"Tommy, Awesamdude has requested your presence." Tommy was lucky he was caught up on his work, because that would have been a great inconvenience if he wasn't. Tommy stood from his desk and made his way to Awesamdude's floor. He decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator, because for some reason he was feeling claustrophobic.

"Hey Tommy! Look!" Awesamdude held up a pair of black combat boots while grinning. Tommy walked over, confused.

"Cool... boots. I guess." Tommy stood in front of Awesamdude and looked down at the boots. The embroidery looked fancy, with little patterns in it kind of looking like feathers.

"They're for you!" Tommy stared at Awesamdude in confusion and shock. "For me?" "Mhm. Try them on." Awesamdude held the boots out to Tommy and he took them, holding them delicately. Tommy sat down on Awesamdude's office chair and slipped his shoes off, replacing them with the combat boots. They fit well, and they felt comfortable.

"Wanna know the best part?" Tommy looked at Awesamdude and saw how giddy he was. Tommy nodded and Awesamdude clasped his hands together. "They boost your jumps! Just stomp your foot and it'll boost you into the air. Wanna go try it?" Tommy was concerned about several things. Why would Awesamdude assume a normal civilian would need jump boosting boots, why were there feathers embroidered into them, why would Awesamdude make him boots in the first place?

"Yeah, sure man." Awesamdude grinned and grabbed Tommy's hand, yanking him off the chair and dragging him to the elevator. Walking in the boots he could really feel the difference. Awesamdude dragged him out of the tower, practically bouncing the whole way to a park in South.

"Try it." Tommy took a deep breath and lifted his foot. "Oh wait! You'll want to float back down, it's a rough fall." Tommy stared at Awesamdude and Awesamdude stared right back. "So you'll need your wings out?" Awesamdude spoke like he was confused that Tommy was confused, and elaborating didn't make sense to him. Tommy continued staring, and Awesamdude made a subtle face of understanding. "Yes, I know. Doesn't really matter to me so, go on." Tommy took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and unhid his wings. Awesamdude looked amazed and smiled widely, making Tommy nervous.

"How did you know?" Awesamdude moved forward to get a closer look at Tommy's wings.

"Don't say anything, but there's a secret group of heroes I'm in. We call ourselves the gossips because we just gossip about people at the tower. Everyone in there are amazing at keeping secrets and we all signed an oath to keep anything said to the group in the group. Nobody in there cares about vigilante beef so when we were told you might be one we got so excited. We had several theories about you. Did you really show up at your own crime scene in costume?" Awesamdude looked at Tommy with intrigue and Tommy nodded, blushing slightly out of embarrassment. "I knew it. That whole thing was staged wasn't it?" Tommy nodded again and Awesamdude squealed, clapping his hands together. "I was so right. Is it because someone was close to finding out your identity?" Tommy shook his head and Awesamdude groaned. "So close. Ok ok, try the boots now for real." Awesamdude stepped back and Tommy hesitated, a million thoughts running through his head. Regardless, Tommy stomped his foot down and the bottom of the boot extended, launching him high into the air. Tommy panicked and flapped his wings, managing to slow his decent considerably. Tommy looked back at his wings, then down at Awesamdude. He wasn't flying, and he couldn't keep himself at one height, but he was very slowly drifting down and that felt like progress. Tommy's feet touched the ground again, the bottom of the boot clicking back into place, and Tommy had the biggest smile on his face.

"Pretty awesome, right?" Tommy pursed his lips, trying to conceal his excitement, and nodded quickly.

"Pretty very fucking awesome." Awesamdude laughed and they spent an hour practicing with them. Awesamdude informed Tommy of everyone in the group, which included Halo, Ember, Warper, Nihachu, and Captain Puffy. Not a big group, but it was 6 out of 17 heroes in it. The two got back to the tower an hour later, with Tommy's wings hidden again and both feeling light on their feet.

"Where have you two been?" Tommy and Awesamdude looked at the receptionist. She looked like Captain Puffy's girlfriend.

"Just on a walk, had to test out Tommy's new boots. Don't they look amazing on him?" She put her hand on her face and sighed heavily.

"They look wonderful. You two might want to go to SBI's floor. They've been worried sick. Wilbur went to your floor to tell Tommy something and freaked out when you two weren't there." Awesamdude looked sheepish and nodded, nudging Tommy towards the elevator. They went up to SBI's floor and saw Themis sitting on the couch reading a book calmly. He glanced at them and sighed, going back to his book and yelling to the others.

"They're back you can calm down now!" Wilbur and The Angel ran out of two separate rooms. Both of them ran to Tommy and hugged him tightly. The Angel moved away from Tommy after a minute and chuckled nervously.

"Sorry Toms, just got a little worked up." The Angel pulled Wilbur away from Tommy to give him space and Wilbur glared at him, ripping The Angel's hand off his shoulder and hugging Tommy again.

"It's fine but I'm a bit confused. I kinda assume there's like some trauma here so you guys don't have to explain anything if you're uncomfortable with it." Wilbur nodded against Tommy's shoulder and hid his face, squeezing Tommy gently. The Angel smiled at Tommy and sighed.

"Yeah, kind of. Themis is more worried than he's letting on, mind you. He was the first to freak out." Themis's book collided with the back of The Angel's head. The Angel glared at Themis and Themis grunted angrily.

"No, Wilbur freaked first. Then you did, I was the calmest." The Angel crossed his arms and nodded slowly, disbelieving Themis. Tommy sighed and rubbed Wilbur's back, mildly concerned about him.

"Sure, that's why your earring is cracked again." Themis rubbed the earring and frowned, mumbling something under his breath. Tommy was confused about that.

"Why would the earring be cracked?" The Angel looked at Tommy and raised his eyebrows, silently saying 'not now'. Wilbur eventually let go of Tommy, and Tommy was allowed to leave. Tommy went back to Awesamdude's floor to put his shoes back on, and on the walk home Tommy felt like he was being followed.

It turned out he was, having caught a glance at his follower while entering the apartment building. It was Themis, which Tommy half expected. Probably just wanted to make sure Tommy got home safe after their scare. Tommy was very excited to show Tubbo and Ranboo the boots, but he wasn't excited to tell them almost half of the tower knew his identity. Maybe they'd be fine with it after he told them the heroes don't care? Of course they wouldn't be fine with it, even Tommy wasn't fine with it. At least Tommy knew who knew, so he could have Eret erase their memories. Did he want them to though?

Tommy opened the door to their apartment and froze, seeing Eret, Skeppy, Punz, and CEP sat on their couch without their suits. Tommy only knew it was then because Eret had his sunglasses on, Skeppy had diamonds sticking out of his neck and forehead, Punz had his gold chain, and CEP was in his sonic onesie. Tubbo was at his desk, and turned to face Tommy as soon as he opened the door.

"We have an issue. Please sit." Tommy set his boots down next to the door and walked over to the couch, sitting on their new coffee table. They bought it last week, because apparently they had the money for that now. Tubbo stood up and walked over, sitting next to Tommy. Ranboo came out of the kitchen with a plate of cookies and sat next to Tubbo, offering them to everyone.

"What the fuck man?" Ranboo held the plate out to Tommy and smiled. "What? It's the first official vigilante meeting! Gotta have cookies." Tommy raised an eyebrow but took one, if only out of pity for Ranboo's ego. Everyone else also took a cookie to be nice.

"So, the Lost celebration. We're all aware we have one more vigilante to celebrate this year, unfortunately." Tommy grimaced and nodded. Rose, who died three months short of a year ago. "I've received very unfortunate news. She is not the only one we have to celebrate." Tommy's heart panged, breath quickening as his mind searched for an answer. Who had died? "Purpled was found dead three hours ago at a river outside of L'manburg. He died of hypothermia during the winter." Tommy felt his throat close up, his whole world felt like it was falling apart all over again. Tommy hung his head, holding it up with his hands. His mind raced to come up with a way to disprove it, find something that made more sense than Purpled having died from hypothermia.

"No." Tommy gulped down vomit and shook his head. "No he's not dead. They're wrong." Tommy felt a hand on his shoulder and jerked it off.

"His family identified him. I'm sorry, but it's true." Tommy's breath picked up and the hand returned. Tommy slapped the hand off of himself and stood, yelling at Tubbo.

"Don't fucking say that! He's not dead, he went on a dangerous mission he did not die to hypothermia." Everyone was staring at Tommy in concern. Tommy was trying to figure out how it was fake, it had to be fake. "He's hiding. Or they have him. We have to find him, he's not dead." Tommy looked around at everyone, and they all looked at him like he was crazy.

"Tommy, I'm so sorry." Tommy backed away from them. His heart was pounding loudly and he felt on the verge of tears. Tommy's body felt like it was caving in on itself and he gasped for breath, frantically looking around for a close escape from the stuffy apartment.

The nearest exit was the window, and without hesitation or thought, Tommy jumped at it, crashing through the cheap glass and falling for only a second before he extended his wings and launched himself into the air and onto the roof next to their apartment. Normally he'd have celebrated the accomplishment, but he didn't even think about it as his head filled with grief and anger. Tommy heard someone running behind him and felt a prick in the back of his neck, causing him to panic more and miss a step. He fell into an alleyway and didn't have time to prepare for the landing as it came sooner than expected. Tommy realized he'd been caught and was being carried away too late, as he was brought into a tattoo shop and promptly passed out.

"Would you shut up? If I knew you would be so annoying about it I would have just knocked you out." Tommy woke up to hushed yelling, dazed and paralyzed. He was laid on a tattooing chair while Themis yelled at an employee.

"I just want to close shop man, surely you have somewhere else to bring him." Themis grunted and walked into Tommy's view, checking him over and adjusting how Tommy was laying.

"Not really, vigilantes are looking for him right now one of them knocked him out, if we leave and they find us who knows what they'll do. Tommy if you're awake look to your left." That's why Tommy's eyes were open. He looked to his left and Themis sighed in relief. Everything leading up to that moment crashed down on Tommy and he started crying, being unable to do anything more. "Thank god, hey why are you crying?" Themis wiped his tears away though they didn't stop. He sighed and hugged Tommy, attempting to comfort him for something he didn't know about.