Chapter Text
Tommy walked toward the training room as slow as he could without getting into trouble. He eventually stopped in front of a set of double doors. The doors themselves were steel and were heavy and hard to break in order to prevent them from being damaged by an over ecstatic hero. Tommy was a troublemaker, and a Lot of times ended up in the room no matter how hard he tried to stay on, Epiales trouble seemed to follow him like a stray dog did to a person who fed it food. (No way was he going to acknowledge how closely that related to his and Epiales’s relationship) But Epiales always had a new lesson he wanted to teach. A new way to give Tommy a lesson. Another life skill. Another thing to use in a fight against villains. It was often told to Tommy he was a horrible student. He never seemed to learn no matter how hard Epiales tried to drill it into his head to learn.
But he did learn to not speak. He learned that particular lesson rather quickly just after his first time becoming a sidekick and finally being able to go out and about. It was one of the first times he was fighting side by side with Epiales and he had been excited. If he knew how the night would turn out he would have turned back and quit.
Tommy tried not to show how ecstatic he was about being able to go out and about with Epiales at 14! He would be the youngest hero ever even if no one knew his real age but he would also be the best hero just like Epiales was the best hero! Of course, Tommy couldn’t compete with the man, but he would try to live up to him! Tommy remembered each rule Epiales had given him when they had started the patrol and where they were going. (And the consequences of going against any of the rules rang through his head) They were going to start on the west side of Manburg and it was meant to be a simple patrol to show Tommy what happened on a normal one.
Epiales had even promised to get Carbonara pizza afterwards! But Tommy disobeyed. Tommy and he were fighting Botany and Atomic; they were considered the lowest ranking of the Syndicate alone but together often were to be taken as higher ranks. Botany being rank 9 and Atomic being rank 11 and it was intense. They had tried to rob a bank but Epiales and him interfered. Tommy led the victims away and watched if Epiales needed help. But then there was a little boy, not even 6, that wouldn’t move. So, he spoke to the would-be victim even if it was quiet and the victim hadn’t heard him still speak.
When Epiales stared at Tommy he knew he messed up. However, Tommy hadn’t expected him to snap his arm. Nor did he expect him to have intense training for weeks on end. Remembering the boiling tea he had been forced to drink. It felt like fire. Pyre hadn’t been able to help him during that week. He tried to help and when Tommy couldn’t properly speak for a month, he taught him more sign language and secret words that Epiales didn’t know the meaning of.
He also taught him his name. Tommy saw the guilt on his face, wanting to talk but unable to with him being so close. But Tommy saw the guilt as clear as day written on his face. Heard him crying late at night and the fights that constantly happened between the Dream team. Heard him getting more and more worried. Remembered when he came home and looked at Tommy’s face and saw something that made him cry before getting his stuff and the hurried argument between the three before he walked out unable to keep pretending and becoming a villain. A traitor. A….A lover.
Tommy knew that Pyre tried to get him out. Tried to stop Epiales over and over but nothing worked. That he had gone to the other heroes with Tommy as proof only to be turned away and yelled at by Epiales. Tommy saw Pyre getting more and more tired as time went on. Could tell that he was reaching his limits. Tommy remembered the way Pyre had looked the day he left. He had eye bags under his eyes. Had taken his mask and set it on the kitchen counter. Tears streaking down his face. His hands were covered in blood, and he had a wound as well and it was easy to see that it was Epiales weapon that caused the wound. But his eyes were determined. He looked at Tommy and he knew that he was about to offer something, but Tommy just turned away and walked to the other two ignoring Pyre.
Tommy shook his head dislodging the thoughts before hurrying to training. After he got there Epiales looked at him, seeming bored. Before he started training. Tommy fought. He kept losing against him. Not that he ever thought he would succeed. He knew he’d never succeed. There were only a handful of people who ever came close to beating him. (Kratos, Pyre, Cernunnos. Though the last one might have been because Epiales would always go easy on him. The love radiated off of them slowly left until it left a bitter taste in his mouth when he watched them fight. Tommy knew Cernunnos loved Epiales still. But the love changed in Epiales’s eyes and no longer was its true love in anyway.) Tommy was shocked by the next blow.
After training Tommy was covered in bruises and wounds. He could tell his wrist was broken and his ankle strained or maybe sprained. (Epiales had thrown him at a wall and Tommy had braced with his hand, but he had been thrown high so when he landed, he twisted his ankle, and it hurt.) Of course, he cried a few tears but moved on. Epiales had called it quits when Tommy started wheezing due to some bruised ribs. Epiales then grabbed a small med-kit and had Tommy sit down before checking his ribs. Making sure none of them were broken before humming and moving on to his ankle, rotating it and listening to Tommy hisses in pain before saying,
“Toms….You know I love you right? And I do this because I love you?”
While saying this Epiales started twisting his ankle in a painful way while looking at Tommy. His mask starring right into his soul. The black beady eyes not blinking and the smile etched on made Tommy think that Epiales was actually enjoying this. And that caused a shiver from Tommy. Tommy felt tears start to prickle the edge of his eyes before saying,
“I know.”
Epiales nodded before relaxing his grip releasing his ankle and grabbing some bandaged making sure to be careful and grabbing some gel ice pack that would stay with the bandages and wrapping his ankle grabbing the ankle brace, they kept in the med kit for these kinds of things and placing the brace on tightly and saying
“Keep that elevated”
Watching Tommy to make sure he did as he asked and nodding when Tommy did so and propped it on the bench nearby and gently checking his other bruises poking them when he found them and listening to Tommy hiss in pain before moving on to the next. And finally moving onto his wrist and saying,
“And you won’t leave right?”
Tommy was startled a bit. Epiales never mentioned the others leaving him behind so to hear it meant something bad. He knew that it brought them up. (He hadn’t failed to notice the death notice on his desk about…Him. Epiales hadn’t left his office when he got it and sent Tommy out and when he finally came out of his office, he let Tommy off for the next week.) Tommy quickly said,
“Of course not! I love it here! I mean you're teaching me how to be a hero, why would I not want to stay here with you?”
Epiales nodded and went to say something but that’s when the hero alarm went off and Tommy looked wide eyed at Epiales before they both darted to change into hero gear and run toward the meeting room only to get a glare by Humdinger and the Ram looking hero told them
“Go to Green Magic bank. It’s a code marron. Head Syndicate and the Particle duo.”
Tommy was startled a bit. The Particle duo was a part of the Syndicate and was often used to cause more chaos to hide what was truly happening. To hear that the five were at a bank meant bad news. Tommy and Epiales quickly headed toward the bank dashing across roofs and vaulting over alleyways. Waving at passersby and Tommy thought about the Particles duo. It consisted of Two people. King and A-bomb they were a deadly duo together and have been known to run circles around heroes. Often getting in and out with whatever they wanted with ease unless it was Pyre and sometimes Cernunnos. (Epiales always deemed them not worthy of his time. Often stating that the Head of the Syndicate were somewhere else and that was often the case but it often annoyed the other two, but they just sighed and dealt with it whenever they were requested to deal with them)
King was a tall Enderman hybrid with a deep purple mask covering his face and no part of his face was seen by anyone. The horns on their head gave them away for an Enderman hybrid along with the black and white hair. Merc hated the hybrid with a passion often saying that the hybrid was slippery and his ability to teleport was unclear if it was a hybrid trait or their ability. Tommy thought King was an interesting person. And was hard to defeat unless you had water on hand.
A-bomb was the complete opposite of King. He was short and they couldn’t tell what kind of hybrid he was. His ability was known as he was able to create weapons or tools out of nothing. He remembered when he made a gun out of a paperclip and a pair of handcuffs. (He had been caught just once and simply cuffed to a desk. He broke out within seconds and ran off.) He had brown hair, and his eyes were uncovered but he wore a gas mask on the bottom part of his face. Tommy quite liked him as he often made funny jokes when they were fighting.
Tommy sighed and they finally made it to the Green Magic and entered weapons drawn as they looked around. There were 21 hostages all tied up looking up at the villains. They were tied to a bomb with the time 02:07:22 stated on it. Tommy tensed watching the 22 go down. He quickly figured out what the timer was and got ready to have a long talk with the villains. A-bomb probably worked with another villain named Atys to create them. Tommy watched as Kratos walked toward King who was guarding their only exit. Tommy cursed himself for allowing that to happen in his head while Orpheus stood near A-bomb who was working on the bomb. And Seraph was standing there in all his glory wings out just staring at the two of them before saying,
“Well hello boys ....As you can see, we have some hostages here for more leverage for what I’m asking.”
Epiales tensed at that, and Tommy eyed the scene carefully. Kratos and King were blocking the exits meaning they had to fight. But they couldn’t launch straight into the fight until A-bomb and Orpheus moved away from the bomb. It was too likely for them to trigger the bomb, so they needed to stop messing with it and move away before either of them took action. Suddenly Epiales spoke.
“Sorry the Government won’t accept such a thing. Nor will they give you any money.”
Orpheus stood there, his brown curly hair fluffed up a bit from the last time Tommy saw him, and he gave a sick smile that made him look insane, he waved at them and took a deep breath Epiales nor Tommy were wearing the blockers for their ears and the man knew it. Orpheus was a smart man. Easily keeping up in mind games and making fun of Ram and ran circles around him as the villain said,
“Do not move. Eris Lotus, Epiales Stay frozen until I tell you otherwise and allow you to move once more. You may twitch, change facial expressions, breath, talk please do, do that, it’s always fun when they beg, but you may not move from where you're standing.”
Seraph smirked. Tommy was instantly unnerved by it. The only time the villain smirked was when he knew he was going to win. And Tommy knew whatever Seraph wanted he’d either get willingly or forcefully. There was no other way around it. Tommy reached for his weapons, his eyes darting around. Orpheus was near the hostages seeming to stand there while A-bomb put away tools nodding to himself. Tommy’s train of thoughts was interrupted by Seraph saying,
“No Mate. I don’t want money, instead I want Eris Lotus.”
Tommy’s eyes widened beneath his mask, and he could almost tell that Epiales had stopped breathing all together seemingly frozen in time. Tommy would have laughed any other day to see such a thing but they were both shocked. (Tommy thought of Epiales being powerless and how many villains had powers in this room. Tommy only had a weak power and no backup coming. They would be unlikely to win this fight.)
Tommy worried his lip wondering why they wanted him out of all the other sidekicks or even heroes. While Tommy was the number 1’s sidekick he was just that. A sidekick who’s only power worked when others were with him who had powers he could latch onto, and he had to be aware prior to latching onto it.
Tommy was also keenly aware of the drawbacks his power held. While it wasn’t a big deal as Pyre had helped him build a machine that kept his and Cernunnos' powers it only worked if they filled it up (It was empty now. He hadn’t seen either one of them for months now. It was no longer holding any powers). Or if Tommy had recently touched someone with a similar power which.
Tommy also had to physically touch the person and then by relation their power which on different people was different places and Tommy often had to figure that out quickly. (Pyres had been his center which the fire-demon said was likely because his ‘soul’ was where his power came from, Cernunnos had been his head though he had never gotten an explanation from the man he often theorized that it was because he had to use his mind in order to grow mushrooms, Merc was his hands which was because he could only use his powers through his hands.) and Tommy had to prolong the touch for it to be stored or even kept.
(Pyre had built him something that stored the part of the power that was needed in order for Tommy to copy it. He didn’t necessarily have to touch them. Only their power but it was easier to say he needed to touch them somewhere specifically in order to copy their powers) Plus too much use of Tommy’s power and he got the drawbacks of the original power plus his own. (Exhaustion hit him like a freight train. He could only sleep and wake up physically drained and unable to move or anything)
Tommy knew that they didn’t want him for his power then what did they want him for? Epiales also seemed confused. He was looking from Seraph to Tommy like he was trying to put together a puzzle. All the members of the syndicate stood there seemingly waiting. Epiales then said,
“Why do you want him? Why him out of everybody?”
Seraph smirked and just pointed at a woman who Tommy hadn’t been really paying attention to. She was easily in her mid-thirties, and pink sweater and grey pants with raven hair and yellow eyes. She had freckles decorating her face and there was a child next to her not hers given the fact the child didn’t look anything like her nor was close to her but rather than a man, who looked more like him, but she was protecting the duo. Orpheus grabbed her causing Tommy and Epiales to tense. Orpheus dragged her to Seraph who took her and pressed a gun to her head with a smile and Tommy knew this wouldn’t end well. A-bomb had joined Kratos and King by the door leaving the bomb to be open now he just needed a moment to dash to the bomb and turn it off. Tommy snapped back into attention when he saw that Orpheus was heading toward Epiales who just stood there and Seraph finally said,
“Well because I do like my shiny things. Now either give him up or this poor girl will no longer have a brain to think with!”
Orpheus giggled and draped himself on Epiales who was frozen by his earlier command allowing the hero to feel him and smirking up at him. Tommy could tell his mentor was annoyed at the annoying villain and was done with his shit. But he simply shifted a bit more and leaned and whispered something into his ear that caused Epiales to start shaking in anger. Before leaving. Epiales snarled at Orpheus and whispered something back that made the man shrug and walk away to Seraph. Tommy didn’t know what Epiales said but he knew whatever it was wasn’t good. And that whatever Orpheus had said first made the man snap as not even a second later Epiales screamed,
“ I WILL NEVER GIVE UP ERIS! HE’S MINE! FUCK YOU! ”
Seraph sighed. Perhaps exasperated and tired of them but Tommy knew better he could see the giant smile on the man's face and he knew that the next words out of his mouth would not be good. Nor would it be nice for the girl. Tommy could see the villains relaxing and moving away from the bomb now he had to wait for the moment they were stunned and Seraph applauded with,
“Oh well. Guess this girl will have to die.”
Epiales froze, finally realizing what he said but it was too late. Seraph shot the girl as she screamed and cried. She dropped quickly. She was gone and Tommy knew not even Veluta could save him. His blood stained the ground and Tommy couldn’t help the way he paled. The way he realized what he had to do. Tommy looked at the villain and all he could feel was fear. But he jumped in before Epiales could say something and signed,
‘Stop! I’ll go with you! I promise just no more death! Please…’
Seraph smirked, nodding and Tommy with the moment of distraction launched himself at the bomb and quickly turned it off before turning and blocking a blow from A-bomb who had been teleported by King who was holding .... An empty syringe which was in his arm. Fuck. Tommy could hear Epiales in battle with Seraph in Kratos while Orpheus cursed at the bomb behind him, dismantling it more. Tommy swayed while the Particle duo took him. The last thing Tommy saw was Epiales landing blows on Kratos while Orpheus and Seraph were getting money from the bank and letting hostages go. Tommy felt a bit of hope that they were following what Tommy asked, and the bomb was turned off fully. Tommy welcomed the darkness that greeted him as he entered the void.