“Well, I’m glad you’re both home safe. Tommy, I want you looking for Themis in suit. Tell him that if he ever pulls a stunt like this again, he’s dead. You don’t want me finding him before you, got it?” Tommy nodded and Tubbo put a bandaid on his nose to cover the stitches. Ranboo grinned and grabbed Tommy’s face, kissing Tommy’s nose lightly. Tommy smiled and Tubbo rolled his eyes, moving on to clean Ranboo’s wound again and stitch it.

“Y’know Ranboo, for as much shit as I give you,” “You don’t give me-“ “Mentally, yes I do. But really, you held your own against Themis. That’s fucken impressive. So, good job.” Ranboo looked a bit startled but he smiled and nodded at Tommy, silent appreciation for the confidence boost.

“You going into work today Tommy?” Tommy snorted and nodded at Tubbo.

“Fuck yes, Themis is never living tonight down. I’ll make damn sure of that.” Tubbo grinned as he wrapped a bandage around Ranboo’s chest and begrudgingly kissed the bandage. Tommy and Ranboo cheered that he followed the stupid little tradition Ranboo had when patching them up. They should really tell him kisses don’t heal injuries.

“Where’s Themis and The Angel?” It was about an hour into Tommy’s shift and he hadn’t seen either of them yet. He was currently sweeping the floor, per Wilbur’s instruction. He felt like Hbomb.

“Themis is grounded and The Angel is in his office. You probably won’t see either of them today.” Tommy nodded slowly. He didn’t like the thought that the only punishment Themis would receive was being grounded. He tried to kill Tommy’s best friend after all.

“Feels like he should get a bit more than a slap on the wrist, doesn’t it?” Wilbur didn’t answer, engulfed in whatever he was writing on his laptop. “I mean, I was excited to come here and give him hell. Just as a small ‘fuck you’, yknow?” Wilbur looked up at Tommy with a confused expression.

“You were just going to, what, berate him?” Tommy shrugged and held the broom close to him, sensing that Wilbur was judging him for his choice of payback.

“Well, yeah. He can’t just get away with that, hero or not.” Wilbur huffed out a laugh and sat up in his seat on the couch.

“Of course not but, that’s all you were going to do?” Tommy furrowed his eyebrows and a stupid grin broke out on his face.

“Obviously? What else would I do? I can’t exactly beat the shit out of him.” Wilbur smiled and took a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair.

“You could sue him for damage to person.” Tommy faked a gag and shook his head. He didn't even want to think about the amount of work he'd have to do to sue one of the heroes he works for.

“Ew, no. I’d have to help with the paperwork for that.” Wilbur laughed and went back to typing on his laptop. Tommy was a bit curious about what he was writing but it wasn't his place to ask.

"Actually, I don't think you'd legally be allowed to do paperwork for your own case. That's more of a NotFound question though." Tommy finished sweeping and sat next to Wilbur.

"Well, I still don't want to. I'm good just being a nuisance." Wilbur hummed and ruffled Tommy's hair gently. Tommy looked over Wilbur's shoulder at what he was writing.

grant the immediate reevaluation of Themis's contract in favor of avoiding future incidents.

Wilbur glanced at Tommy and moved the palm of his hand to Tommy's forehead, pushing his head away gently. "Go do payroll, you gremlin." Tommy smiled and stood up, walking to his office and giving the back of Wilbur's head 'the bird'. Tommy didn't understand that.. what was it, an expression? Tommy needed to steal Purpled's homework again. He needed to see Purpled again. How long had it been?

Too long, Tommy decided as he typed in the numbers for how many hours each hero worked in the past 3 days. He wasn't actually that far behind compared to when he took health breaks.

When was the last time he saw Purpled?

There was the time he said he was going on a "dangerous mission" that, if he succeeded, he'd make a million dollars. So either he succeeded and ditched Tommy or he failed and Tommy would never hear from him again. The life of vigilantes. Tommy should ask around about him.

"Tommy, Halo is asking for you.” Tommy sighed and turned off his laptop. He stood and walked out of the room, ignoring Wilbur standing by his door. Tommy got in the elevator and pressed the button for Badland’s floor, waving goodbye to Wilbur, who was still at his door staring at him in poorly concealed concern.

Tommy didn’t pay much attention to the elevator ride, which stopped to pick up Lazar on the way. He got off on one of the floors Tommy hadn’t seen. Tommy should bring up Purpled’s disappearance to Hellbent. Purpled did a lot of mercenary work, surely one of his connections knows Hellbent as well. The elevator door opened to Badland’s floor and Tommy walked in, not making it far before Halo popped his head out from the kitchen and grinned widely at him.

“Tommy! Good to see you again.” Halo walked over to Tommy while drying his hands on a towel. Tommy forced a smile and reached his hand out, shaking Halo’s hand. “Now, I know you have better things to do and you weren’t scheduled to work with me today but, I wanted to check in with you after last night.” How the ever loving fuck did Halo know about last night? Only SBI, Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo should know about that.

“How do you know about that?” A guy wearing a light blue hoodie and black sweatpants emerged from the kitchen. He looked like just a regular guy, black hair, tanned skin, normal not heroy clothes. He was mixing something in a large bowl. Halo looked over at him and smiled widely, with that sort of look that Tommy used to see on girls staring at their ‘guy friend’s back at the cafe.

“He saw the aftermath. Tommy, this is Zak. Zak, Tommy.” Zak gave Tommy a weird look and walked over to them. He held the bowl in one hand and reached his other out to Tommy. Tommy shook his hand cautiously, since the look didn’t leave Zak’s face.

“Why are you looking at me like that you bitch?” Zak let go of Tommy’s hand and hummed.

“Language”

“I know. Behave.” Tommy’s eyes widened and he stared at Zak in shock. His hand curled into a fist instinctively and Halo looked between them confused. Zak walked back into the kitchen and Tommy took a deep breath, relaxing his racing heart.

“What does he know?” Tommy looked at Halo. He’d have to come up with a secret. Technically the stitches on his nose were hidden by the bandaid so Tommy could show Halo and claim he doesn’t want anybody knowing. Yeah, he’d do that. Tommy took off half of the bandaid, enough to show the three stitches on his nose to Halo. Halo seemed a bit shocked but not a lot.

“It’s not a big deal but please don’t say anything. Themis is already grounded, I don’t want to worry anyone and make it worse on him.” Halo nodded and held his hand out, putting up his pinky finger.

“I promise I won’t say a thing.” Tommy smiled and hooked his own pinky around Halo's. Pinky swears are childish but Halo did work with kids a lot.

"Back to why you called me here, I've been ok. It's not the end of the world and the bandaid keeps people from being worried about me so I'm not being pestered." Halo smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"They care about you, but I get it. Zak said the vigilante was hurt too, do you know if he's ok?" Tommy would question Halo for how genuine the concern sounded, but then again, Halo did grow up in West.

"I'm sure he's fine. Brought me home and then ran off." Halo nodded and Zak made a loud fake cough from the kitchen, getting Halo's attention. Tommy looked towards the kitchen and saw Zak staring at them from behind the doorway. "I think your boyfriend wants attention." Zak quickly dipped behind the doorway and Halo smacked Tommy's shoulder gently.

"He's not my boyfriend! It really was such a pleasure talking to you today Tommy, as it always is. I’m sure you have some things to attend to now though.” Tommy sighed and nodded.

“I get it, kick me out so you can have more time with your beloved.” Halo had a faux stern look on his face and Tommy snickered. “But yeah I have to go back to directing heroes now. You know it’s kind of funny bossin you lot around.” Halo smiled and crossed his arms, with that facial expression where someone knows you’re actively fucking up but they find it charming. Tommy sees it on the women he rescues from creeps a lot.

“Go on now, Tommy. And take a water bottle for the trip, you look pale.” Tommy looked at the elevator and saw a mini fridge next to it with a magnet that says HYDRATE.

“Is that new?”

“Put it in yesterday.”

“It’s rather charming if I’m hones-“

“Go.”

“Ok.”

Tommy left the floor and yes, he did take a water.

“Ok but Themis, of all people, got grounded because of ME! I should get a fucken award for that or something.” Tommy jumped to another roof and sat on the edge, looking down at his street. Honestly, Tommy looked forward to weekends now. Course he liked stealing from thieves and drug dealers because well, what 16 year old boy didn’t enjoy crime? But he was enjoying the quieter nights where all he had to do was bash some drunk pricks? It was like a little pick-me-up for Tommy.

“How does a superhero get grounded? One second-“ Tubbo put Tommy on hold and Tommy kicked his heels against the side of the building.

“Tommy.” Tommy jumped up at the familiar voice behind him. His head snapped back to come face to face with Skeppy.

“How in the fuck do you know my name?” Skeppy looked completely unimpressed. His arms were crossed and he tapped on one of his arms with his finger slowly to further prove how ticked off he was at Tommy.

“You make it easy. Since when did we help heroes?” Tommy stopped breathing as his brain connected the dots. He sputtered to come up with a snarky answer, also still trying to wrap his head around the fact he met Skeppy out of vigilantism today.

“Since when did we date heroes?” Skeppy got more frustrated and looked about ready to punch Tommy. Tommy would be concerned if he didn’t know Skeppy’s boyfriend now. Halo really is a sweetheart and would totally side with the 16 year old who’s been through so much, if he found out his boyfriend hurt Tommy, well, Tommy couldn’t imagine what hell would come upon Skeppy.

“We aren’t dating! You can not just help the heroes and still call yourself a vigilante. I’m using my connection to Halo as protection, because if other heroes try to hurt me all I have to do is go whining to Halo. You’re working with the whole damn tower! You might as well become one of those corrupted pigs.”

Maybe this was what Tommy needed. Maybe it was a shitty year’s worth of pent up frustration that Tommy could blame once things blew over. Or maybe Tommy just snapped, because he was the one to punch first. Skeppy’s head snapped to the side and the rest of his body followed. He seemed too shocked to move, and even Tommy was holding his breath and waiting for the backlash. Skeppy looked at Tommy and smirked. He rubbed his face while turning towards Tommy and leaned in close.

“You’re turning out to be just like Rose. I look forward to planning you and your team’s funeral.” Tommy stared at Skeppy in shock and disgust and brushed his hand across his face, discreetly calling for Eret.

“You don’t know shit about me. Or Rose. She was one of the greats, so was Callahan. For you to make the comparison between my team and her’s proves that you’ll never be anything special. Consider our partnership over Skeppy. Get the fuck off my roof.” Skeppy glared at Tommy and Eret landed on the roof a bit away from the two. He looked between them and Tommy pointed at Skeppy.

“He knows my identity. Make him forget.” Skeppy furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Tommy and Eret shrugged. “His name’s Skeppy.”

“Skeppy, forget who Tommy is and his connection to his vigilante persona.” Skeppy’s eyes clouded over and Eret walked over to them. After a minute, Skeppy was still standing and his eyes weren’t clouded anymore but he was clearly out of it.

“What’s happening here, why isn’t he knocked out?” Eret seemed just as confused as Tommy, poking and prodding at Skeppy waiting for him to flop over.

“I don’t know. This has never happened before. I’ll bring him to my place and keep an eye on him. Are you alright, though? You look distraught.”

"I didn't expect him to be such a bitch about it. Plus I just probably broke my hand on his face." Eret seemed a bit shocked and rushed over, taking Tommy's hand and looking it over.

"Not broken, just bruised. Maybe sprained. You should go home now, get some rest and wrap your hand up.” Tommy groaned and shook his head.

“Fuck no, I got 4 hours left of my shift, I’m not going home now.” Eret sighed and reached into his cape, pulling out a roll of ace bandages. She wrapped Tommy’s hand and pat his head.

“Be careful then. I’m going to bring him home and come back to help you the rest of the night. Don’t get into trouble.” Eret picked Skeppy up over his shoulder and ran off. Tommy sat back down on the roof edge and looked down at the street.

"Sooo, what was that about?” Tommy sighed at Tubbo’s voice and rubbed his face.

“Skeppy's in love with Halo and recognized me at work. He's being a bitch about it." Tubbo didn't respond for a while, giving Tommy proper time to think things through. He was risking all of their asses even associating with heroes whether he meant to or not. Even Skeppy and Eret were more involved than they should have been. Maybe it was time for it all to disappear.

There was a sudden loud explosion, and a great force shoved Tommy off of the roof. Tommy extended his wings quickly and pushed them up just in time to not faceplant the concrete. He landed harshly and cursed out loud, though he couldn't hear it over a high-pitched ringing. He stood up, watching small bits of debris land around him. Tommy clambered up to the roof to see what had happened, hiding his wings again.

There was a burning building two streets down, and Tommy immediately recognized it as the city's theatre. Tommy found himself cursing again as his hearing returned enough for him to hear screaming. He jumped off the roof and landed on the lid of a trash can. He jumped off the can, accidentally knocking it over in the process, and ran towards the building.

"The theater just fucking exploded. Boo's on his way. From the looks of it there won't be any survivors but the buildings surrounding were damaged and there will definitely be people in there. Listen for any survivors in the theater while clearing out the other buildings. I don't expect any heroes with Themis out of commission so, you're on your own." Tommy ran into one of the buildings beside the theater and pulled out his bandana, wrapping it above his nose to cover his lower face and creating a half-assed gas mask.

Tommy crouched below the smoke and made his way around the building. It was the standard height for a building in West but it was an office building so, 17 rooms for Tommy to make sure are empty. Tommy opened a door, revealing an office worker on the floor in front of her desk. She crawled over to Tommy and Tommy pointed her towards the exit, leaving her to go find other civilians.

There were only four other people in the building, and by the time Tommy left it himself ten minutes had passed and Ranboo was getting people out of the other building. Tommy took a few deep breaths of fresh air and looked around. He noticed Captain Puffy walking around healing civilians, turning a blind eye to Tommy and Ranboo and just focusing on the people. There was a firetruck from South putting out the building Tommy just came out of. Tommy walked towards a group of firefighters that were standing around talking to Captain Puffy's roommate. She seemed to be giving them a hard time.

"There are three innocent people stuck in that theater, if you do not get off your asses and help them I will see to it that your department ceases to exist." Tommy sucked in a breath and looked at the theater. Going in there as it stood was a death sentence, but could Tommy really stand to leave people in there?

Tommy walked to the theater and pulled a bit of debris out of the way of the door. He crept in, blocking his eyes with his arm as they stung from the smoke. He took limited breaths as he made his way around blindly, just listening for any sign of life. He heard a faint cry and crept in that direction. There weren’t that many rooms in the theater, just the main theater, the entrance, and three bathrooms. Tommy felt warmer the further into the building he got, but he managed to get close enough the person saw him.

“Over here! Please, help her!” Tommy moved his arm away from his eyes and looked around. He spotted a young woman kneeling on the floor. Her leg was trapped under a bunch of bricks. She was pointing at a small girl in a pile of glass and fire. Tommy tore the bricks away from the young lady first, then went for the child. He picked the girl up and checked for a breath. She was barely breathing, but she was and that was good enough for Tommy. He handed the lady the child and picked the lady up, bringing her to the front of the building. His body felt like crumbling under the exertion, but he had to focus on getting everyone to safety. He got to the front doors and noticed there were more heroes on the scene, including Thanatos. Tommy took a deep breath, getting as much clear air into his lungs as he could. Tommy set the lady down and motioned her to get a hero’s attention, then crept back into the building. He heard her call for help and made his way around the building swiftly, searching for any signs of life.

He found nothing, except for the main theater full of burnt corpses. The theater was full of smoke and fire, but Tommy had to check for anyone. Tommy sped around the theater, coughing frequently. His body felt heavy and the wings barely concealed by his skin felt like they were burning.

"There's one more survivor in there, why is everyone standing around out here instead of going in to help?" Niki could tell that she was getting nowhere. Nobody seemed to believe that anyone could be alive in the theater before two people were found at the entrance. The older one said there was a hero in the theater looking for people but none of the heroes were in the theater, so they were doing a headcount to make sure everyone was there. Niki thought it was the dumbest way to avoid acknowledging that they were too scared to go in the theater.

"What did the hero look like?" Halo was interrogating the young woman while Captain Puffy healed the child.

"Oh I don't know, it was hard to see. They had a mask, like a masquerade mask or something. And they had something covering their nose and mouth, I could only really see their eyes. Oh and a hoodie, they were dressed pretty casual. I was barely sure they were a hero at all." Niki sucked in a breath as she connected the dots. A vigilante went inside a burning building and saved two lives without the registered heroes seeing him. He must've been in there for a while, if Niki didn't convince the heroes to save him he would die.

(Author's note here, been a while since I've done this but hi. Don't mind the dying child we just left off on. So, if any of you are or ever have been a fan of the Vanoss Crew, then you should hear me out. I have a fairly old book on that subject that I'm rewriting called Please Don't Go. Of course it's h2ovanoss because I was a weird child but I like the plot so I'm rewriting it. My hope is to get it back out to the public by the end of next month (September 30th) so if you would like to read it or re-read it if you ever have, you can look out for it then. This note is longer than it has to be so I bid you farewell)