Chapter Text
An alarm rang, shattering the peaceful quiet of a rather large apartment.
“Fuuuck….” The ringing abruptly stopped as a hand snaked out from underneath a lump of blankets to slap the offending object to the ground. The lump sat up, revealing scruffy blond hair and tired blue eyes. It yawned and rolled out of bed, leaving the blankets behind.
“Tommy? Tommy? Answer me? I know you’re awake!” A voice was coming from the other room, clearly annoyed.
Tommy shuffled out of his bedroom and over to his PRIME, an automated processing system granted to all professional heroes, and currently the source of the voice, far too loud for this early in the morning.
“What do you want, Ranboob?”
“Did you really just wake up? You’re usually up much earlier than this.” Ranboo pointed out, ignoring the rude nickname, and Tommy face-palmed. It was much too early for him to be dealing with this right now.
“Yeah. I thought I was coming in at nine today? Why are you calling?”
“Oh! I completely forgot, sorry for waking you up. I just wanted to remind you that your half of the paperwork is due today. Remember for that one case we worked a couple weeks ago? I didn’t want to bother you but Tubbo told me you probably forgot.”
He had indeed completely forgotten about that.
“I didn’t forget! I might have just….prioritized other things?”
He knew Ranboo would see right through him but he was too nice to say anything which Tommy would gladly take advantage of.
“Well-”
“Come on, you know I’ll get it to you before I go on patrol tonight!” Tommy whined as he made himself a cup of coffee, using the espresso machine next to the sink.
“Fine. But I’ll tell Tubbo if it’s not on my desk by ten.”
Tommy almost dropped his coffee.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Bye Tommy! See you at work!” And Ranboo hung up, not waiting to hear the string of curses that came from Tommy, some of which would make even a sailor blush.
He finished making his breakfast while muttering under his breath something about all the things he could do and how stupid Ranboob was only jealous. Soon the apartment was filled with the mouth-watering scent of freshly cooked bread and a ham omelet, and Tommy scooped both up and put them on a plate, bringing that and his coffee out to the balcony to enjoy a leisurely breakfast.
His apartment was only a couple blocks north of the famous Watch Tower, home to all of L’Manburg’s finest heroes and the most conspicuous building gracing the city’s skyline. The imposing tower dominated the view from Tommy’s balcony, but he didn’t mind. It was comforting to have a constant reminder of what he’s worked so hard to create: a safe city, open and welcoming to all people. Although it was somewhat difficult to leave work behind when said work was just outside your window, but he managed.
A bit too well if he was able to forget that paperwork.
He sighed and sipped his coffee, letting the steam blow back up into his face. It was a brisk winter morning, not a cloud in the sky, and the first time he was able to go in late to work in a while. The balcony was far above the hustle and bustle of the street, muffling the noise into a pleasant background ambience.
“You have five minutes until you must depart for the Watch Tower! Five minutes until departure!” PRIME chirped from back inside the apartment.
“I know, I know….” Tommy grumbled as he cleaned up his dishes. He had tried to change PRIME’s settings to be less formal when he got it but gave up after Dream told him that it was specially programmed to not swear. What a waste.
Pulling on his shoes and grabbing his backpack he made sure to shut the door before he jogged down the hallway and to the stairs. Why take the elevator when he could hurry and be a few minutes early? Looking around to make sure no one was near he climbed on top of the railing and leaped off into the middle of the opening the stairs wound around, letting himself go into freefall and plummet to the ground floor.
“WOOOOO!” He screeched as he let his magic out at the last second, catching himself just as he was about to slam into the concrete. That never got old.
He opened the door leading out into the street and shivered when a blast of cold air hit him, now regretting leaving his coat upstairs. Slipping out onto the sidewalk, he began to weave his way through the crowd, calling out hasty apologies over his shoulder as he ran to work.
“I can’t believe Dream made that shitty rule about no public power use,” Tommy thought, “sure as hell makes getting to work a lot longer.”
Really, he completely understood why that rule was in place; to prevent citizens from getting hurt and to make villains more easily recognizable, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. Most powers were dangerous, especially Tommy’s, but with the proper training he was able to become one of the youngest pro heroes to join the ranks of the Watch Tower.
The bell in the clocktower was just chiming nine as Tommy threw open the doors to the lobby of the Tower. He leaned over, trying to catch his breath until he noticed that the typically busy room was unusually quiet.
“You’re late.” Dream was standing in the center of the large crest emblazoned on the floor of the lobby, tapping his foot. Everyone was giving him a wide berth, understandable since the masked man radiated an air of frustration.
Tommy gulped.
“I’m technically on time- the bell rang right as I got here.” He held his breath, hoping that Dream would let it go.
He sighed and rubbed where his forehead would be under the porcelain mask. “I’ll let it go for today Redfall….just don’t let it happen again.”
He let his breath out, “Sorry Dream, it won’t happen again.”
Dream turned on his heels and strode to the elevator bank, gesturing for Tommy to follow.
Ranboo’s paperwork would have to wait.
They stepped into the elevator and Dream pulled out a keycard from one of the hidden pockets in his suit. He inserted it into a small slot above the numbered buttons and the elevator shot upwards, leaving Tommy to grab one of the rails on the side before he fell over. He never had gotten used to super fast elevators, which were necessary since the Tower had over a hundred floors.
The elevator chimed as the doors smoothly opened, revealing the second to top floor: Dream’s private office.
It was a spacious room with wraparound windows displaying the entirety of L’Manburg. A large desk was placed facing the door with a special touch-tech chair behind it. Various newspaper clippings and plaques lined the walls, all testaments to Dream’s dedication to the city. Personally, Tommy thought that the office was an excellent showing of the extent of Dream’s ego, but that was a thought to be shared only with Tubbo and Ranboo.
Dream walked around behind his desk and reclined in his chair which flowed to perfectly fit him. He didn’t offer Tommy a seat.
“Do you know why I want to talk to you, Redfall?”
Tommy immediately ran through all the things he had done in the past couple of days, trying to think of anything that could possibly earn him a reprimand but he came up empty.
“No, sir.”
“There’ve been articles and press releases going around with quotes from an anonymous pro. Know anything about that?”
Shit.
“No sir, I haven’t seen those reports.” Deny, deny, deny, deny.
“I’m surprised. Some of our analysts have brought them to my attention. They seem to think that the pattern of speech matches up rather well to Redfall’s. Should I believe that this is all some sort of strange coincidence?”
Dream was trying to back him into a corner, leading him with question after question, knowing that at some point even the best liars would slip up. It was an effective interrogation tactic. Luckily, Tommy was ready for it.
“I’m not sure sir. What do you think would be the best course of action?” Meet a question with a question, flip it back on him.
“I haven’t yet decided.”
Dream let a thick silence settle around them, making direct eye-contact with Tommy. Tommy met it without flinching or looking away.
Dream spun his chair around to face the window, letting the silence linger a bit longer but the tension was quickly bleeding out of it.
Tommy waited.
“I’ve decided to assign you to a new case.”
Of all the scenarios of how this confrontation would go he had thought of, this was not one of them.
“Sir?”
“It’s a relatively new one, centering around a drug ring that’s popped up in District Nine. You’ll be under the direct supervision of Detonate, as I believe that you have no previous experience with drug cases.”
Tommy groaned. Detonate was one of the few heroes that reported directly to Dream, along with his personal team and Tommy. He also never relaxed the rules meaning that Tommy could never be completely at ease around him.
“This case is focused on preventing the spread of the drug but also to put the public at ease. It requires plenty of press conferences, which shouldn’t be a problem for such an eloquent hero.”
Ah. That was the real reason why he was assigned to Detonate, to make sure he didn’t say anything he shouldn’t.
“Since this is such a public case, I don’t think it would be wise to work with Perplex or Makeshift. You don’t want to expose any possible weaknesses to villains.”
Tommy broke out of his professional agreeability, “Tubbo and Ranboo are not weaknesses. They can protect themselves! Why does it matter if the world knows that we’re friends!”
“If a villain goes after them to get to you how would you feel? What about if that villain is stronger than all of you and you can’t protect them?”
Tommy stopped, forcing his anger back down his throat.
“That’s what I thought. I’m just trying to protect you Redfall. I want what’s best for you and your friends. All of you are among the youngest in the Tower and I wouldn’t want any of you to get hurt. This is a dangerous job but we don’t have to take more risks than necessary. Now do you understand why I don’t want you to bring them into this?”
“Yes.” He responded, barely being able to stop himself from arguing again.
“You’ll go and meet Detonate now. He’s waiting for you on the twenty-eighth floor.”
“Sir? I was supposed to finish some paperwork for the case Perplex and I were working on?”
“Oh, that? Yes, I’ll inform The Captain that she should finish up your portion of the work. She’s the head of that case, correct?”
“Yes sir. Thank you sir.”
“You’re welcome. You are dismissed. Detonate should already be there.”
He waved a hand in dismissal, not even bothering to turn his chair around. Tommy bowed and left the office, stepping back in the elevator and hitting the button for the twenty-eighth floor.
That was nerve-wracking.
Clearly, Dream was onto him and it was only a matter of time before he’d figure out how to deal with it. He also might know that Tubbo and Ranboo had something to do with it but he didn’t have any evidence to tie them to the breach in contract. Thankfully.
It was against Watch Tower rules to talk to the press without express permission from Dream. Or in other words, unless you proved you could be trusted.
Some, like MindBlank and Inferno, could hold impromptu press conferences without even notifying Dream but the rest of the heroes had to leap through hoops to even get half a word out.
It made sense, if he thought about it, all rules had a reason after all. Being a hero was incredibly dangerous and if someone slipped up in front of the press it could ruin plans and halt investigations. Tommy had agreed to it too, signing a gag order when he joined up, along with Tubbo and Ranboo.
He wondered what had happened to make the rule so strict. Everytime he asked, no one would tell him anything. His PRIME didn’t know either. Wryly, he thought that that in itself proved the severity of the rule.
Just because he had signed a paper, however, didn’t mean he had to agree.
Wasn’t it the public’s right to know what their heroes got up to on the daily? Wouldn’t it make them seem more, well, human?
Tommy knew what it was like to idolize heroes, hell he’d looked up to Dream since practically the day he was born. They were unattainable, sat on a pedestal so high that it made heaven seem like one good reach away.
There was no publicly available information on any of them except for their hero name, not even their powers. Of course, that didn’t mean it wasn’t easy to guess why Inferno was called Inferno, but the principle of the thing was that heroes weren’t real. They were figures to be watched, the embodiment of justice, the pinnacle of humanity.
Even though they were barely human in the first place.
Tommy wanted to change that. He thought about how happy he would have been if, as a kid, he’d seen Dream encouraging kids to be good and eat their vegetables on T.V.
Maybe not exactly that.
But something, anything, to prove to society that they were people too. That maybe Detonate preferred his coffee black, or that The Captain was a dog person. How could it hurt anything to know those things?
Dream would argue that any extra information just revealed weaknesses. Their enemies weren’t stupid, they would use whatever crumbs they could scrounge up and fling it against the heroes which could result in crippling injury or even death.
Dream wasn’t there when the first reporter approached him, for the first time he wasn’t directly over Tommy’s shoulder after a mission.
He wasn’t there to stop Tommy from telling the reporter what his favorite color was.
Red.
That was the first time and he honestly thought that it would be the last. He had told Tubbo and Ranboo about the incident, extremely grateful that they didn’t turn him in and surprised when they even encouraged him to do what he felt was right. They trusted him to not slip up, to not betray them all.
After that, Tommy began to leave little tidbits for the press. He liked dogs, his favorite candy was Twizzlers, he didn’t condone drug use.
The reporters learned that he was willing to talk so they started asking a bit more from him like what his opinion was on the most recent anti-power legislation passed. Most of the time he declined to comment on those questions but occasionally he would reveal glimpses of his views which they would take and run with.
Redfall gained a reputation.
Even though the reporters were always careful to credit an anonymous hero in their articles, the more details that got out, the more puzzle pieces were being put together.
Tommy couldn’t kid himself, he wasn’t being slick about it.
Obviously not if Dream had wanted to talk to him.
“I have to be more careful.” He decided just as the elevator doors slid open.