them back to their stations while Faux, Eret, and Tommy got all the heroes in one spot. The three of them couldn't drive so they were on cleanup duty. Tommy made sure to be careful with The Angel's wings.

"So, how did you two meet?" Tommy looked up from where he was repositioning Warper, confused by Faux's question. Faux was in the middle of dragging Halo towards the pile of heroes they were making.

"He got pulled into the air by The Angel and almost died. I saw it, thought he was just some civilian, and when he got out of The Angel's grip and fell about 50 feet I caught him and made The Angel forget both of us. Then he blackmailed me so that I'd help him out more. Then after my service time was up he gave me the blackmail so that I'd help him out longer. He's got three more favors before he owes me again." Tommy scoffed and moved to help Faux with Halo.

"As if you'd make me give you something. You like me too much now." Eret stood up from beside Ember and walked over. Halo was the last hero they had to bring over, so Eret picked up Halo's legs and helped Faux carry Halo instead of dragging him.

"Fuck that, this isn't charity work I'm doing for you." They set Halo down and Tommy brushed off his legs.

"Ex-cuse me, but this is helping you grow your control over your power. Look what you've done here, if you could do that to say, nations, without so much as a headache, think of the possibilities. You could make people forget that they're villains. You could make people forget they have powers, create a whole new stigma around powers. You could make people forget the trauma they went through. You'd be the best damn therapist in the business. You could make everyone forget how to fight people, and there'd be no more violence."

Faux and Eret were silent during Tommy's rant, even after he'd stopped talking. Eret hadn't thought about doing any more than a couple of people forgetting insignificant things. Faux was realizing just how much of a threat Eret could be if they were to turn on his moral compass. Tommy was looking between the two, waiting for either of them to say anything. They were both just staring at him.

"That's.. too much power for any one person to hold." Faux nodded along with Eret and Tommy furrowed his eyebrows.

"Seriously? You have the power to do that. You have to fuck with the electricity in a person's brain in order to do that. What else can you do?" Eret took a sharp breath and looked at Faux. Faux looked at Eret and became nervous.

"Hey man, don't test that shit out on me." Eret huffed and looked at Tommy.

"I think you know too much now Tommy." Tommy looked shocked. Faux's eyes widened and he stared at Tommy.

"What?" Eret felt guilt pool in his stomach. Faux backed up and moved his hand behind his back, pulling out his phone.

"You're too young to understand the consequences of messing with the brain. If I were to allow you to remember my capabilities, you'd be clouded by the possibilities and would turn on everyone for the chance at a perfect world. I know you only want what's best, but what's best is we keep fighting, not that we forget how to. Someone will relearn someday, and there will be nobody to stop them." Faux typed something on his phone, and Tommy huffed in exasperation.

"So what? You're just going to keep using your powers for stupid shit?" Eret sighed and nodded.

"That's my plan, yes. Tommy, forget the capabilities of my powers." Tommy's eyes fogged over and he sank to the ground. Eret turned to Faux and sighed.

"That's- Tommy? The guy we're here looking for, was right here?" Eret took a deep breath and sighed heavily.

"Faux, forget that Tommy is a vigilante, and that we were ever within a mile of you tonight." Faux's eyes clouded over and he fell to the ground. Eret looked at the two and shook his head. They were having such a nice conversation.

Themis and Captain Puffy returned to find two more bodies than when they left, and after Eret explained that the vigilante had passed out from exhaustion and she'd simply erased Faux's memory sooner than intended, they all began piling the heroes into the two cop cars Captain Puffy and Themis had returned in. They had to make two trips, but they successfully got everyone, including themselves and Tommy back to HQ. They, very reluctantly, brought everyone to their floors and into their beds. The three of them were exhausted by the end of it.

They regrouped at the bottom floor, and Captain Puffy and Themis took a seat behind the receptionist desk and in one of the waiting chairs. Eret thanked them for their cooperation, and made Captain Puffy forget that they were there.

"You'll take care of the kid, right? Thank you both for the help tonight, I'm sure you were help since you made them remember the information you gave them." Eret smiled and nodded.

"Of course. He is under my protection, after all." Themis looked confused and huffed.

"Wait- he's the one you were talking about?" Eret raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly.

"Who else would I have been talking about?" Themis took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Never mind. Make sure he stays on bed rest though. I appreciate the help but he needs to take care of himself. He passes out a lot, it's not healthy." Eret nodded and took a deep breath.

"Themis, forget that any vigilante followed you to the warehouse, and forget that the vigilante currently asleep in the cop car made a phone call." Themis's eyes fogged over and he passed out shortly after. Eret sighed and walked back to Tommy, picking him up and beginning the walk home.