Chapter Text
He stood slowly, looking out over the city at night. Street lamps and escaped light from houses light up the dark corners of the night. The light made people feel safe, protected from whatever hid in the dark. But Tommy knew better. He’d seen those things that crept around in the dark, experienced them. No amount of light would save you from them in his experience. From his vantage point on the rooftop he could see a fair distance, even with some of the taller buildings blocking spots of his view.
A little ways off, he spotted a figure darting around the edges of the light, much like he did when moving from place to place, but they clearly weren’t as good at it as he had grown to be. Silently, Tommy started making his way towards the direction the figure seemed to be headed.
He used his power, just enough to get him on the ground ahead of the figure, leaving yellow wisps swirling around him for a moment. The figure continued towards him for a moment longer before spotting him and stopping dead in their tracks. They let out a curse under their breath that Tommy could just about hear. He grinned at that, knowing whoever it was had recognised him.
“Nice evening for a run in, innit?” Tommy asked the figure who was now only partially hidden by shadows. The peak of their face that Tommy could see looked rather plain. A mask covered the bottom half and their clothing was rather dark. Likely someone up to no good Tommy noted.
“Ha. Lucky it was just you, Set. Thought for a second you were one of them heroes.” Tommy raised an eyebrow at the comment, his grin falling.
“Did you, now? Heroes have been a big concern for you lately?” The figure, a man by the sound of their voice, stepped a little further into the light. He seemed more relaxed now that he had gotten Tommy talking.
“Well not really. But you know how it’d been, with them being more active in the area and all.”
“Can’t say I’ve really noticed.” Tommy replied nonchalantly. The mans’ movement allowed Tommy to see the bulking backpack he carried. “Bad time?” He asked, nodding towards the pack. The man shot a look over his shoulder at the pack and let out a nervous chuckle with a shrug.
“Just on a job. Nothing you should worry yourself with. I’m sure you have much bigger fish to fry as they say.” The answer seemed evasive. Tommy didn’t like the vibe of this man at all. His demeanour lost any trace of being casual as he faced the man head on.
“What’s in the bag?” He demanded, leaving no room for argument or side stepping. The man took a hesitant step backwards at the look Tommy was shooting him. There was another moment of hesitation before he left out a sigh and took the bag off to unzip it, allowing Tommy to get a clear look inside.
It was full of odd devices, weapons likely by the look of some of them. High tech weapons. Hero type weapons.
Tommy gave a hum as he finished looking through the pack. What was a low level crook doing with such valuable stolen goods?
“Where did you get them?” Another demand that left no room for the man to not answer it.
“Down at the docks. Got a tip from a buddy of mine about a shipment of hero tech coming in. Figured I’d grab some for myself. Not like they’ll miss it and I could make some pretty money selling this stuff to fine people such as yourself. You interested?” Tommy frowned at that. It was bad enough the heroes had this type of stuff at their disposal. Now the lowlives were trying to get their hands on it. That simply wouldn’t do.
“Give me the bag.”
“Oh, all of it? You got enough cash on you for that?” Tommy scowled at the man and held out his hand expectantly.
“I’m not buying.” It was the mans turn to frown at that.
“You what?”
“I’m not buying. You’re going to hand them over. If you want to keep all your bones intact, that is. I have been itching for a good fight but I suppose you’ll have to do.” The man was taken aback as Tommy let a cruel grin creep across his face. He clutched the backpack to his chest tightly, as if afraid that Tommy would make a grab for it. Like his hold could stop Tommy from taking it if he really wanted to.
“No way. I stole ‘em.”
“And it’s a wonder you managed to pull even that off. So what’ll it be? The bag or your bones?”
“Fuck off.”
“Bones it is.” Tommy tugged on his power, reaching with it toward the bag and moving it to his side without issue.
The man stood stunned for a moment, his brain catching up with what was happening. With the goods out of the way Tommy wasted no time in reaching out with his power again, this time aiming for the mans’ arms and squeezing them with it, causing them to let out an audible crack before he let up. The man let out a yell of pain and dropped to his knees. Tommy then approached, a wicked smile pulling at his mouth as he kicked the man over and caused another yowl of pain from him as his arms were jostled.
“Pity you couldn’t put up a fight. Would have been much more interesting if you had.” Tommy walked back over to the bag and picked it up, swinging it over his shoulder. “Should have just handed it over man, could have saved you a hospital bill. Good luck with whatever.”
With that Tommy was off, leaving the man on the ground with his pain until someone happened to walk by and notice him. If anyone ever did. Maybe he wouldn’t have a hospital bill after all.
Once he was far enough away Tommy dipped into a dark alley. Looking around to make sure he was alone, Tommy pulled on his power again, thi time to open the gate to his ‘pocket dimension’ to store the bag in there. Safe, where not even the heroes could get to it. Only him.
Closing that gate, he then opened one to his base. It always amazed Tommy how easy it was to keep a secret base secret when he never had to enter or leave it by normal means. Powers were useful for so many things these days.
Taking off his mask and suit to change into pyjamas for the night, Tommy looked over his calendar, noting he started his new job the next morning.
“Good thing I dipped early. Wouldn’t want to be late for my first day now would I?” He smiled to himself and headed over to his bed to flop down. The comfort of it quickly lulled him into dreamless sleep.
— — —
Tommy was rudely awoken the next morning by his flatmate jumping on his bed.
“Tommy, get up! Come on, we gotta go soon!” Tubbo was yelling almost right next to his ear. It was a miracle he hadn’t gone deft in the time he’d known his best friend. “Get up, get up, get up! Let’s go boss man!!”
“Primes Tubbo get off me!” Tubbo stopped his jumping and sat up, smiling deviously.
“Knew that would be better than your alarm. You always snooze it but you can’t snooze a person. Well actually, I guess you can if you just like, knock them out or something. But you wouldn’t to me is what I’m saying.”
“Tubbo it is far too early for your rambling. And I definitely would knock you out if it wouldn't mean you’d get back at me for it.” Tubbo rolled his eyes.
“That’s exactly my point. Come get breakfast.” And Tubbo was racing off to the kitchen before Tommy could even think of a response. He just grumbled and slowly dragged himself out of bed into the, thankfully, warm air. Central heating had done wonders for both him and Tubbo during these winter months.
The kitchen was filled with the smell of fresh pancakes. Which would be worrying if Tommy didn’t see the clearly out of place bright pink plate sitting out. Tubbo was hopeless in the kitchen, more likely to blow something up than make edible food. Tommy was also very bad at cooking, but not as much as Tubbo. Luckily their very kind neighbour, Niki, made extras sometimes and brought them over. Mostly to prevent any more almost-explosions. She rather liked her apartment un-exploded.
“Thank Primes for Niki and her heavenly cooking.” Tommy muttered as he sat himself down with a plate next to Tubbo at their breakfast bar.
“Amen.” Tubbo managed to get out in between one mouthful of pancake and the next. The two ate in relative silence, revelling in the taste of the fluffy pancakes and just sharing a moment of content before their busy days.
“You sure you’re ready for this boss man?” Came Tubbos’ quiet question as they both got up to put their plates in the sink to deal with some other time. Tommy shot him a reassuring smile.
“Big T, am I ever not ready? Biggest man ever has to be prepared for anything.” Tubbo playfully shoved his shoulder.
“Of course. But I mean, You’ve never done something this risky. What if they recognise you somehow?” Tommy rolled his eyes. This was a conversation they’d had a few times when setting up the plan. Tubbo worried too much. Which could be helpful sometimes, but not this time.
“Relax man. I’ll be fine. They won’t even have a clue I’m just that good. But if I do get into trouble I can always just escape and they won’t find us ever. I’ve got this big man.” Tubbo nodded silently then headed off to get ready for the day. Tommy followed suit, getting himself dressed and cleaned up for his first day.
Their plan had been in the works for a long time. A month ago Tubbo had gotten a job in one of the heroes' outsource tech labs and today Tommy would be starting his job at the Hero Foundation as an administrator. It wasn’t exactly a flashy position, but it would give him access to certain documents and would allow him to interact with almost everyone in the building. Heroes included. There was no real telling how far this job could get him in terms of infiltrating the whole hero organisation, but it would be helpful nevertheless.
Both he and Tubbo had been lying low with their villain work for months before even Tubbo started his job so it wouldn't be able to be tied to them or seem too suspicious. They had thought it all through. They had been careful. And soon all of their hard work would be paying off tenfold. It was their greatest plan yet.
Now they just had to not fuck it up.
Tommy stepped out of his room to find Tubbo heading towards the door already.
“Are you off already, big man?”
“Yep! Got a call that they need me there a bit early. Sorry, can’t properly see you off on your first day but like you said, you got this!” Tommy nodded with a smile.
“Have a good day, big T.” The door shut behind Tubbo and he was gone. Tommy still had a few minutes before he needed to leave himself so he went about making himself a thermos of tea. Once it was done brewing he packed it into the small bag he was taking that had a change of clothes, just in case, and some stationary he liked.
As part of their planning phase, Tommy and Tubbo had scouted out the area surrounding the Hero Foundation building, so Tommy knew the perfect spot to open a gate to. Stepping through Tommy found himself a few blocks away from the building, hidden in the crook of a relatively clean alleyway. Straightening his clothes out he started on his way. Nobody paid him much mind as he moved through the sparse crowds of people towards his work. He had a few regular first day jitters, and a few ‘supervillain walking right into the hero headquarters’ jitters. But he was sure of himself, confident. And that was more than enough to get him through.
Walking straight into the building was a bit weird. A supervillain walks into a hero headquarters, sounds like the start to a bad joke Tommy chuckled to himself. This really had been too easy. He let himself admire the large lobby he found himself in for a moment. The interviews had been held at a separate building, for obvious reasons. His first impression of the inside of the Hero Foundation was nothing short of impressive.
The light blue, almost teal colouring of the walls that reflected the sunlight pouring through the numerous windows was a little awe inspiring in the way it shone. They must have one hell of a budget, holy Primes.
Shaking himself out of his thoughts Tommy focused back on what he was here for. A job. The receptionist greeted him brightly with a smile as he approached.
“Good Morning. Can I help you?” Tommy nodded and took a quick note of her nametag.
“Hello, Clementine is it? Hi Clementine. I’m Tommy. I just started work here. Like today is my first day just started, I’m part of the admin team. Very important work as I’m sure you know. Where exactly do I go, do you know? They didn’t really tell me much over the phone but let me tell you Clementine, I am very excited to start working here. Supporting all the heroes y’know? Important work we do, me and you Clementine.” Clementines’ smile seemed slightly more strained as she turned to her computer and looked up his information.
“Oh yes, Tommy. New administration hire. I have your security pass here. This will get you into anywhere on the tenth floor and unrestricted areas of any floor below fifty. Upper floors are for heroes and cleared personnel only. Go through the gates to the left here and take the first elevator up to ten. There should be someone waiting for you up there already.” She explained while passing him a pass with his name and photo on it along with some paperwork. “They’ll give you time to go over this up there but this is your contract. Any questions just ask someone on your team or ask to speak to someone in HR. Have a nice day.”
Clearly Clementine didn’t want to have to interact with Tommy longer than she had to.
“Thank you very much. You’ve been a huge help to me today Clementine and I can’t wait to greet you every single morning from this day on. Keep up the great work.” Tommy saw her eyes widen in the realisation of having to see Tommy everyday for as long as they both worked there. That was decidedly not going to be her favourite part of the day but most definitely would be one of Tommys’.
With everything he needed Tommy gave her a wave and made his way through the gates and to the elevator as she had instructed. Half of the floors were completely closed off to him and others he could barely get into. But he could work with that. It was only his first day, he had plenty of time to work his way. And all he really needed was a peak into anywhere he would want to go and a knowledge of everyone's schedules.
Getting off on the tenth floor, Tommy was greeted with someone nearly walking right into him. Both him and the stranger took a quick step back and looked each other over. It was easy to tell who he was looking at. One of the top heroes in the country, Siren. The hero looked over Tommy briefly before smiling and offering an apology with a side step to let Tommy pass.
“Wasn’t expecting anyone to suddenly show up at ten. You must be the new hire.” Tommy narrowed his eyes, sceptical, but nodded anyway.
“Yeah that’s me. Tommy. Nice to meet you.” Tommy held his hand out to the hero after stepping past him. Siren accepted the handshake, though kept it quick.
“Tommy right. I’m Siren, one of the heroes here.”
“I know.” They both stood looking at each other for a second in silence.
“Right, well,” Siren looked off awkwardly, “I’ll, uh, get going then. Nice to meet you too Tommy. Good luck.” Tommy nodded his thanks as the hero turned to retreat to the elevator with a swift wave. As the doors closed Tommy turned back to see a woman looking him over with crossed arms. She smiled at him but said nothing for a moment, giving Tommy pause. Finally she decided to break the silence.
“I can’t tell if you’re just too awe struck or if you really don’t care that he’s a hero.” Tommy went to say something but paused. Shit, right. Normal people care about that stuff. Tommy let out a sigh.
“Man, I was trying so hard to act cool about it. Did it come off as weird? I mean, I didn’t really expect to see any heroes on my first day of all things. He caught me off guard! I swear I’ll be more normal next time.” The woman gave a soft laugh and shook her head.
“Don’t worry about it kid.” She held her hand out to shake, which Tommy accepted. “I’m Janice, head of the department. Nice to meet you Tommy. You got your contract?” Tommy nodded, holding up the stack of paper as if to prove it. ”Great. We’ll get you set up at your desk then you can take as long as you need to read it over. Any questions you come to me. After you’re done with that we’ll see what we can get you started on, alright?”
“Sounds pog.”
“I’m sorry, what? What’s pog?”
“Oh, it’s um… well it’s like slang y’know?” Janice chuckled.
“And I thought I was young. Alright let’s get you settled in.”
Janice led Tommy down to where the floor opened up into a large area of desks organised into neat sections. Tommy was directed to one near the front with only a few others around it, all separated by partitions.
“Make yourself at home. My office is just over there so just knock and come in. Lunch is at one, I’ll show you the kitchen and cafeteria then.”
“Got it. I’ll get to it then.” Janice nodded and headed off leaving Tommy to read over his contract.
Yeah, This was going to be a breeze.